“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Leeds United can pretend not to have heard.
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad26 Apr 2027
Words at Leeds United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaka Bijol is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Player ratings26 Apr 2027
Harry Wilson was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.12. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
11 goals in 32 games at Mallorca — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Leeds United updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Leeds United are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Nobody at Leeds United will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
Oscar Bobb was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Harry Wilson falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
With 8 players away on international duty the sessions are small and the manager can actually hear himself. It is the one break in the season, and it never quite feels like one.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Leeds United, and 3 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
1 for Anton Stach, marked 7.83, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Jaka Bijol falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Babis Kostoulas was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Nobody at Leeds United is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
The offer from KAA Gent for Ethan Ampadu was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Leeds United asked and Birmingham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Noah Okafor was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Leeds United training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jaka Bijol is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. James Trafford has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Timothy Hall was not hiding it after 0‑0, and nobody in the Leeds United dressing room was either.
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jaka Bijol signs something — a contract at Leeds United or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Leeds United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Leeds United hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Jacob Render falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Leeds United have made the call to West Bromwich Albion. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.