Crysencio Summerville’s decision not to push for Leeds exit is paying off — The Athletic 23/10/23

By Phil Hay

It was not a celebration for the ages — Crysencio Summerville flat on his back, being treated for cramp a few yards from the dugouts — but perhaps it suited the goal and the vibe.

Leeds United had run and chased it that hard. Summerville’s cramp was the tank running empty. Two-nil Norwich City was 3-2 Leeds — Ronaldo Vieira, Mark II.

This club were a long way out of the habit of enjoying themselves before the season started and, at the risk of jinxing the mood, there is a sliver of schadenfreude in the fact that some of the players who decided Elland Road and the Championship were not for them might have found some gratification by giving it a chance.

Where would Summerville be if not here, and what would he be doing? Is status in football more important than pleasure, or is money better than moments? Does it not pay to have fun?

Summerville, to answer part of that question, could have been at Burnley and, right now, wedged in the Premier League’s bottom three. For those who reacted to relegation from the top flight in May by waving adios to Leeds, there has been far more of that kind of sobering reality than sunlit uplands.

Burnley came for Summerville late in the window but Leeds fended them off, without giving him much chance to argue. It was a complete change of stance from their position at the start of June when, in the case of Summerville, they were transparently open to offers. A bid arriving from Turf Moor then could easily have played out differently.

Quite simply, by August, Leeds did not want him to leave. New manager Daniel Farke could see in the winger the verve that would keep the rest of the Championship honest, and which hung Norwich out to dry on Saturday.

Moreover, by August the club had run into problems with Willy Gnonto, making Summerville’s presence more essential. But crucially, people close to him, people in his camp, were advising him that committing to Leeds was the right thing to do; that by the latter stages of the window, with Farke already counting on him, trying to get a move would be a mistake. A year in the second tier of English football could be good for him, a chance to throw his weight around.

Summerville was inclined to agree.

The Dutchman, historically, has a winning-goal touch and a knack for doing something as the clock is running down. Leeds needed someone to do something at Carrow Road, and to do it quickly with an hour gone. Norwich had scored twice in the first half as Farke’s players, time and again, wasted chances and let their hosts off the hook.

The match was slightly sleepy when Shane Duffy turned in an own goal with 63 minutes played to halve the lead, at which point Farke summoned the cavalry: three at the back, an attack which represented an all-in gamble on steroids and a game teed up for Summerville to win it with a curling shot off a post and another, on 85 minutes, into the far corner as Leeds tore forward on the counter.

Farke wanted a pleasing return to Carrow Road, his old stamping ground. Carrow Road, after a bewildering finish, might have taken him back there and then.

To this juncture, Summerville’s career with Leeds — starting when he was 18 and now into its fourth year — has been largely about cameos and interjections, such as Liverpool away a year ago, the flashes which exposed him to a wider audience. Farke described him as “a baller” on Saturday, but said he was spending time drilling into Summerville the need for his goals, assists and all-around influence to be more telling and more regular; progress which would be “the next step in his career”.

Broadly speaking, and among Farke’s wingers, Gnonto was seen as the wildcard before a ball was kicked this season, the talent who might look like he had no business lowering himself to play in the Championship, but the teenage Italian’s commitment wavered badly in August and a few weeks ago, Leeds sent him for surgery on an ankle injury.

Summerville became the regular pick, his flair let loose. The promise of minutes was a solid one, and minutes at a lower level could do him good in the long run.

Farke, who said the number of players away on international duty over the past fortnight had stopped any meaningful on-the-training-ground work on a 3-5-2 formation prior to this game, made five substitutions in the second half, including replacing Summerville shortly after his winner hit the net.

Had he been at all tempted to withdraw the 21-year-old before his two goals? The cramp in Summerville’s calves was a sign of him spending all the energy he had left. “Not after 60 minutes,” Farke said. “I got the feeling there was something in him. Sometimes you’re wrong, but my gut feeling was that he was on it.”

Leeds’ preparation for the game was not ideal: their planned flight out of Leeds Bradford Airport on Friday fell foul of an aeroplane sliding off the runway, and a long coach journey only brought them into Norwich at around 11pm that night.

If that made a difference, then there was an off-colour tone to some of their football in the first half, the many chances that went begging and the near-post header from Duffy which put Norwich ahead after four minutes, but Farke’s players had the stamina to crack on as the home side got tight and invited pressure. Farke could see which way the wind was blowing.

Summerville’s winner was ruthless, a ball out of deep finding him in his stride, his patience holding firm until, with Gnonto unmarked to his right, he slotted a finish in. Some of Leeds’ players ran straight to the away end as if they knew the contest was over. Summerville went for Farke and others in the technical area, pulling up as he did so and signalling for a team-mate to stretch his leg out.

“I wanted to go for it,” Farke said. “I got the feeling that today was our day.”

Now third in the table, it could be more than their day too.

Leeds’ vulnerability to transfer offers in the summer made Summerville a natural target — a skilful youngster whose rough edges could be smoothed off. Summerville had known throughout the summer that Burnley manager Vincent Kompany had eyes for him. Eredivisie champions Feyenoord enquired about taking him back home. Two more Premier League sides, Bournemouth and Crystal Palace, had a look.

It is easy to picture a scenario in which, as time ticked down at Carrow Road on Saturday afternoon, Summerville was somewhere else entirely.

Over the past few years, it has not been unusual to hear questions asked about Summerville’s attitude, but of all the players knocking on Farke’s door before last month’s transfer deadline, he was not one.

Farke told him that if the season ahead ends with promotion, Summerville would have a hand in it.

Here was proof of that, in a fightback which points the way.