Leeds United are off to a flyer under Marcelo Bielsa, and they have looked solid at the back and while going forward. Without much of a shakeup to the squad, the Argentine has managed to turn the tide around at Elland Road in a short span of time, taking the Whites to top of the league table. Amongst all this, Swedish centre-back Pontus Jansson recently talked about how he could have quit Elland Road in the summer after he had a successful outing in Russia, with Sweden, where the Scandinavian side reached the quarterfinals.
Jansson was perilously close to joining Russian outfit Krasnodar, but his love for United stopped him from making that decision. The player was offered a better contract, but he revealed that moving away from the club wouldn’t have been right. He said,”It just did not feel right. I’ll be a daddy in a month so I weighed it up. Clearly, there was a lot of money and it would have secured my future, but the sporting project with Leeds and (Marcelo) Bielsa and this outweighed it.
”But it was not an easy decision. Krasnodar really wanted to replace Granqvist with me. It was really close, I thought about it, but I did not feel right. I wanted to finish with Leeds. I had a heavy season with the team last year and I did not want to finish my love like that.”- he added further.
Jansson joined the squad late due to his World Cup commitments and had struggled with fitness ever since. In his absence, Bielsa turned towards Gaetano Berardi to start at the heart of the defence, even though he is a fullback. His ball playing abilities is the primary reason for him starting over Jansson as Bielsa wants his team to build attacks from the back.
If Jansson continues working hard, his time is undoubtedly going to come, and in a long season, he would have a role to play. His attitude could make him a fan favourite as this is not the first time he spoke about wanting to play in the Premier League with the Whites.
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Those comments would go down well with the fans as we don’t see that kind of loyalty in today’s day and age. Jansson so far has struggled to get regular playing opportunities under Marcelo Bielsa, and we for one believe that the Swedish international should start in the playing eleven ahead of Liam Cooper. Cooper hasn’t done poorly, but sometimes we feel he is prone to making some rash decisions which can cost the team in the future. Jansson is a more established centre-back and could be back in the first team pretty soon.
