Leeds United’s players have slowly but surely been breaking their respective silences after the recent play-off final defeat to Southampton.
Some members of the Whites squad have taken some time to come to terms with the defeat at Wembley, which consigned them to another season of Championship football.
Unfortunately, 49ers Enterprises have already acknowledged some key players will have to leave as a result of the defeat, meaning the team could look different when August rolls around.
Liam Cooper and Connor Roberts were among the first to address Leeds fans after the disappointment, with the latter also all but confirming his return to parent club Burnley.
Georginio Rutter and Ethan Ampadu, meanwhile, have seemingly committed their respective futures to Leeds, with the former posting ‘see you soon’, and the latter, ‘see you next season‘.
Dan James posts message to Leeds fans after play-off defeat
Leeds fans won’t want to reflect too much on how it panned out at Wembley but it would be fair to say it was a disappointing performance.
Southampton did not have to do too much to create their one and only goal midway through the first half, and from then on, they found it comfortable to contain what Leeds threw at them.
After replacing Willy Gnonto with just over 20 minutes left, Dan James was undoubtedly the biggest threat for Leeds as he actually looked to test the goalkeeper.
He saw a rasping half-volley cannon off the crossbar, before then forcing Alex McCarthy into his first bit of meaningful action with a decent save later on.
James was also involved in a very nasty head collision with Kyle Walker-Peters which left him with a major cut on his face.
Despite the disappointment of losing, James has received plenty of praise from fans across social media for his performance after coming off the bench. With that in mind, the £25m signing‘s latest Instagram post looks like good news.
He wrote: “Fell short at the last hurdle after a tough season. A huge thank you to the Leeds United family this year for the constant support. We’ll be back.”
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James set for another key role at Leeds next season
As mentioned, many of Leeds’ players have been touted for exits since losing the final, with the majority of them their attacking talent.
Crysencio Summerville, Rutter and Gnonto were three namechecked for exits by journalist Rory Smith, though the latter could still sign a new deal.
With that said, Leeds will not want to lose so many key players from the same position in one summer, and so James is certainly someone who will be staying.
He scored 13 goals and provided seven assists last season, and more of the same would be an excellent return and clear sign his end product has improved.
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