Bamford wants to break ‘vicious cycle’ and fire Leeds back into Premier League | Leeds United

Patrick Bamford listens politely, considers the argument, then shakes his head. “I think my injuries were just bad luck,” he says. “I don’t think it was too intense under Marcelo Bielsa.”

There is a school of thought that the much-adored former Leeds manager has finally cracked the team’s standout striker, but Bamford is not a subscriber. “There were times when it was difficult under Marcelo,” admits the 30-year-old as he races against the clock to recover from minor knee problems in time to return to Daniel Farke’s side for the Championship play-off final on Sunday against Southampton. “But honestly, it was probably the best three and a half years I’ve had in football.

“My problems were partly because, trying to help the team, I pushed too hard, came back too soon and kept having setbacks. It was a vicious circle. I was just going back and forth, never getting anywhere. In the end, it backfired and I had a very difficult two years.”

Three years ago, Bamford scored 17 goals in 38 Premier League appearances and won an England cap, but then two injury-riddled seasons hit. Undermined by the absence of a striker as important off the ball as on it, a struggling Leeds suddenly asked Jesse Marsch, Javi Gracia and Sam Allardyce to take turns in Bielsa’s old chair, but still landed in championship last spring.

Farke’s appointment has changed the narrative, but despite Bamford’s eventual resurgence, scoring nine goals in 19 games before suffering a knee injury during last month’s 4-3 win at Middlesbrough, they they narrowly missed out on automatic promotion.

As Bamford speaks kindly amid the deceptive quiet of the club’s training ground, set amid gently rolling countryside near Wetherby, he relives the frustration of somehow finishing behind Leicester and Ipswich despite amassing 90 points.

“Fortunately, Daniel Farke is a very balanced person and an experienced manager,” he says. “He stayed calm, we got along and now I hope Wembley will be a fantastic experience. I think the Premier League would definitely be better with Leeds in it.”

Although Joël Piroe impressed at centre-forward in the play-off semi-final against Norwich and is a very decent finisher, he cannot match Bamford’s full-back movement in possession.

“Playing for Nottingham Forest Under-18s, I always remember the academy manager saying, ‘Focus on your movement, get in at the back,'” says the former Chelsea and Middlesbrough striker. “That really stuck with me and I learned a lot from watching Edinson Cavani from his Napoli days.

“But pressing up front was one of the things Bielsa brought out in me. In training, it was all about changing tempo quickly and how quickly you can go from zero to top speed. Being tall, that’s harder and without Marcelo pushing me I probably wouldn’t have worked on it.

“Even now people still think I’m slow. My running style is terrible, but I’m deceptively fast. I don’t think too many defenders are going to beat me beyond 30-40 yards.”

Some Leeds fans have never appreciated how good Bamford is and things came to a head when a group turned up outside the home he shares with his partner and young children to complain about a penalty miss during the season last.

“There’s only so much you can take before you break, and for me, that’s when it started to involve my family,” he says. “I know it’s a small minority, but sometimes it’s the small voices that shout the loudest. Social media has brought a lot of good things, but people can be blind to its consequences. They don’t see the hurt and the damage.

“Don’t get me wrong though, I’ve been here six years and I’m still enjoying it. The vast majority of fans are fantastic. I hope I can show them my best form in the Premier League next season.”

The upper level would be enhanced by the presence of a striker keen to highlight, among other issues, the climate emergency and racism. “I want to raise awareness of the need to look after the planet,” he says as we discuss the “madness” of Newcastle and Tottenham flying to Australia for a post-season friendly. “He needs our help. But there are a lot of things, not just environmental, that I talked about. If something’s wrong, I’ll tell you what it is.”

Bamford’s amalgam of articulate candor, intelligence and, despite a healthy inner confidence, humility, makes it easy to see why he was offered a scholarship to Harvard after leaving private school in Nottingham with not just a string of GSCEs and A-levels, but also fluency in French. and a real aptitude for playing the violin.

In his early days on a number of loan spells at Chelsea, this did not always serve the middle-class architect’s son too well, causing clashes with certain older school managers. Maybe it was too open?

“Potentially,” says a striker who remains so close to Aitor Karanka that he usually gives his old Boro manager “a big hug” whenever they meet. “It caused me problems with some managers. Sometimes I may seem cocky or arrogant. I wasn’t – it’s just that if I saw something was wrong, I’d speak up regardless.

“It hasn’t always put me in the best position, but sometimes people want to talk and then they don’t because they think they’ll be reprimanded. I don’t think that’s the right thing to do.”