Robbie Gotts, Jordan Stevens, serotonin and Bielsa - The Square Ball 17/12/21
HAPPY KIDS
Written by: Rob Conlon
It’s never nice to think about Marcelo Bielsa being unhappy,
even if there are times when it feels like he prefers suffering for his work to
enjoying it. Given Bielsa once said, “Joy after winning only lasts five
minutes, then there is a huge void and a loneliness that is hard to describe,”
I daren’t try to imagine how he was feeling after Leeds lost 7-0 at Manchester
City on Tuesday. Hopefully news of Barrow’s 2-0 victory over Ipswich in the FA
Cup the next night allowed Bielsa the slightest glimmer of a smile.
Despite Leeds’ record in the competition, Bielsa loves the
FA Cup. “It represents English football in its purest form. It allows you to
link with the history of the clubs in England,” he said last season, right
before Leeds experienced the purity of losing 3-0 to a League Two team fielding
a reality TV star. Bielsa also loves watching young players being given an
opportunity to realise their potential, describing the summer exits of Robbie
Gotts and Jordan Stevens on permanent transfers to Barrow as “a failure of my
job”, given the promise they offered on the fringes of the first team failed to
translate into an established place in the senior squad.
Barrow’s win over Ipswich won’t have passed Bielsa by,
because he’s Bielsa and nothing does. There was Gotts, perfecting a corner
routine devised on the training ground the previous day, cutting the ball back
to the edge of the box for Stevens’ shot to deflect into Ipswich’s goal.
Stevens tried to return the favour by crossing from the right wing, only for
Gotts to shoot over the bar, before once again they worked together in tandem
to provide Barrow’s second, Gotts atoning for his miss by eventually converting
after two teammates failed to take advantage of another Stevens cross.
Completing the Leeds United family feel, Simon Grayson’s son Joe was playing in
Barrow’s defence, while Ipswich were managed by Mark ‘son of Terry’ Cooper.
One of the highlights of both Gotts’ and Stevens’ spells at
Leeds came at Emirates in our FA Cup defeat of the promotion season, as
Bielsa’s second string made Arsenal hilariously dizzy in the first half. For
Gotts, it was particularly sweet, making his debut a start after sitting on the
bench for 35 games as an unused substitute. Both will have wanted more
opportunities at Leeds, but didn’t look like they had many regrets when they
were recreating Gary Speed and David Batty’s perfectly captured hug, excited by
the potential glory of a third round tie at Barnsley.
