A word from Piroe – “No speaking? Come on, we win 4-0, bro!” – and Georgi span right round, trying not to let a smile ruin his put-on as he stared down the camera, before breaking character back into character. “No party, no Piroe! Let’s go!”
The latest in the Gray line has that effect on Leeds fans, a seventeen-year-old legend you can’t help being excited to meet, the embodiment of all that’s great about your favourite club.
Here Leeds were in Plymouth, in the cup, passing sentimental batons and striving so hard to win for no other reason than – Than it’s the chuffing point, isn’t it? Daniel Farke’s counter intuitive argument, whenever he is asked about resting players, has been that players love to play.
It feels like faint praise but, compared to the teams we’re facing, Farke is doing a good job simply by ensuring Leeds can play his way without fucking it up every two minutes.
Amid the grumbling and sourness about all the stuff that isn’t kicking a ball into a net and being happy, there was one player taking the chance the FA Cup offers to share something magical with the crowd.
People often wonder what a player has to do to earn a song at Leeds United, and at the moment it seems like the answer is: leave.
Alan Browne seemed to be strangling Ethan Ampadu on the floor. That probably shouldn’t have been happening, but I was delighted while nobody was stopping it.
Listening to his recent interviews, Marsch has seemed desperate for a fight, any sort of argument, so he can be the underdog and the winner he believes himself to be. The problem is that, in the real world, Jesse Marsch isn’t interesting enough to argue with.
The weirdness of Bamford’s goal was not only his breakdancing finish, humping off his haunches to spider-walk the ball in like Regan from The Exorcist being possessed by Gary Lineker, but that it was nearly finished for him, from three yards, by Junior Firpo.
Luke Ayling might not have known what to expect from Marcelo Bielsa, but Bielsa knew what he could expect from him. And that, ultimately, tells you where the credit should go for Luke Ayling's career at Leeds.