Leeds United star makes life at Elland Road declaration with former team admission and personal role hope
A Leeds United star has delivered a beaming life at Leeds United verdict.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin has issued a glowing life at Leeds United verdict with an Everton admission and Whites role hope.
England-capped striker Calvert-Lewin ended nine years with Everton as his Toffees contract expired in the summer before joining Leeds as a free agent signing on August 15.
Just over five months later, the 28-year-old striker is loving his time at Elland Road following a move which also brought the Sheffield-born forward back to his Yorkshire roots.
Calvert-Lewin came through the youth ranks at Sheffield United before joining Everton back in August 2015, the striker going on to make 273 appearances for the Toffees for whom he scored 71 times.
The striker, though, admitted it was time for a change after nearly a decade with the Merseyside club where he felt his game was stagnating after nine years with the club and the last three battling relegation.
Calvert-Lewin has now joined a team looking to buck the trend of newly promoted teams going straight back down and vas vowed to call on his experience of battling the drop with Everton to help if required.
Speaking in an interview with Sky Sports, Calvert-Lewin said: “It's been a breath of fresh air to come into a new environment.
"I think nine years is a long time to be anywhere and I think I got to a point where I just craving a new challenge and a fresh environment and I'm absolutely happy to be here."
Asked why he felt he needed to move on and play his football elsewhere, Calvert-Lewin admitted: "Probably my last three years at Everton were stressful.
"There were a lot of ups and downs and I felt that I'd come to a stage where I'd probably started to stagnate a little bit and I just felt like a fresh environment and a new challenge was what was needed.
"The club has new ownership, new stadium, things like that and a lot to be positive about but for myself and on my personal journey, you have a feeling and I think that people who weren't involved or weren't inside the building (at Everton) underestimate the kind of toll that it took on the players that were involved.
“Probably strengthened me in a way that I could never have imagined”
"We're the ones that go on the pitch but we are not the ones that make the whole club tick so there are people involved that could potentially lose their jobs with the club being relegated because the funding is not the same and you don't get the same viewership and stuff like that.
"Us as players, as the pressure mounted, you start to feel that, you start to feel responsible and you also don't want to have a relegation on your CV and you take pride in that also.
"There were many different factors.
"Obviously the narrative and things start to build in the media and you have to fight against that and I think it's probably strengthened me in a way that I could never have imagined as a player and a person.
"I come here now joining Leeds with experience that I have which maybe I didn't want to be in those positions but I have it so I come with a strength.
“Hopefully if the going gets tough or we go through difficult moments as a team, I can kind of help use my experience and guide people that perhaps haven't been in those situations before and be a player that can be leaned on."