How to remember the players we don't remember

A lot of the time on the podcast I haven't really decided what I think about something and what you're hearing is me trying to pull various half-formed ideas out from my resentful brain that together might add up to something except that football keeps happening and so as soon as one concept is fixed, it isn't, and I have to start trying again.

For example, the confusion you might have heard in this week when I found out that Ilia Gruev is six-foot-one can be clarified now by the process I just went through to write this sentence: googling an approximation of his name, then copying and pasting the correct spelling. It's not a complicated name. Four letters then five letters. Fine. I'm being inadvertently rude. But as much as his transfer was reassuring in the sense of Leeds United having more footballers who can play in midfield, it was also an example of a point I'm always making when people are desperate for 'Any news Phil?' updates during a transfer window: footballers aren't a right lot of use to us when they're not playing, no matter how much we beg to know whether they've scrawled their autograph on a contract. Due to his work permit and the international break, Gruev remains a mystery to me.

He might stay that way. Checking Daniel Farke's last two press conferences since Gruev joined, he's been mentioned four times:

Also all the other players we brought in, Ethan Ampadu, Karl Darlow, Joel Piroe, right now with Ilia Gruev, with Glen Kamara, Sam Byram, these are all players who signed more or less long term contracts, fully committed

We wanted to bring in some options but also some experienced players like Kamara, like Gruev

Also our latest signings with Ilia Gruev and Glen Kamara right now since Wednesday back in team training

It's pretty important for us to have the likes of Gruev and Kamara together with us

Admittedly we haven't heard much about Glen Kamara without Gruev either, but coming via Glasgow Kamara is more of a known quantity and has already made his debut, and is expected to be the senior player as 'Kamara and Gruev' becomes 'Kamara and Ampadu' while Archie Gray gets some rest and Gruev waits to be needed.

When Gruev is needed, I've every expectation that he will play well. All the signs are that he's a good footballer. And, in a way, that's what I'm thinking about. Because what more does Ilia Gruev have to be? There are players who are stars, either by displaying some extra x-factor on the pitch or winning us over with their personality off it, or both. Other players are just good at football, either first team regulars or reserves who do well when asked. Amid all the hype of modern football it can feel like those guys are short changing us somehow, but actually they're a blessed relief.

Jamie Shackleton is another. His presence in the team so far this season has been a pleasant surprise, and raised new questions about what sort of career he might yet have. It looked like he'd leave Leeds this summer, but now, who knows? Daniel Farke loves his professionalism and his versatility. He might keep playing well and get a new contract. He might drop out of the team when other players get fit and decide to leave after all. He might decide he's happy with a squad role at Leeds and life in Yorkshire, and stick around.

It gets suggested that the last option is the one thing Shackleton shouldn't do, that being a utility squad man at Leeds is a career dead end, and he needs to find one position he can play every week for one club. And even though it gets suggested by people who know a lot more than I do, I'm still not sure. How many games per season are enough to keep a player happy? You might say, 'every game', but in the Champo I think 46 is too many. And if the games come by helping the team in different positions, might that keep the challenges fresh and interesting? It doesn't sound like a bad life.

The question of ambition gets raised at this point, as if it's something that we should all have. We don't all have to, not even footballers. Sometimes, when Kalvin Phillips is being derided for cheerfully collecting medals from the bench at Manchester City, I think about Mick Bates, who came through the ranks at Leeds and settled into a twelve year stint as understudy to Billy Bremner and John Giles. He played 121 league games, but only played more than ten in a season four times. He was never good enough to dislodge Bremner or Giles on merit, but was good enough to fill in for either of them when needed, which meant he was more than good enough to play every week for another top First Division team if he chose to. But for Bates, being part of the best club in the country was enough. And the best club in the country appreciated his work.

Maybe ruthless ambition or a meaner streak is necessary for real success, but after 2023's summer of dickheads departing, it's maybe a good time to think about how you can't really go wrong with a decent group who are good at playing football and enjoy it. I brought up Martin Hiden on the podcast, as an example of a player who came from Europe as a fill-in defender and, despite his best attempts with applying peroxide to his ginger hair and some good performances, never became a fixture in the first team or our minds but was well regarded anyway. I'm not actually convinced I've got a better grip on these thoughts than I did when I was saying them out loud, but another example is Bruno Ribeiro, who came for half-a-mill, played a good season in midfield, was injured for most of the next and moved on. What might be important about Hiden and Ribeiro, now I think about it, is that they were part of a team that was basically pretty good, between the sad last days of Howard Wilkinson and the frantic party of David O'Leary. They won more games than they lost, scored more goals than they conceded, and if they weren't challenging for titles, nor were they battling against relegation. And, crucially, they weren't pissing us off.

That's a calm stage of Premier League life that Leeds United missed on our most recent visit. Maybe Gruev and Shackleton can help us get to that point, and maybe twenty years from now I'll be tapping people on the arm, insisting, 'Of course you remember Ilia Gruev, good player, you remember', as if I never wrote this. ★彡

(Originally published at The Square Ball)