Behaviour, mentality and professionalism have all been on the agenda for Crysencio Summerville as Jesse Marsch looks to carve a pathway to a long-term Leeds United future for the winger. Marcelo Bielsa confirmed the 20-year-old asked to leave the club in January in order to play more minutes this season, but the club blocked that exit with too few bodies in the building.
Inevitably, there will be more interest in the summer in a winger who has still only played 122 minutes of Premier League action this season. Summerville’s contract, barring undisclosed extension clauses, is also set to expire in a little over 12 months, strengthening his bargaining power this close season.
Raphinha, Jack Harrison and Daniel James all stand between Summerville and the first team at Leeds. If he has serious ambitions of overcoming that competition to play in the most-watched division on the planet, there are clearly off-field matters he must address.
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Marsch was in the stands as Summerville put Crystal Palace to the sword in Premier League 2 on Monday with a hat-trick. The head coach spoke about the wide man for the first time this week off the back of that performance.
"He played fantastic,” he said. “He has grown here more and more. I have talked to him about his behaviour and mentality, professional behaviour off the pitch, what he needs to be like when he shows up here and what the work week needs to be like.
“Then how to learn the tactics and behaviours and, for me, he has grown a lot in the past month. This performance is a representation of his professional behaviour, of his work ethic, his mentality to try to learn and adapt.”
Marsch did express some degree of regret in not being able to give more minutes to players like Summerville and his peers, but held them in mind for when the division moves to five substitutions.
“Even when I see we're going to five substitutions in the future, I think of players like him, Joffy (Joe Gelhardt), Sam Greenwood, Charlie Cresswell, that deserve more chances to play because of the quality they have, the work ethic they put in during the week,” he said.
“It is a shame for me now I can only use three substitutes to impact the game. I would love to have five available now, but Cry is doing a great job of showing he is learning more, that he is more prepared and we can count on him more and more."
