'Fuming and swearing' - Leeds United man reveals Amazon documentary experience on eve of release - YEP 23/9/22

Leeds United pair Joe Gelhardt and Sam Greenwood sat down with the YEP prior to this week’s release of ‘Academy Dreams: Leeds United’

By Joe Donnohue

Joe Gelhardt and Sam Greenwood began the 2021/22 campaign as Under-23 players with an outside chance of first-team cameos in the season to come.

On the Premier League’s final day – an occasion fraught with tension and emotion – the pair started for Jesse Marsch’s senior side as top flight safety was secured.

Gelhardt found the back of the net with an instinctive finish during the first half, only to see his effort ruled out by a marginal VAR call.

Meanwhile, Greenwood’s selection raised eyebrows given the magnitude of the fixture.

The decision to name the tenacious England Under-21 forward alongside Kalvin Phillips, as his defensive midfield partner, was a bold call, but one which paid off in the end.

Leeds fans will need little reminder of what transpired in west London, but will be treated to intimate, on-the-ground footage of that final day with the release of ‘Academy Dreams: Leeds United’, a new Amazon Prime Video documentary series which followed the club’s Under-23 side and its main characters last season.

Speaking to the YEP ahead of its release, 20-year-old duo Gelhardt and Greenwood recall the campaign in which cameras followed their every move on the pitch, at the training ground and away from the world of Leeds United.

"It's been strange for us but I think over time we got used to it and we just learned to deal with it especially during the tough times,” Greenwood said.

"I think the natural thing to do is to try and act as sensible as you can but obviously emotions run high when you get beat and stuff, and I think there'll be a few clips when I was playing of the lads fuming and swearing,” Gelhardt adds.

The access-all-areas documentary charts the path of several youngsters from bonafide reserves to fringe first-teamers, with Gelhardt and Greenwood featuring heavily.

Football is often dubbed ‘the working class sport’, and both players are a testament to that, hailing from ordinary backgrounds.

“When I went back, I haven't done that for a while, obviously because I’m living up here now, and I've moved house so to go back to where I actually grew up, it was nice to see all the people back there.

"A few of them came out to say hello, so that'll be on the documentary as well. It was good to show where we came from,” says Gelhardt, a Merseysider released by Liverpool as a schoolboy.

A new series following the fortunes of @LUFC's young stars bidding to become Premier League players...

𝐀𝐜𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐲 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬: 𝐋𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝, streaming from 23 September on Prime Video 📺 pic.twitter.com/kxVn2ZZVGP

— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) September 22, 2022

And Greenwood, from Murton in County Durham, once a thriving coal mining community, is equally keen to show his roots in the documentary series.

“It shows good insight for the people who don't really know us personally, it gives them a good view of where we come from and our background and stuff.

"We both come from humble backgrounds, so I think it's important for people just to see what kind of people we are off the pitch as well – not just on it.” the ex-Arsenal and Sunderland youth-teamer says.

"They [The fans] only know us as players and what they see on the weekend when we’re playing, so for them to see our day-to-day, what we’re like and our personalities, I think it'll be good insight for them – at most other clubs you won't get that,” Gelhardt adds.

Sam Greenwood earned his Leeds United debut five months into his time as a Whites player, but was made to wait a further 11 months before his second appearance for the club.

It was Marcelo Bielsa who handed the then-teenager his first appearance off the bench away to Crawley Town in the FA Cup Third Round, but current head coach Jesse Marsch is the man to have shown faith in the 20-year-old with more regular first-team involvement.

Greenwood has played just shy of 200 minutes for the first-team and Under-21s this season, but none as the centre-forward he arrived as back in the summer of 2020.

Jesse Marsch deployed the youngster as a No. 6 in the Carabao Cup victory over Barnsley earlier this season, the same position he featured in during the Whites’ win over Brentford to secure survival last season.

On both occasions, he was selected from the start.

His solitary appearance for the Under-21 side this season, alongside several other first-team players, came as part of a double-pivot in midfield as well, with Mateusz Klich playing in the No. 10 role ahead of the Sunderland-born academy graduate.

Only off the bench in the 3-2 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers in March has Greenwood featured in his preferred position under the new head coach, but that was hardly a planned appearance, having replaced the injured Patrick Bamford during the first half.

“For me, luckily, when I've been younger, I've played in a lot of different positions anyway,” Greenwood tells the YEP. “So I think that's helped me a lot to adapt when I've been put in them situations, but for me, obviously, I prefer to be higher up the pitch.”

Off the bench at Watford in April, Greenwood made two decisive goal-creating contributions including an assist – both were searching forward passes not dissimilar to that of a more experienced midfield player.

His tenacity out of possession originally led Bielsa to instruct former Under-23s head coach Mark Jackson to experiment with Greenwood in midfield, which quickly became the norm.

A decorated goalscorer at youth level with England, though, Greenwood still carries an attacking threat but he is grateful for the opportunity, wherever it may be.

“As long as I'm playing, I can't complain, I’m playing in the Premier League. I'll do a job for the team anywhere. It's been good,” he says.

Sat beside close friend, former roommate and confidante Joe Gelhardt, Greenwood admits the pair were vying for the same shirt upon their arrival at the club two summers ago, but recognises that personal rivalries are secondary to the team collective as a top flight player.

The pair signed new, long-term contracts at Elland Road this summer, much to the delight of supporters who can indulge in footage of life off the pitch for Gelhardt and Greenwood in newly-released Amazon Prime Video documentary series ‘Academy Dreams: Leeds United’.