Money can’t buy you Max Dean - The Square Ball 8/11/22

BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE

Written by: Rob Conlon

It has been a good season to be an Under-21 forward at Leeds, unless you’re Max Dean. Crysencio Summerville and Willy Gnonto have made breakthrough performances with the first team in recent weeks, Sonny Perkins scored in every match he played for club and country over the first two months of the campaign, and Mateo Joseph has earned regular mentions in Jesse Marsch’s press conferences with three hat-tricks to his name already.

Dean started the season still getting back to fitness after an ankle injury ended his 2021/22 early, and the performances of those ahead of him meant he has been the forgotten boy of the U21s this year. Four sub appearances had amounted to 76 minutes of football before the U21s’ fixture against Newcastle on Monday afternoon. Finally he was given a start, with his peers either inspiring the first team’s win over Bournemouth, or rested ahead of potential involvement in the League Cup tie with Wolves — Gnonto, Summerville, Joseph, Joffy Gelhardt, Sam Greenwood, Darko Gyabi and Leo Hjelde were all absent; Perkins was restricted to a twelve-minute cameo.

The kids were committed to following the blueprint laid down by the grown-ups. Defender Kris Moore opened the scoring even quicker than Summerville won a penalty against Bournemouth, heading in Charlie Allen’s cross after an initial corner was cleared forty seconds in. The lead lasted a similar amount of time to the first team’s, and Newcastle’s equaliser was equally predictable. A long ball behind returning not-really-a-left-back Keenan Carole left Joshua Scott one on one with Kristoffer Klaesson, both looking as confused as each other as he finished at the near post.

Half-time acted as a reminder to Dean that he couldn’t let a rare start go to waste. Shortly after the restart, he chased Cody Drameh’s arcing pass across Newcastle’s backline, wrestling with the defender in front of him and poking the ball into the bottom corner. A couple of minutes later, he was finding a camera to celebrate in front of after Newcastle’s defence gave Leeds possession with their goalkeeper out of position expecting a back-pass. Dean swept the ball in while Charlie Allen was laughing.

Allen was another forward relishing a rare chance in attack. He has been playing his best football for the U21s this season, but either off the bench or from an unfamiliar wing-back role. Likewise, Joe Snowdon has impressed as a substitute in two recent cameos, starting here at number 10. He probably should have taken one of the chances that fell his way but, after Newcastle had briefly made the score 3-2, he created Dean’s hat-trick goal with a short sliding pass through the defence. Worried about a potential offside flag, stand-in captain Alfie McCalmont left it for Dean to calmly finish.

The result gives Leeds a six-point buffer at the top of the table in their final fixture before the World Cup break. Newcastle could have gone second with a win, but the financial clout of their overlords has yet to trickle down to the youth team. Instead, they were relying on their own Leeds heritage in number 10 Joe White, an attacking midfielder who has trained with Eddie Howe’s first team, and whose grandad Peter Hampton was signed for Leeds by Don Revie.

Hampton was a left-back who, due to the class of Terry Cooper, Trevor Cherry, and Frank Gray, only became a regular for a brief period in the mid-1970s. He was an unused substitute in the 1975 European Cup final, before playing in FA and League Cup semi-finals in consecutive years towards the end of the decade. Naturally, Leeds lost both.

Grandson White was linked with Leeds before he signed a new contract with Newcastle in January. His game ended with Dean trying to fight him after taking offence to an unseen indiscretion at a corner — although it doesn’t take much to fire Dean up — before fouling Amari Miller, who landed on top of White and shoved him in the back of the head for his trouble. White was probably wishing he had followed in his grandad’s footsteps and signed for Leeds instead. Who cares how much money Newcastle have got — at least he wouldn’t have to play against Max Dean.