Liam Cooper left ‘angry’ and ‘really hurt’ by Leeds United teammates this year
Liam Cooper laid down the law to the rest of the Leeds United squad after relegation because “I was angry” and “it killed me” he has revealed.
The Whites captain told Tim Thornton for Sky Sports on 21 November that his now infamous ultimatum [Graham Smyth] to the dressing room after the 4-1 home defeat by Tottenham on 28 May was a result of his view that some teammates “weren’t pulling their weight” and there wasn’t the right bond within the squad.
Leeds dropped back into the Championship after three years at the end of a season where they cycled through four first-team managers, in an echo of Cooper’s early years at Elland Road while Massimo Cellino owned the club, when the Scotland international admitted the turnover of coaches was “difficult” and the Whites had become a “laughing stock”.
Cooper said of the summer (7m 20s): “I was angry, or whatever you want to call it. I had a feeling that people weren’t pulling their weight as good as they should have been and you’ve seen the quotes.”
Asked if it hurt him he answered: “It killed me, it killed me. It really hurt me. We put a lot of hard work in to get to where we were and maybe felt a little bit let down in a way. I don’t like to make excuses, we weren’t good enough, individually, as a team.
“There just wasn’t that bond in there, I just don’t think it was there, and I just felt like it needed to be said.”
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Last season was dismal enough for Leeds United supporters at the time but very little has come out subsequently to paint it in any more of a positive light.
If the Whites were a laughing stock in the Cellino years as one manager after another came and went they were easily as bad in the final months of the Andrea Radrizzani era.
With the Italian now gone, along with his influential sporting director Victor Orta and the majority of the signings that the Spaniard made in his final season the club is now looking up again.
But it is hard to escape the feeling that the Whites were doomed to the Championship last season long before the relegation was confirmed.
It is easy to point all the blame at those who hadn’t been at the club long and knew they had an escape route in the summer if they needed it, but the question might just as easily be asked of Cooper why it took until just after it was too late for him say what needed to be said.
It doesn’t sound like many of the summer loan exodus would be welcomed back with open arms, but at the same time it could be argued that there was a distinct lack of leadership in the dug-out and the dressing room even among those who were staunchly committed to the club.
In other Leeds United news, Phil Hay reports that one player contracted to the Whites has “no intention” of accepting a contract offer that may arrive before the end of the season.