It has been almost two years since Andrea Radrizzani replied to a tweet, asking where Leeds’ new central midfielder was hiding, with the answer ‘Adam Forshaw’. At the time it had been almost two years since Forshaw had played a minute of league football due to serious injury, but boy was Radz playing the long game! Twenty months on from that tweet, it is truer than ever.

Leicester’s visit to Elland Road last season was the day Forshaw surprisingly appeared in Leeds’ starting line-up, and we all collectively crossed our fingers his body wouldn’t spontaneously combust. Instead, Forshaw was superb, helping Leeds go full murderball on the opposition for one of the final times. He continued being excellent, and was deserving of a contract extension nobody predicted at the start of 2021/22. Playing at West Ham in January, Forshaw felt “amazing, like I was floating” during the first twenty minutes. But then he got injured again. And again. And again.

It is no slight on Forshaw that we’re now desperate for Javi Gracia to throw him into the starting eleven for another visit of Leicester to LS11. He is a good, competent midfielder — as we’ve learned for the last two seasons, sometimes that’s all you need — who would immediately upgrade the limp trio of Marc Roca, Weston McKennie, and Brenden Aaronson. A recurring theme of the last three defeats has been Illan Meslier rolling the ball out to one of his defenders, who has waited for one of the midfield to provide a passing option that never arrives, forcing them to go long and over the head of a striker who has dropped deep because the midfield isn’t doing its job. Watching Brighton calmly play touch and pass up the Wembley pitch in the FA Cup semi-final nearly made me weep for what we’ve lost at Leeds; at least not having to watch McKennie lazily kick a five-yard pass out for a throw-in might make me tear up with joy.

It isn’t Forshaw’s fault, but how we’ve come to be hoping he can help save us provides a snapshot of the mistakes at board level that have meant the last two seasons have gone so wrong — the lack of ambition after finishing 9th, the painfully poor recruitment, and the botched plan to arrest the decline.

Radrizzani has said that, after Leeds finished 9th, he was told by Marcelo Bielsa that at some point he would have to either change the manager or change the players. Despite dreaming aloud of qualifying for Europe, Radrizzani chose not to build from the position of strength. Victor Orta was already Zooming Jesse Marsch, so Leeds opted for evolution in summer 2021, changing neither the players nor the manager for another season. At some point they opted to wait until summer 2022 for the revolution of changing both.

At the time, I agreed with only tweaking a squad that had partied through the Premier League. Leeds budgeted for a new left-back and central midfielder — the two glaring weaknesses in the squad — and kept a pot of money to one side for the right attacker if they became available, like they later did for the hypothetical signings of Cody Gakpo and Charles de Ketelaere. Orta appeased Bielsa’s fixation with Dan James on deadline day, but his job was to find a better left-back than Gjanni Alioski — who was a) originally signed as a right winger, and b) an erratic (but loveable) headcase. He found Junior Firpo, who has had the best part of two good weeks in two years. In central midfield, Leeds targeted Connor Gallagher, who didn’t fancy it, then Lewis O’Brien, who both Bielsa and the club agreed wasn’t worth what Huddersfield were asking for. After that, the best Orta could come up with was Harry Winks on loan from Spurs. Bielsa said no — just like Winks’ current club, Sampdoria, are wishing they said too. When Leeds were first promoted, Orta had insisted Bielsa take an extra centre-back in Diego Llorente after the League Cup defeat to Hull, but finishing 9th had seemingly turned the club complacent, even while Robin Koch and Pascal Struijk were playing in midfield.

The last transfer window under Bielsa was spent chasing Brenden Aaronson for Jesse Marsch, despite Fizzy Salzburg insisting they weren’t selling. Needing to find an alternative to centre-halves in midfield, the best Orta could come up with was, er, Harry Winks again, a player he knew Bielsa didn’t want.

The manager has since changed and so have the players, Orta swapping Bielsa for Marsch and giving him Tyler Adams, Aaronson, Roca, and McKennie in midfield, then finally accepting Jesse wasn’t up to the job right after Leeds missed the chance to let a new manager sign his own players. In theory, Orta has built a Champions League midfield. In reality, an injury to Adams has exposed the meekness of the other options. Roca is meant to be a passing metronome, but has reverted to shaving his head and conceding cheap free-kicks on the few occasions he manages to get near an opposition player, like a continental Lee Cattermole. Aaronson is meant to be an exciting dribbler, but prefers falling over to running with the ball at his feet. McKennie is meant to belong alongside the elite, but can’t cope with being asked to stand ten yards deeper than he’d like and stay disciplined.

The desperation for an alternative means eyes have been cast towards the Under-21s. In the 3-1 win over Middlesbrough at the weekend, Archie Gray certainly played like there was a place in the first team up for grabs. Within the opening minutes, he gave Boro number 8 AJ Bridge a shove in the back for leaving his foot in a challenge that Gray had won. It was nothing too heinous, but Archie wasn’t taking liberties — twice getting his own back by beating Bridge to tackles with a healthy dose of added force. It helped that in Bridge, he found a nemesis reminiscent of Marc Roca — a supposedly cultured left-footed midfielder, Bridge attempted a ‘clever’ corner that failed to clear the first Leeds defender. After Gray scored to put Leeds 2-1 up, Bridge shot from the kick-off in a huff. It was going wide, but Leeds ‘keeper Dani van den Heuvel caught it anyway.

👏🔥 Archie Gray! pic.twitter.com/1rpa6yV2qB

— Leeds United (@LUFC) April 23, 2023

In the Premier League, Gray won’t be able to just run in a straight line from near halfway to score like he did at the weekend, but his all-round game showed qualities Leeds’ midfield has recently lacked. It’s in the genes, innit. Whenever he gets the ball, Archie seems to already know where his teammates are on the pitch, playing one-touch passes without having to slow the game down — as he did when creating Leeds’ third goal for Sonny Perkins. Darko Gyabi might have a better passing range, but Gyabi can be guilty of taking too much time, often losing the ball in his own half by trying to dribble past the opposition when a simple pass would do.

Asked whether Leeds’ relegation battle makes it difficult to develop the U21s, Javi Gracia suggested it was unlikely the kids were going to be asked to save the grown-ups’ arses any time soon:

“I agree that there are better moments for these young players because in this moment they have to accept a big responsibility and then I think it’s not fair for them. I think they have to grow but in a better moment, in a better situation, in my opinion. But if we need them, they play. I believe in all of them but I think it’s better for the young players to grow in another atmosphere.”

Javi could create a better atmosphere at Elland Road by not playing Aaronson or McKennie. For now, Forshaw might be a safer, and fairer, bet than Gray — with his contract expiring in the summer, he can break himself for Leeds United one last time. Even Radz doesn’t have the brass neck to claim this is what he meant when he hit send on that tweet two years ago. At the current trajectory, we’ll be revisiting that tweet in another two years as Forshaw returns, trying to salvage our latest season in the Championship. ⬢