Leeds United man's pre-Man Utd meeting, training ground fallouts and what really changed — YEP 23/7/24

By Graham Smyth

Daniel James believes he could have done more for Leeds United in the final third last season and has set himself new targets for the 2024/25 Championship campaign.

The ball came to Dan James on the right hand side of the penalty area and in one perfectly-fluid chain of coordinated movements he flicked it up with his right foot, threw himself into the air and volleyed it home with his left. In the blink of an eye a counter attack became a beautiful goal. The description does it no justice. Had it taken place in a Championship encounter at Elland Road it would have taken up semi-permanent residence on your social media algorithm. But it didn't. It was a six-a-side game in training. So up he got and the game went on. Surely, though, there's still a little bit of that buzz that you got as a kid when you scored a 'worldie' isn't there?

"I think a little bit, not so much as you would at Elland Road in front of all them fans, but Karl [Darlow] reminded me about it after as well so to score against him made it a little bit better," James told the YEP. It's the end of the second day of Leeds' training camp in Germany and he's sitting outside the hotel. It's cooler than it has been, perfect really and but for the applause of what looks like a wedding party and the distant screeching of what can only be Georginio Rutter and the rest of the Leeds squad, it's a still evening. A far cry from the intense and frenetic battles James has been engaged in with his workmates, in which no quarter has been asked or given. Fouls, heavy challenges, sweary appeals for handball decisions, the odd outbreak of verbals. It has to be that way, he says.

"It's competitive," he said. "It's good. We've got a great group of lads here, whether in games or in training we keep it competitive because we know when we come into the weekend that it's going to be exactly like that. So I think in six-a-side games boys need to work hard and I think every player is on each other to work hard. And if they're not, then they'll be told because we can't carry that into the weekend."

There are times during training when Daniel Farke can be heard appealing for care to be taken, particularly when the ball finds itself equidistant between two incoming bodies. Training ground bust-ups are always terrific fodder for the media but the reality, according to James, is that they're entirely commonplace and as such, no big deal.

"Junior is probably [the most irritating to play against] because he's obviously very competitive," said James. "He's not afraid of going through you with the tackle. I think in a small side as well he likes to get super tight and give you some little kicks on the ankles. It happens all the time. There's always little fallouts here and there but you know at the end of the session, you get on with it. You eat dinner together, you make up, but there's always a fallout because everyone's competitive. Everyone wants to win and there's always the losing team who can take it a little bit you know, hard done by by the referee. So it's a few little tackles here and there and a few late ones, but it's exactly the same in the game. We're team-mates at the end of the day, we can't fall out for long. You know, people are very different on the pitches to off the pitch. The nicest people ever, but on the pitch they want to be aggressive. They want to get into people's faces and you know, they have that kind of different personality on the pitch, which is great. It's all about you being team-mates after and making up."

Shying away is not really the done thing, especially for James. We don't discuss it, because he'll have done that to death, but his face bears a constant reminder of his willingness to go in where it hurts. The play-off final left the whole club with emotional scars and James has a wicked physical one too. He doesn't shy away in conversation, either. Things look and sound very different in training these days to when he first arrived. Gone are the men who led the glorious 2019/20 promotion charge and an initial assault on the Premier League. Liam Cooper, Luke Ayling, Stuart Dallas, Gjanni Alioski, Kalvin Phillips, Mateusz Klich. Men who either led other men or brought such enormous character to the dressing room. James looks around and sees a need for him and others to 'step up' as he puts it.

"We've lost quite a few big, big personalities and we're kind of going through that change at the minute but for me, when I look at it, I feel more of a senior player," said James. "Which is crazy because I still feel 20, but I'm not and time seems to go by so quick. You kind of feel kind of a little bit more responsibility. I wouldn't say I'm super, super loud in the changing room to motivate and it's not really my game, I like to kind of lead on the pitch with workrate and how we win the ball back and pressing, that's how I kind of like to lead. You have others like Pascal, Joe, Ethan who all have to step up now and be that leader. Pascal didn't play a lot last season because he had a lot of injuries but he's certainly one of them and Ethan obviously stepped up and he was a great captain for us last season and he will continue to do that."

There was no question that James, 26, would be there among the more senior heads when pre-season began at Thorp Arch this summer. Last summer, though, few would have blamed him for giving the exit door a look as so many others rushed through it. He was farmed out on loan to Fulham for the 2022/23 season, considered surplus to requirements during the Jesse Marsch tenure, and could have been forgiven for wanting to close the door on a largely joyless time at Leeds up to that point. Instead, he came back, got his head down and got stuck in, which did not go unnoticed or unappreciated by the club's fanbase.

