"Not bad actually" - Patrick Bamford on Leeds United signings, superstar declaration and Raphinha request
Patrick Bamford has been talking about Leeds United signings - and one particularly standout.
Whites no 9 Patrick Bamford has served up huge praise for former Leeds United teammate Raphinha in assessing his general take on the club’s signings and superstar difference.
Bamford has now experienced 15 transfer windows as a Leeds player since joining the club from Middlesbrough in the summer of 2018 when Leeds were facing another season of Championship football.
Under Marcelo Bielsa, Bamford helped fire the Whites back to the Premier League as Championship champions two years after his arrival and Leeds then stormed to a ninth-placed finish on their top-fight return.
The club went big in the summer of 2020, notably forking out a club record £27m fee to sign Spanish striker Rodrigo and also landing future superstar Raphinha from Rennes for just £18m.
Five years on, Raphinha is now one of Barcelona’s best players and among the contenders for the 2025 Ballon d’Or.
Speaking on Fozcast - The Ben Foster Podcast - Bamford declared that his appreciation of United’s signings generally grew over time - but that Raphinha’s class shone through in his very first session at Thorp Arch.
The Whites no 9 also hailed Raphinha’s “aerobic capacity”, something Bamford instructed to specifically watch out for the next time the Brazilian star players.
“I was like ‘this guy is good, very good’”...
Bamford said: “When a new player signs for a club, at Leeds, the majority of players who have signed, I have been like 'they look alright, take a bit of time’, as they have grown into the club a little bit you are like ‘he is not bad actually.’
"The first session with Rapha, I was like ‘this guy is good, very good.’
"He was wiry, one of them with nothing on him, very skinny and could run all day. Not run at a really rapid speed but he is quick and he could just run at that speed the whole time.
"I was speaking to Ruben (Crespo) who is like our Spanish rehab guy at the club and we said that with Rapha, obviously technically he is very good and all things that. But the one thing that allows him and especially suited him under (Hansi) Flick I think is his aerobic capacity to just keep going and going and going.
"When it came to the GPS stuff, under Bielsa, everyone was pretty high, mine would be around 900 metres, his would be 1300, always, every game and he was fine all the time.
"You can see it now, the next time you watch him play, just watch how many times he runs. Looks completely fine and just sprints back and then sprints again."