Here are the latest Leeds United morning headlines on Wednesday, March 23.
Gareth Southgate and Steve Holland full of praise for Kalvin Phillips
Prior to his injury at the back end of last year, Kalvin Phillips had established himself as a mainstay in the England starting XI under Gareth Southgate. The Three Lions manager clearly felt the Leeds star was the best fit to partner Declan Rice in the midfield pivot as the pair played a key role in helping their country to the Euro 2020 final.
Phillips was awarded the England Men’s Player of the Year award for 2021 and speaking on the new YouTube documentary, Behind the Pride, both Southgate and his assistant, Steve Holland, revealed their admiration for him. Firstly, the manager said: “With Kalvin, we identified a Premier League player playing in the Championship with Leeds.
Read more: Your Leeds United questions answered in our Q&A
“You’re never quite sure how he’s going to adapt and react in the change of environment, but he adapted brilliantly.”
To which, Holland added: “He’s one of my favourite kind of players. He’s what I would call a high-performance, low-maintenance player.” It shows just how highly regarded he is within the management team and, when he is fully fit, it would be fair to assume that he will slot straight back into the England squad.
Ayling to join Josh Warrington for ring walk on Saturday night
There might not be any football for Leeds supporters to get behind this weekend but there is other sport that they will be keeping a keen eye on. Josh Warrington faces Kiko Martinez for the second time as he bids to become a two-time world champion.
‘The Leeds Warrior’ is continuing his tradition of having Whites icons supporting him in the ring walk as he confirmed that Luke Ayling will join him at the First Direct Arena on Saturday evening. The right-back joins a list of Leeds names including Pablo Hernandez, Liam Cooper, Vinnie Jones and Lucas Radebe who have all joined Warrington, at one time or another, for his previous fights.
Read more here.
Kinnear addresses failed Super League proposal a year on
It has been almost a year since the so-called ‘Big Six’ in the Premier League and a few of their European rivals proposed to joined the infamous European Super League. Luckily, the idea quickly fell apart due to opposition from supporters of the involved clubs as well as the other clubs who would have been affected had it gone ahead.
Speaking on a Sky documentary named Super Greed: The Fight For Football, Leeds chief executive Angus Kinnear gave his thoughts on the decisions made by his counterparts at other clubs. He said: “Despite the fact that we are ultimately only faceless administrators who should play no real meaningful part in the game, we are actually pretty much to a man, all football fans.
“It was almost like that if we didn’t act, then the game might die on our watch. This is as much about players' dreams as it is about fans’ dreams.
“Our captain when he was playing in the Championship, Liam Cooper, was known as ‘League One Liam’ because nobody thought he was good enough to play in the Championship. A year and a half later, he’s captained a team who have won the Championship by 10 points and he’s now playing in the Premier League.
“Their dreams are tied to this issue as much as anybody else’s. This actually struck at the heart of why they play the game.”
Read more of what he had to say here.
