Good Morning. It's Thursday 24th September, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...
Why Bahoya's slow start shouldn't worry anyone
There's a growing temptation to panic about Jean-Mattéo Bahoya, and we think it's premature. Two minutes against Palace and three unused substitute appearances since a deadline-day arrival isn't nothing, but it isn't the crisis some are making it out to be either.Football Insider ran a piece this week featuring former Manchester United chief scout Mick Brown, who argued Bahoya "hasn't done enough on the training ground" to force his way into Farke's plans, and suggested the winger needs to make it impossible for the manager to leave him out. It's a fair enough observation on the surface, but we think it misreads how Farke actually works.
We've seen this pattern from Farke before. He doesn't throw new signings into his system on reputation or price tag. He wants players to prove they understand what he's asking of them in training first, and he's shown before that he'd rather wait than gamble on a player who isn't tactically ready, even at the cost of short-term criticism. Brown's framing treats Bahoya's lack of minutes as a verdict already reached. We'd argue it's simply Farke's process playing out on schedule.
Bahoya is 21, arrived from a different league and a different football culture, and is still finding his feet less than a month after signing. Asking him to be first choice from day one ignores how this manager operates. That's not a red flag. That's the same process most of Farke's signings have gone through.
None of this means we should be complacent about his development, and if he's still out in the cold after the international break that's a fair point to revisit. But right now, two minutes of football tell us almost nothing about whether Bahoya will succeed at Leeds. What they tell us is that Farke is doing what Farke always does, taking his time.
Are Chelsea fans starting to regret letting Ethan Ampadu go?
Judging by the reaction to talkSPORT pundit Rory Jennings this week, quite a few of them might be. Jennings, a Chelsea fan himself, was discussing his club's midfield problems, the Moisés Caicedo absence and Reece James being shoehorned out of position, when the conversation turned to Ampadu. He didn't hold back. Watching Leeds, he said his Chelsea group chat "is going off", with supporters telling him Ampadu is "everything I want Reece James to be", praising the way he snaps into tackles and dictates the tempo of a game. He later doubled down on social media, calling Ampadu "a class act" who would elevate Chelsea's midfield "beyond recognition".We can understand why Chelsea fans are having those conversations. Ampadu made just 12 senior appearances across six years at Stamford Bridge, shipped out on loan more often than he was picked, before Leeds paid an initial £7 million for him in July 2023. Since then he's become everything Chelsea apparently hoped he'd be and never gave him the chance to become: club captain, Championship title winner, a converted centre-back who now reads a Premier League midfield as well as anyone in the division. He signed a new deal to 2030 in June, and performances like the one against Crystal Palace keep adding to a growing list of pundits rating him among the league's better midfielders.
For us, none of this is a surprise. We've watched Ampadu become the heartbeat of this team, the first name on the sheet, a captain who embodies what Leeds wants to be. What's changed is that people outside Elland Road are finally catching up. A £7 million fee that looked reasonable at the time now looks like one of the best pieces of business in recent memory, and if a big offer ever lands, something in the region of £60 million wouldn't be an outrageous starting point given where his value sits now.
Whether that bid ever comes is hypothetical, and Ampadu has been clear about how much the project at Leeds means to him. But Jennings' comments are a reminder that the rest of the football world is only just working out what we've known for a while: Chelsea's loss was our gain.
Former White in hot water
Former Leeds winger Ian Poveda has appeared in court charged with perverting the course of justice and two counts of fraud relating to driving-related offences, and has pleaded not guilty to all counts. Poveda, 26, who now plays for Atlético Nacional in Colombia’s top flight, appeared at Leeds Crown Court via video link and denied all four counts. Judge Robin Mairs set a trial date of 4 December 2028. The prosecution alleges he failed to disclose a driving disqualification in order to obtain insurance, displayed false number plates, and conspired to obtain insurance in someone else’s name for a car he intended to drive while disqualified.The four perverting-the-course-of-justice charges cover the period between 8 July 2020 and 13 September 2023. The two fraud charges relate to alleged offences in 2023 and 2025. He appeared alongside co-defendants Adekunle Adeyemi, 36, who denies perverting the course of justice, and Anthony Howe, 63, who denies fraud. All three men, who are from London, were granted bail. Poveda joined Leeds from Manchester City in 2020 and later had spells at Blackburn Rovers, Blackpool, Sheffield Wednesday and Sunderland. A former England youth international, he has since represented Colombia.
He featured as a substitute for Atlético Nacional in their most recent match on Sunday. He has previous convictions for driving offences, including a 2023 sentence for driving while disqualified and a six-month ban earlier this year after being caught speeding at 100mph. Those earlier cases are separate from the charges he now faces. All defendants deny the allegations. The case will return to Leeds Crown Court in December 2028.
