Siden vi er inne på Yorkshire Evening Post - de har også styrket staben med Moscowhite.
(som kolumnist på tirsdager)
Do adjust your Twitter: the YEP have announced the new Phil Hay, and their new chief football writer is Graham Smyth (pronounced Smyth, apparently), who for the last three years has been covering Chesterfield for the Derbyshire Times and Sheffield Star.
He's at
https://twitter.com/GrahamSmyth where he seems to cope quite well; these tweets about a road closure yesterday (trust me here) were promising.
I have also heard good things about him at some point during that time but I can't remember where; I think it was some sort of round up of good local reporters. I can't pretend I've paid much attention to Chesterfield, even if they have John Sheridan as their manager.
YEP editor Hannah Thaxter says:
“He prevailed out of a competitive field in a tough interview process because of his fresh ideas and contacts and his ability to engage readers with his compelling writing and analysis across all platforms. Graham will join the newsroom on Monday ready for what will no doubt be another dramatic season for LUFC, in its centenary year.â€
Graham joins Lee Sobot and Joe Urquhart to complete the reporting team, which follows the departure of Phil Hay.
Hannah added: “Their combined knowledge and skillsets will ensure that the YEP’s coverage of Leeds United continues to lead the field both on and off the ball.â€
There is some more detail in the YEP's announcement, that nobody outside the business has picked up on yet, so it's just between you, me and the trade press for now:
The Yorkshire Evening Post’s coverage of the club will also be bolstered by the signing of a new columnist, Daniel Chapman, aka Moscowhite, who writes for The Square Ball.Daniel has co-edited Leeds United fanzine and podcast The Square Ball since 2011, taking it through its 25th anniversary, and six nominations for the Football Supporters’ Federation Fanzine of the Year award, winning twice. He’s also the author of a new history of the club, 100 Years of Leeds United, 1919–2019.
Hannah said: “He is a devoted lifelong fan, with a sharp wit, a critical eye and an encyclopedic knowledge of the club which he brings to bear in his informative, thought-provoking and often irreverent musings.â€
I'll be doing a column for the YEP every Tuesday, and if you're on the MoscowCast here, I've cleared it with them that I can give you an audio version. If you're not, you'll get an email with a link (and depending on the state of the YEP's website, maybe the full article, but don't tell them that). I'll still be doing all the other things I do.
This came about because when Phil Hay left, he had a conversation with Hannah Thaxter about how to go about replacing him. Apparently my name came up, Hannah suggested me as a columnist, Phil told her that was "a genius idea" and he told me to get in touch. I spoke to Hannah on Monday and decided to give it a whirl.
Again, between you and me, I'll be paid by the column and I won't be paid much, so it's not great from that point of view. But the YEP — print and online — is a different audience from TSB, and hopefully one that might get interested in reading TSB and/or the book I've done. So balancing the extra exposure and 'status' that comes with a (still just about) big name newspaper against the extra work, I think it's worth giving the YEP my weekly take — ahem, my "thought-provoking and often irreverent musings" — on our promotion season, and seeing what happens.
The other slight crossover with my 'professional' life today is the new 'Take Us Home' documentary series that I'm sure you've seen the trailer for; you'll have to forgive me if I keep a mild distance from the hoo-ha around that, as it's been made by my former employers and, well, let's just say I've been a much happier soul since I decided to make them 'former' employers. The trailer looks good, the series will be interesting.
If, in the course of that or anything else, Marcelo Bielsa refers to 'illusion', as he did in Australia: "One of the things is to improve, with illusion, the things we made last season" — be bewildered no more. Unless it was only me that didn't get it. But thank you Mark! — who says it's very likely a literal way of translating 'hopefully'.
Kemar Roofe will be fit again one day, with illusion, but not for a four weeks; the official website has managed to announce that news by saying his injury "was not as severe as first feared" and that his "high ankle injury" is "a sprain" — but the guy is out for a month. A month! I suppose it makes it less likely that he'll be sold in this transfer window. Leeds Live have had their calendars out: he's likely to miss Cagliari, Bristol City, Nottingham Forest, Salford City, Wigan and Brentford.
He'll also miss our just announced Under-23s friendly on Saturday 3rd August, 2.30pm, away to Scarborough Athletic, and this Saturday's fringe friendly against Samu Saiz's Girona, which is confirmed as taking place at Manchester City’s training facility.
The heatwave here is even suppressing NewsNow. Sevilla's reserve keeper Sergio Rico, who spent last season on loan at Fulham, would like to come back to England; that's set tongues wagging about a swap for Kiko Casilla, although his high wages might be a stumbling block for Sevilla, as well as Victor Orta's claim that he's turned down benches in Spain for the first team in Leeds. Cagliari are beating us and Newcastle in the race for Boca Juniors midfielder Nahitan Nandez; and Ivan Sunjic, the Croatian midfielder touted as our replacement for Kalvin Bear, is being described as a "dream signing" for AC Milan.