MOT View: Bamford shares squad instruction that may hint Leeds have sealed big commercial deal
Leeds United players have all been told to download the Adidas running app to track their exercise during lockdown.
While that might not be something to think much of, it has been widely reported in recent months that Adidas are set to take over as Leeds’ kit manufacturer in the summer.
Leeds’ agreement with Kappa expires at the end of this season and The Athletic journalist Phil Hay has already reported that a deal with Adidas is in the bag.
The club is yet to announce an official agreement with the German sportswear giant but chief executive Angus Kinnear has revealed that the kit designs for next season have been signed off on.
It is all evidence that points towards Leeds striking a big commercial deal with Adidas and now, Patrick Bamford has added further fuel to the fire, saying that he and his team-mates have been told to use Adidas’ running app to track their runs while the UK is in lockdown.
“First thing I do when I wake up is go straight to the bathroom and weigh myself, take a picture and send that in,” Bamford told Leeds’ official website.
“Then we’ve all had to download the Adidas running app, which tracks your distance and your time and it shows where you’ve been running on your phone.
“Everything is monitored and as soon as you’ve finished what you’ve done, it’s sent back and then we get the programme for the next day.”
Marcelo Bielsa and his team are likely to want all the players using the same running software on their phones to track their exercise, just to get a bit of continuity when their progress is sent in to be examined.
But there are a lot of running apps out there, such as Strava, Nike and RunKeeper, and it seems like it is no coincidence that they have all been told to use Adidas’.
This could be yet another big sign that Leeds have struck a deal with the German kit manufacturer and we cannot wait to see what the new designs look like.
In other Leeds United news, fans are raving about this official Championship tweet about Kalvin Phillips.