Leeds United like the look of what they have in Perkins, Joseph and Gyabi - The Athletic 10/11/22

By Phil Hay

In theory, the transfer Leeds United expected most trouble from last summer was Raphinha to Barcelona. No other destination was acceptable to the Brazil forward. Barcelona, as half of Europe found, were a nightmare to deal with. Leeds let him go despite reasonable doubt about whether Barca had deep enough pockets to pay the fee and up front.

What happened was a pleasant surprise. The money arrived as agreed and a penalty clause inserted by Leeds to guard against late payment was nothing more than a contingency. Barca, in that regard, were as good as gold so some of the time Leeds might have devoted to making sure their obligations were met was committed to a different deal instead, much smaller and far less high-profile but one which resulted in a fight.

Sonny Perkins had been in their eye-line for a while, a teenager whose progress was discussed and updated whenever Leeds focused on their programme of talent ID. On July 19, he signed for the club on a three-year contract. Nineteen days earlier, West Ham United, his former side, had released a stinging statement, announcing that Perkins was leaving the London Stadium having turned down the offer of a contract with them. West Ham did not name names but said they suspected he had “been approached to sign for another club, which led to him asking to be released from his scholarship.”

Since then, conversations between the two teams at board level have been delicate at best. West Ham think Leeds were underhand in recruiting Perkins and want a good seven-figure sum. Leeds deny any wrongdoing and do not believe Perkins’ status as a scholar, his salary at West Ham, his limited minutes as a first-team player or prior fees for academy footballers like him should value him at more than £750,000. It seemed at the outset that Perkins’ price was bound to be settled by tribunal.

Inadvertently, Perkins’ form up north has redoubled West Ham’s persistence in regards to their claim, showing what one club lost and the other club gained. At one stage, the forward was on a streak of 13 goals in 10 games, for Leeds’ Under-21s and England’s Under-19s. That without touching on a couple of assists.

Leeds’ development squad is spoiled up front — a contrast to the senior ranks — to the extent that Joe Gelhardt is no longer the automatic pick behind Jesse Marsch’s most experienced first-team strikers. Perkins is vying too, as is Mateo Joseph and Wilfried Gnonto. It is no bad thing for Sam Greenwood, hitherto a recognised academy goalscorer, that he is showing the capacity to play as a fairly deep-lying midfielder.

Talent ID, the process of digging up diamonds before they mature and half the sport start chasing them, is at the centre of Leeds’ strategy and, it is only fair to say, one of the things they do well.

Marsch has felt the breath of the Under-21s on his neck since August, the pressure to try at a higher level footballers who are under-challenged in the club’s junior league. Darko Gyabi, their £5m summer signing from Manchester City, plays well in cruise mode in the academy. Joseph, taken from Espanyol just under 12 months ago, is running close to a goal a game. They and Perkins were let off the leash by Marsch last night, invited to step up in the Carabao Cup’s third round at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

It was, despite six changes from Wolves, a test of wits, against the physical muscle of players like Adama Traore and the mental muscle of players like Ruben Neves. Younger players have come to Marsch’s aid in a big way in the past fortnight, enough for him to seriously trust them, and it was a mark of Crysensio Summerville’s changing status that he was not even in the 20 at Molineux, deemed too important with Tottenham Hotspur to come on Saturday. These were the reserves Marsch could dig into, a back five with an average age of 28 and a front six coming in at 22.

Perkins, 18, is a tall but nimble presence, as at ease to begin with at Molineux as he has been on the academy circuit, without the same freedom to go to town. It is usually possible to split young debutants into those who look like the occasion is on top of them and those who don’t look like it is an occasion at all, who want the ball and have the nerve to use it as they have been taught.

Perkins’ early turn drew Neves into a challenge inside Wolves’ box which VAR might have looked at again had it been operational. He varied high lines and low lines, letting him pick passes. How motivated were Wolves? The thought did occur. But they were devoid of excuses from the moment Marsch named a bench which had the uninitiated running for Google.

“In Sonny, we have a player who is very young and extremely talented,” said Marsch’s assistant, Rene Maric. “He’s eye-catching because the mixture of his physical posture and his ability on the ball is rare. He has to iron out some details but we’re very happy with him.”

There was good adventure from Joseph on the left too, a turn of pace when he needed it and an attempt to drift and make his positioning difficult to read.

Gelhardt spent the evening grasping for mojo like it, until he went off injured early in the second half. By then, Perkins was on the left and Joseph was central and Wolves had gained some control of the chess board.

There were chances enough for either team to kill the tie before Boubacar Traore, the lesser known of Wolves’ two, stuck away a shot from the edge of the box, high and hard over Joel Robles, in the 85th minute.

Defeat for Leeds, then, and a third-round exit but a sign of why the club like the look of what they have up their sleeve.