Vi trenger å bli kjent med Connor.
På årets Championship-lag forrige sesong. Har vært involvert i 16 kamper (totalt 21 serierunder og noen cupkamper) denne sesongen, nesten alt i Premier League...
Han liker å stå opp for lagkameratene:
“It's been what I've been about since I started playing football, to be honest, just get in there, get stuck in,” he said. “I'm a rugby boy at heart, so I like a little scrap every now and again, but Vincent Kompany is a big part of that as well.
“Last season, as good as we were on the ball playing football and we looked fancy, we were gritty and we stuck up for each other and we knew, if the faeces hit the fan, we had to go again, we had to stick by each other.
“In the end, you get promoted as a team, not as individuals, so you all have to be in it together and there's one thing for sure, if Joe or DJ get started on, I’m flying straight in there.”
Som 28-åring blir han av de eldste i troppen, noe han allerede har observert:
Roberts wants to pass on that knowhow and experience to this young Leeds side. He wants to be that voice of reason, alongside your Liam Coopers, in the trenches as Farke’s side fight for every inch in a brutal promotion race.
https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/roberts-leeds-united-rodon-james-28555409....
Det å spille for Leeds har han hatt i tankene sine siden han debuterte i Championship på Elland Road - i samme kamp som Garry Monk returnerte til arenaen for første gang etter at han trakk seg. Mottakelsen han der fikk gjorde (positivt) inntrykk på Roberts:
Roberts did not grow up as a Leeds fan but speaking after finalising his loan last night, he told The Athletic that it had always been a club he had liked the idea of joining — and said he hoped his spiky nature on the pitch would appeal to the crowd in equal measure.
“I couldn’t put my exact finger on it but some of you might remember the first time I ever played here was for Middlesbrough,” he said. “It was Garry Monk’s first game back here (in 2017), my league debut in the Championship. I started and I just thought ‘wow, this is brilliant’.
“If you achieve at big clubs like this, it’s even more special because of the size of the club and the amount of supporters they have. A lot of people say ‘oh, I was a Leeds fan, I’d love to play for Leeds.’ I wasn’t a Leeds fan, don’t get me wrong, but from when I started playing football, I experienced Elland Road and what Leeds was about.
“I can honestly say that I’ve said to a lot of players ‘I’d love to play for Leeds’ and a lot of them have said ‘you probably are a Leeds player as well’ because I like getting in a scrap.”
MITT INNTRYKK er at vi har fått inn en helstøpt person som vèl kan ta opp arven etter Ayling. Selv har han allerede et ønske om at lånet kan forlenges til et permanent opphold.
Lykke til, Connor!
https://theathletic.com/5240350/2024/02/02/leeds-january-transfer-window-right-back-reshuffle-ends-with-roberts/