Marcelo Bielsa debutant on 'ridiculous' Leeds United spell and getting nutmegged 10 times by Pablo Hernandez
It was a rollercoaster couple of years for the Leeds United academy graduate.
Robbie Gotts might only have made three appearances for Leeds United but that fact has done little to taint his memory of a ‘special time’ breaking into first-team football.
Gotts was a regular matchday squad member during Leeds 2019/20 Championship title-winning campaign but the wait for a debut under Marcelo Bielsa was long - so long that it became a running joke among supporters. The Harrogate-born academy graduate watched on from the bench 35 times without getting a single minute, with Bielsa not in the business of gifting opportunities.
“Gotts is a player I feel guilty about because he does everything to try to achieve his goal, even though he hasn’t had minutes on the pitch,” Bielsa admitted in December that season before eventually handing out a debut in the 1-0 FA Cup defeat at Arsenal the following month. But with the Whites academy graduate now excelling at League Two Barrow, he is nothing but grateful for the time he spent as part of that promotion-winning group.
“It was ridiculous,” Gotts told Sky Sports of his Leeds breakthrough. “There were times where I was travelling with the team as the 19th man, so not even on the bench, even to be doing that [was amazing]. My friends are all Leeds fans back home, I remember the first time I got called up ringing my mum, my dad, friends, my partner and being so proud that I was being recognised and able to travel with the team.
“It was a special time and I look back and think I probably didn't realise how important it was, being around it at the time. It’s not until I look back on it, being around the team that got promoted, I really did sponge off it and wanted to learn every day and I think it benefited my brain.”
Gotts was one of countless Leeds players to undergo a positional change under Bielsa, having come through the ranks at right-back before being pushed into central midfield. The Argentinian labelled him as a No.8 during that breakout campaign, adding that he had ‘never seen a player with such a dynamic’ in his long coaching career.
Between the dozens of weekends and evenings spent watching Leeds from the substitutes bench, Gotts was heavily involved in training and regularly put to the test during Bielsa’s now infamous sessions. That also meant coming up against some incredible talent and, quite predictably, one teammate caused him more problems than most,
“I remember we did 11 v 11 and it was the starting team against the players who weren't playing,” Gotts, who will have been in the latter team, explained. “I remember having to mark Pablo Hernandez and he made me look silly. I was just chasing his shadow all the time. He put it through my legs about 10 times.”
Gotts was able to celebrate that 2020 promotion both as a player and a fan, but his remaining time at Leeds would be short-lived. Having won the club’s Academy Player of the Year Award that summer, he made one Carabao Cup appearance before loan spells at Lincoln City and Salford City. The midfielder eventually left permanently in 2021, joining Barrow where he remains.