Leeds United: Patrick Bamford shares admission on Georginio Ruttter in latest media appearance
Patrick Bamford has admitted that his Leeds United teammate Georginio Rutter is playing well despite competing with him for a place in the side.
Speaking on the BBC’s My Mate’s A Footballer podcast on Thursday (16 November), the 30-year-old said the French forward is a “funny guy” and a “really nice lad”.
Although the Englishman admitted he doesn’t mind the competition for places, the striker revealed that he is still trying to make sure he is “training better” than his Whites teammates to put himself in with a chance of earning more minutes.
“I guess we play with one striker, so Georginio at the minute but he’s playing quite well to be fair to him,” said Bamford. “I don’t mind it [the competition]. There’s sometimes I’ve been in positions [and thought], ‘this guy, he’s not a particularly nice guy off the pitch either’, not Georginio, but clubs I’ve been at. Georgi, he’s a funny guy and is a really nice lad.
“When I was younger, coming up and trying to get into that top dog position, I was always competing and making sure I scored more or trained better than them.
“To be honest it hasn’t really changed much, so now that I’m a little bit older, they’re almost looking up to me the younger ones. I still do the same, I make sure that I’m training better and scoring more in training.
“I think in the end of it, it pushes them as well because if they’re feeling how I felt when I was younger then they’re going to be trying as well so it’s just going to improve everyone.”
Patience
It sounds as though Bamford is relatively comfortable with his current situation at Leeds despite not playing as much as he would probably like to be.
He understands that Rutter is playing well and deserves to be the first-choice forward at this moment in time after scoring three goals and laying on five assists in 16 appearances this season.
The Englishman just needs to remain patient and be ready to take his chance when it comes because there’s still an awful long way to go in this campaign.
After working his way back to fitness over the past few weeks, Bamford has failed to register a goal in his eight games off the bench this season.
But the forward will no doubt back himself to recapture his previous form at Elland Road before too long after previously coming through similar spells during his time in West Yorkshire.
In other Leeds United news, a Whites star has revealed why David Beckham was “lucky” following a controversial incident.