"I was really excited to get back," he said. "I had a meeting with the boss straightaway, when we were flying away to Oslo in Norway to play Man United. I had a conversation with him then and he was super supportive and he told me his plans and I think that was from then on I definitely never thought of anything else.

"Maybe [it did bring me closer to the fans] yeah. I think obviously the first season was a little different. We obviously didn't get so much joy. I came in under Bielsa and he got sacked. That season obviously the fans didn't see a lot of joy. We just stayed up. So at the end of the season it was nerve racking and thankfully we stayed up and then I left at the end of the window of the next season in the summer. But I think obviously the fans had a lot more joy last season. I probably felt a lot closer to them, definitely. For me, it was about coming back and playing. I had the loan spell and didn't play as much as I wanted to. And I just wanted to get back and play and as I said, I spoke to the boss and spoke about his plans and didn't look back from there. Then it was just about can I go and deliver? To go back to the joy we had last season, we didn't quite make it, we had 90 points and didn't go up, it was gutting. But that's football, it's very tough. Three great teams went up and it's about us reacting and how we can be better this season."

James' haul of 13 goals and seven assists were key for Leeds as they put together a credible promotion bid that only faltered late on, before that heartbreaking finale at Wembley. End product had been among the criticisms aimed at him in the Premier League but it seemed to flow in the Championship, whether thanks to that little extra bit of time and space that is maybe afforded to attackers in the second tier, an improved measure of composure or some other change he brought to his game.

"You go to the Premier League, I think for us in the last few years we have had less chances, which is always going to happen against the top teams," he explained. "I think we created a lot of chances last year. I felt like I could have got quite a few more goals and assists. But for me it was more, I think maybe more composed in the forward areas but being able to go okay I'm taking on this, being a bit more selfish whereas in recent years I always looked for the pass and not thought of going for goal myself, just thinking of assists. I think last season I was a little bit more ruthless and demanded more of myself to go and take shots on and if it didn't work to do it again, do it again. And that's kind of that ruthless mentality you have to have, because I think in seasons earlier, I maybe missed one chance and I've gone in my shell a bit thinking I'll pass the next one. Whereas last season it was about it doesn't matter if I put it wide, I've got to go and score the next one. And kind of having that mentality of doing that. So that's something that I will continue to work on."

It's not a topic for James to discuss but the wing areas are where the greatest uncertainty remains for Leeds in this transfer window. Crysencio Summerville has been wanted by Brighton and West Ham United, among others, but no one has yet slapped £35m down on the table to try and make something happen. Willy Gnonto is wanted by Everton but whether the Toffees can actually put the necessary financial package together and convince another Leeds winger that it won't be a relegation battle is another matter. Regardless of what happens with those two - and the YEP understands that Leeds are primed to replace either with already-identified targets - James will be an important figure for Farke again. Especially if he can better last season's tally of goal contributions. He has more in mind, but how many more will remain unsaid.

"I definitely set targets," he said. "It's just not something that I tell people because I'll always hold myself accountable to it. I'm not one to shout it out, and you know, people then say 'oh, you haven't hit your targets.' For me it's setting targets not just about the season. You have the August window to the international break, you have that until you know the next one and also going into Christmas as well. So it's kind of setting mini targets along the way. And it's not so much just goals and assists it's take ons, it's defending from the front, how you can effect the game, how can you be involved in the action before the assist or goal? It's something I'll always set myself because in the back of your mind you're thinking I've got to push here. It's something I do for me."

Though he denies being one of those stats nerds who spends time looking themselves up on FBref.com or Sofascore, James is interested in how he can contribute more to Leeds this season, beyond goals or assists. He knows, though, that opportunities will come his way to do in the Championship what he did in training on Sunday.

"Not so much websites," he said, of his consumption of data. "There's all sorts of stats you can have. It can go in your favour, it can not go in your favour and I don't like looking at some of the stats just because of that. It's more just actions leading to goals, being involved in the action and I think you can tell that by just playing, you don't need to go on the stats to know that. But I'm always going to get chances to get assists and goals every game, it's just about how can I capitalise on that? Can I go and push on to be better this season than I was last season? I'm happy to hold myself accountable for that and keep pushing for more."