Can Thorp Arch save our transfer window?

This week I had a look back to the TSB+ members' survey we ran at the start of last season. We asked more questions last year because we were being nosy and it felt like more was decided that we could judge, whereas this time around there doesn't seem much point asking for player of the year predictions until at least September, when we know who will be here. Maybe even February.

Last summer's predicted good players stood out when I looked back. The pre-season choice for player of the year was Illan Meslier, with 22% of the vote, followed by Joe Gelhardt with 21%. (Third and fourth were Marc Roca and Rasmus Kristensen. Looking back, we were definitely all smoking something.) The young player of the season prediction was a landslide: Gelhardt again, with 72%, followed but not closely by Archie Gray on 12%.

It was all so bright for Gelhardt this time last year. His face was all over billboards, above the new kits. He'd done as much as anyone to keep us in the Premier League the year before, with his winner against Norwich and wizardish assist for Pascal Struijk against Brighton. Angus Kinnear was calling him 'the best emerging young striking talent in the league'. All he had to do was rack up the goals and assists to prove it.

Alas, poor Joffy. A solitary Premier League start was not the stuff player of the year awards are made of. He did make fifteen other appearances, but his time from the bench was always so short his total Premier League minutes came to 212, a little under two-and-a-half games' worth. He still grabbed two assists, but after Georginio Rutter arrived our Joffy was off for a luckless loan with Sunderland. Despite his intended strike partner getting injured before they ever teamed up, Gelhardt at least got some experience at last, sixteen starts despite an injury of his own, three goals and three assists, a play-off semi-final (lost to Cody Drameh's Luton).

This year, few are backing Gelhardt for player or young player of the season now, less convinced by him in the Champo than we were for last season in the Premier League. After Rutter and Pat Bamford got injured at Hearts, pining for a new striker has risen in pitch, never mind Kinnear's 'best young talent in the Premier League' still being here. Likewise, Illan Meslier is far from anybody's pick for senior player of the season, as fans cross their fingers and dream of Karl Darlow.

Going into the game against Cardiff, though, Leeds are not shaping up from all-new. Whether by choice or necessity, and whether it's frustrating to supporters or not, the babies have not been thrown out with our post-relegation bathwater. Gelhardt is arguably our most experienced fit striker, Meslier has played through pre-season, Pascal Struijk is in contention to start. Their reputations were all diminished by relegation. But does that make them beyond redemption?

It's possible that last season didn't teach us anything about those players other than that Jesse Marsch was a failure. Aye, it's time to put everything at his door again! But only for a moment. Gelhardt is the example to look at here. Marsch was brought in with a reputation for developing youngsters. He claimed that was his true calling. He talked Joffy up. And then he hardly ever put him on the pitch. Even Marcelo Bielsa, who was often accused of ignoring Gelhardt, made more use of a younger, more raw Gelhardt than Marsch tried to. Everyone knows that part of United's financial model was about developing young players for sale. And none of the club's young players had their value enhanced by their encounter with Jesse.

Until we see more of him, we won't know for sure whether Gelhardt's struggles were down to the coach or the player, but given he didn't hire his own boss last season then Joffy surely deserves a second chance. Struijk, too, is worth another shot at becoming the player he was at one point beginning to be. 

Then there's Illan Meslier who, if he doesn't leave Leeds in his window, has a chance of a fresh start with us anyway. Meslier has shown exceptional ability in the Premier League, but he's never known a goalkeeping coach other than Marcos Abad, and never had competition except from Kiko Casilla, Kristoffer Klaesson and eventually Joel Robles. This season he has a proper fight to play ahead of Karl Darlow, and a new coach, Ed Wootten, who worked at Norwich with John Ruddy, Angus Gunn and Tim Krul. If Meslier needs a different environment to find his best form, he's getting one. 

With Charlie Cresswell signing a new contract and taking the no.5 shirt, and Archie Gray anchoring midfield through pre-season, there are signs that one part of Victor Orta's schemes could be working. Rebuilding over a summer is difficult even if a club has more time, more infrastructure, more resources and more 'aggression' about using — i.e. spending — them. Leeds have insurance in the form of the players still here, on the good side of Liam Cooper's 'stay or fuck off' line. Meslier, Struijk and Gelhardt are young players with the sort of Premier League experience any club would love to loan in for a season in the Championship. Cresswell got solid grounding with Millwall last season, Cody Drameh at Luton; Gray is just pure talent of the kind that can blossom in the Championship, that Premier League pressure might stifle. With the club so static in the transfer market, Leo Hjelde, Sonny Perkins and Mateo Joseph (until he got injured) are eyeing up first team chances they otherwise might not be getting. 

Leeds United prides itself on an academy tradition, but that feels increasingly out of step with top level football. Manchester City don't even pretend to expect players from their academy to make it in the Premier League — those that do are just a bonus. Instead it's a way for them to bank £10-20m from other clubs for their young talents, money they can go out and spend on another Kevin De Bruyne or Erling Haaland (or Kalvin Phillips, I guess). Romeo Lavia, sold by Manchester City to Southampton last summer and now attracting Chelsea and Liverpool bidding big money, demonstrates the route players are now taking — a loan season in the Championship has been replaced by a 'permanent' transfer to a lower Premier League side, until a Champions League (lol, not you Chelsea) club decides they're a safe enough bet. 

In that environment Leeds needed more than Jesse Marsch had to give to get anything out of Gelhardt or Meslier, but that doesn't mean we should write them right off. If there's a bright side to relegation, it's the chance of lining up on opening day with a spine of Meslier, Cresswell, Gray and Gelhardt — Roy of the Rovers stuff, sure, but people bloody loved Roy of the Rovers, didn't they? Because it gave us a chance to dream about football being more fun than the meat factory it so often resembles. 

The transfer window is open for another month, in which time Leeds are playing four league games with the players we've got. Sixteen of them, by Farke's count in training. Four games for those players to make big claims for their new chapters, if they can. ★彡