Papa don’t preach - The Square Ball 4/11/21

IN TROUBLE DEEP

Written by Rob Conlon

I always wanted Leeds to win the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy when we were in League One. Some fans thought it was best avoided, that the competition was too ‘tinpot’ to grace the honours’ board at Elland Road. But I quite fancied a supposedly easy route to a day out at Wembley, even if we’d still have managed to find a way to embarrass ourselves once we got there.

Shaun Harvey’s mucking around has made the competition a complete pain in the arse for everyone, but has given Leeds’ Under-21s the chance to right the wrongs of League One purgatory and finally bring home what is now known as the Papa John’s Trophy. It hasn’t exactly gone to plan. Last season, Leeds were one of nine Premier League academy sides to finish bottom of their group, drawing one of their three fixtures (and losing on penalties; another great idea, Shaun), suffering heavy defeats at Blackpool (3-0) and Accrington Stanley (7-0). It led to some fans questioning the point of us accepting the invitation in the first place if we’re just going to send a bunch of kids that barely get a game for the Under-23s to get battered and bruised by grown-ups around the north of England.

This season has at least been better, Leeds responding to a 4-1 defeat at Tranmere in their opening game by winning 3-2 at Oldham, leaving them with a chance of qualification ahead of their final group fixture at Salford on Tuesday night. They needed to win, but lost 5-3. Maybe next year, lads.

“One thing I’ll take from it is that there is lots to learn for these players,” coach Mark Jackson told the Yorkshire Evening Post afterwards. “That’s important. They have to learn. We also have to remember that winning is important — losing has to hurt. We’re not in a good moment in regards to results. Winning at times needs to be everything in certain games and tonight was a must-win game. We had to get three points. We had to go out and do it. We just didn’t deal with it. We shot ourselves in the foot after getting ahead and then we did it again.”

It’s tempting to think “winning is important — losing has to hurt” shouldn’t be an epiphany, but Jackson’s comments reminded me of something Leeds fan and actual pro footballer Hady Ghandour told us in an interview last month. Ghandour is on the fringes of Charlton’s first team, making his debut in the League Cup in August, and appeared in the Papa John’s himself last season. Before joining Charlton, the striker played almost fifty games of senior football for non-league Tooting and Mitcham, and comparing the differences between first team and Under-23 football at a time when he was hoping to return to non-league on loan (he has since joined Maidstone), he told me:

“Don’t get me wrong, the technical ability in the U23s is much better, but [at Tooting and Mitcham] I was playing in front of a couple of hundred fans who turn up, pay their money and basically pay your wages. You want to do well for them and you want to win. The U23s is a development league; you’re basically playing just to play. Unless it’s a cup final there’s not really that hurt if you lose, whereas in a first team you learn that everything is about winning. The main difference is you learn how to manage a game from more experienced players. Things like if you’re winning 2-1 away from home and are under the cosh, earning little fouls like the Luke Ayling flop!”

Maybe this was the point of entering an U21s team to the Papa John’s all along: using the competition to expose our young players to some pain and hurt will prove much more useful to their long-term development than strolling to Wembley. At least it gives them a much more authentic Leeds United experience. The life of an academy player at Leeds is a lot more comfortable in comparison to when the club was owned by Massimo Cellino, who sacked the cleaning staff and replaced them with the U18s; refused to maintain the swimming pool, prompting a sickness bug to break out; and sacked Lucy Ward, the employee who cared about them on and off the pitch more than anyone. Being a first-team player wasn’t much more fun either, so hopefully Lewis Bate and co will appreciate how fortunate they are while facing some of the names who haunted us in the Football League, like Nicky Maynard and Peter Clarke.

Or maybe I’m taking this all too seriously. Between the three Papa John’s fixtures for the U21s and ten Premier League 2 fixtures for the U23s, eight have featured four or more goals. They are ludicrously open games that generally descend into a bunch of moody teenagers arguing over something or other. It doesn’t really feel like proper football, but it’s not the players’ fault. Pre-planned substitutions, managing the fitness of those involved with the first team, and trying players in different positions and roles only adds to the impression of a friendly and makes the games disjointed. Should we really be trying to learn anything from this? Perhaps the only thing we can say with anything approaching certainty is that it’s probably Shaun Harvey’s fault.