Here are your Leeds United evening headlines for Friday, September 23.
Barca legend backs Firpo to succeed
Legendary Barcelona and Spain defender Carles Puyol has declared that Leeds left-back Junior Firpo has a "great future" ahead of him. Firpo has been absent during the opening six league games after sustaining a knee injury during pre-season in July.
Jesse Marsch opted not to sign a replacement in the summer and has entrusted Pascal Struijk to fill the void. Form and fitness has eluded Firpo since his switch from FC Barcelona in the summer of 2021 but Puyol is confident that the former Spain U21 international will prove a success.
"Firpo is a good player," Puyol told Spanish publication El Caribe. "At Betis he had a very good season and that helped him get to Barcelona and there was a lot of competition ahead of him.
"He had Jordi Alba ahead of him [but] he was giving a very good performance. He's a player with a great future, I think he's going to have a good career."
Roca opens up on adjusting to life in Leeds
Leeds United midfielder Marc Roca has revealed what life has been like adjusting to living in Leeds and how it compares to living in Spain and Germany.
The 25-year-old has had an excellent start to his Whites career after joining from Bayern Munich in the summer, scoring his first Premier League goal against Brentford and has been one of the best new signings of the Jesse Marsch era so far.
Leeds have had a good start to their season, losing just two of their six games as they sit 11th in the table with a game in hand over six teams above them.
Gelhardt and Greenwood discuss telepathic bond
It’s fair to say Joe Gelhardt and Sam Greenwood know each other inside and out. The pair first played together on the international stage, representing England at Under-17s and U18s and they were no doubt delighted to come together once more at Leeds United.
Gelhardt and Greenwood both arrived at Elland Road in August 2020, from Wigan Athletic and Arsenal respectively, and since then they have progressed at a similar rate through the youth ranks and into the first-team picture.
Given their role in the U23s last season, they both feature heavily in Amazon Prime’s new series ‘Academy Dreams: Leeds United’, which tells the story of the Whites’ 2021-22 Premier League 2 campaign.
