Luke Ayling was a guest on Patrick Bamford’s podcast this week and the defender has said something the striker used to do under Jesse Marsch at Leeds United was “so bad”.
The era of Jesse Marsch at Elland Road was a poor one. The American was in charge as Leeds narrowly avoided relegation in 2021-22, but that was more due to the brilliance of Raphinha in the Leeds attack.
Proven by, Raphinha going on to shine for Barcelona. On Wednesday night, Raphinha scored a hat-trick while captaining Barcelona to a 4-1 win over Bayern Munich on the biggest stage, the Champions League.
Meanwhile, Leeds remain in the Championship largely because of the work done during Marsch’s era as manager. Ayling and Bamford were key parts of Marsch’s side, and the duo recalled Bamford’s speeches.
Luke Ayling says Patrick Bamford’s captain speeches were bad
Bamford has captained Leeds on a few occasions, while Ayling was vice-captain under Liam Cooper for much of his eight years at Elland Road. Ayling joined Bamford on the latest My Mate’s a Footballer pod.
Asked about Bamford at Leeds, Ayling said that when he was given the armband under Marsch, Bamford had to do a pre-match captain speech. Ayling says they were “so bad” it meant Leeds would always lose.
The now-Middlesbrough defender even joked about his own speech impediment, highlighting how bad Bamford’s were: “I’ve got a speech impediment and mine are about 10 times better than Pat’s were.
“We used to stand in the dressing room with Jesse Marsch in a big circle, and the captain would do it. On the unfortunate occasion Pat would do it, we’d be 3-0 down in 10 minutes because they were so bad.”
Stark contrast now with Patrick Bamford’s Leeds future in doubt
Earlier this season, Bamford admitted he wanted to leave Leeds after missing a penalty against Newcastle and fans waiting outside his house. This season, the one-time England man is struggling for game time.
He’s failed to start a single league game with Mateo Joseph and Joel Piroe preferred. Carlton Palmer said that Leeds should look to sell Bamford in the January window, given his huge wages on the Leeds books.
But Daniel Farke responded to doubts over Bamford’s future by stating he remains crucial to this Leeds squad, and predicted he will play an important role this season. He still has two years left on his contract.
Indeed, Farke claimed that had Bamford remained fit for the run-in last season, Leeds would be in the top tier. Instead, Bamford missed the last few games and play-offs and Leeds remain in the Championship.
Receive a digest of our best Leeds content each week direct to your mailbox
