Georginio Rutter exclusive: Leeds United's Bellwether Boy on turning around his and his club's fortunes — Yorkshire Post 25/5/24
By Stuart Rayner
Few people have embodied the highs and lows of life at
always-eventful Leeds United these last 18 months better than their French
forward and record signing Georginio Rutter.
The outrageously gifted but at times frustratingly mercurial
striker has become a bellwether for his club. Last season he looked a little
boy lost, but in 2023-24 he has been one of the very young leaders, or in the
22-year-old's case, cheerleaders, behind their fightback.
The effervescent personality called for interview at the end
of seemingly every televised victory Leeds have recorded this season, Rutter
would surely be the world's worst poker player. He admits he needs to be more
level in his emotions but he is not there yet, so to see a huge perma-grin on
his face as he did his media duties in the build-up to Sunday's Championship
play-off final against Southampton is reassuring.
Global club football’s most expensive game – the financial
stakes are higher than winning the Champions League – should by rights be a
tense affair but Rutter's happiness, his eagerness to take the ball in tight
areas and take risks with it, is his main contribution to the well-being of his
team, leading that way whilst others bark the orders.
Kicked from pillar to post this season by opponents unable
to think of another way of stopping him, he always seems to come up smiling. It
has not always been that way.
Signed for £35m to be the No 9 who could kick-start Leeds'
fight against Premier League relegation he instead came to symbolise where it
all went wrong – ill thought-out and ill-fitting (he is, by nature, not an
out-and-out centre-forward), a long-term solution to an urgent problem, he
failed to score a Premier League goal or even contribute an assist for anyone
on the carousel managers Jesse Marsch, Michael Skubala, Javi Gracia or Sam
Allardyce hopped onto.
Leeds went down miserably.
Not that Rutter could shoulder too much blame. He started
just one league game and his only involvement in the final seven came an hour
into the last when, 2-0 down at home to Tottenham Hotspur, relegation was
essentially a done deal.
Perhaps if he had not been on the wages of a £35m Premier
League striker (minus relegation pay cut), he might have been moved on but
Leeds were never going to find a buyer.
So Leeds had no choice but to work with the unwitting
posterboy for a failed season, with more highlights in his hair than his
football. He could easily have been scapegoated but crucially, supporters did
what it says on the tin.
By his own admission, Rutter has not been perfect this
season either, but seven Championship goals and 15 assists have taken Leeds to
Wembley and the cusp of a Premier League return, and shown what then-director
of football Victor Orta saw in him in January 2023.
Promotion might already be in the bag but for a difficult
period after hernia surgery in March which Rutter was quick to return but slow
to recover from, not contributing a goal or an assist until he, and therefore
his team, belatedly sparked into life in the second leg of the play-off
semi-final against Norwich City.
"If everything was very good, life would be easy,"
Rutter says, the smile that has become a regular feature shining through
beneath this season’s far more sober, natural-coloured hairstyle.
"Last season my smile was not like this season. It was
difficult for everybody.
"I came, we lost some games and with the position of
the team, it was hard. When you came to training and you saw some people, it's
totally different to this season.
"It was difficult but that's football.
"If it's a clear goal and I miss, I'm going to be
frustrated. Before it was worse. When you are young, when you are 18 years-old,
if you miss it gets in your head but as the years pass I learn – like every
player. This season has been better.
"If I start to play and I'm sad, it's not me. When
you're a striker and you don't score you're in a bit of a bad mood. Sometimes
I'm happy but not happy but I try to keep a smile on my face."
The Leeds fans and the understanding of Daniel Farke were
crucial to Rutter's turnaround, he feels. It started with the manager.
"Everything changed," recalls Rutter. "When
pre-season was starting we had new (coaching) staff and a new president
(chairman Paraag Marathe), so you don't know what will happen. A manager could
come who doesn't like you, you don't play, and it's a bit difficult.
"But the coach knew me before (having managed against
Rutter's previous club Hoffenheim at Borussia Monchengladbach) and he gave me
confidence.
"At this time I was not feeling good because of the
last season and I told him that. He told me, 'It's normal.'
"As a striker, when the confidence is down you can't
play with freedom. He said to me, 'I understand.'"
Farke reflects that "Communication was quite important,
to listen to what he said. Sometimes you feel you have to give message after
message after message, sometimes it's important to let the player speak, to
listen and get a feeling for what the problem is.
"And then to work with him and communicate about
finding good solutions and sell your plan and your ideas to the player. Then
it's not so much about talking, it's about acting.”
That came gradually, with the help of the supporters. "As
each day passed it was better and I totally forgot about confidence and just
played my game of football,” recalls Rutter.
"For the first three games (of the season) I was not on
form but I could hear the fans singing my name when I'm not good, I was (just)
okay. They kept pushing.
"This helps a lot because you're frustrated, you
haven't scored, but the fans are saying. 'It's okay, Georgie.' That made me
more confident and I started to score and assist and create a relationship with
the fans. This is amazing.
"I play football to excite the fans. If I don't score
and someone else does, it doesn't matter. If we win, I'm happy for them. I try
to do my best and play with a passion.
"I should have had more goals this season because I've
missed a lot of chances – this is my weakness – but I've made some assists so
I'm happy."
Leading the forward line – something he did a lot in the
first half of the season but not much since – in the first leg at Norwich,
Rutter set the tone for a dour 0-0 draw with his airshot at an early pull-back.
It was the same, in a very different way, in the second
game, won 4-0. Or rather the fans set the tone at Elland Road, and he gleefully
followed.
"It was the best atmosphere of my life in a football
match," he says of the reception when what felt like everyone in the
stadium held the white scarf left on their seats above their heads.
"Leicester was crazy but Norwich... I don't have the
words. If you could see my face when I came out of the tunnel and I saw every
scarf... it was crazy.
"For every kid, this is your dream. You see this on
PlayStation but to play in a type of game like this is unbelievable."
Just four minutes in a lovely flick released Crysencio
Summerville down the line, like a bat signal to Elland Road that the Bellwether
Boy – restored to "the hole" in a 4-2-3-1 formation – was on it. He
went on to end his barren spell in front of goal.
It was not how he planned it, though. Like his smile, he
could not help it.
"I think a lot about it because sometimes players say
to me, 'Georgie, play the first touch easy,'" he reflects. "A lot of
players say this to me.
"But it's my instinct. I want it to be easier but it
happens.
"I could see the fans grow more confident and I think
it helped my team-mates a lot to come into the game."
It signified perfectly his role in this team.
"You can't be very good every game and when it's the
moment to produce you can be frustrated," he admits. "When I have a
game like Norwich everybody's happy but you have a game like Blackburn where we
lost 1-0 and I didn't have a good game, I can feel like the stands want
something from me or another player to make the difference. When that doesn't
happen, you can see the frustration. It's hard sometimes. But this is football.
"I try to have fun but not be arrogant. If we win 4-0
and you try to do something stupid – no, I don't like that. I want to play the
same whether it's 0-0 or 5-0.
"If you stop enjoying playing football, stop playing.
"This season was good, last season was not but that's
football. Maybe tomorrow won't be good but if I play, I'm happy."
And when Rutter is truly happy, Leeds' chances of victory
rocket.