Surprises emerged from the opening days of Leeds United’s pre-season programme. While there should be nothing surprising about someone turning up for a job they are paid tens of thousands of pounds a week to do, this is football.
It’s a club stocked with players assessing their options after relegation and, in some cases, hoping for moves before the Championship gets its claws in. Reasons and excuses can be found for players to miss the first few days of pre-season.
Robin Koch and Diego Llorente, for example, have not had any international duty to hide behind this summer, yet they stayed away from West Yorkshire. With transfers nearing conclusion, they were excused, but there are others, expected to leave before September 1, you could have seen dodging the first week.
