James Trafford is the ‘moonshot’ dream Leeds United signing that can finally heal years of scars | OneFootball

Memories of the summer of 2021 are enough to bring Leeds United fans out in a cold sweat.

The beginning of the end for Marcelo Bielsa, and a massive missed opportunity. Complacency that left Leeds paying the price for the next five years.

It’s been half a decade – two years of miserably toiling against relegation, two years of scrapping to get back up, and one season of consolidation – just to get back where they were. Leeds cannot afford to let history repeat itself.

You look back at that summer, and everything was pointing in the right direction. It’s easy to see how they convinced themselves that little needed changing.

Leeds were a breath of fresh air in their first season back up under Bielsa. They finished ninth, with the best points tally from a newly promoted side in a generation, just one place and two points behind Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal (whatever happened to them?). Far closer to European qualification than relegation.

Kalvin Phillips looked the real deal in England’s run to the Euro 2020 final. Raphinha was the kind of genuine world-class talent Leeds could only dream of during their 16-year Football League wilderness years. Even Patrick Bamford had been scoring for fun.

Looking back, the foundations weren’t nearly as solid as they seemed. Bielsa reportedly felt the squad needed a major overhaul – something later corroborated by Andrea Radrizzani.

“We had this conversation in the summer,” the former Leeds owner told The Athletic.

“We knew, both of us, that either we should change all the players or change him. He was very open to admit that, because obviously the regime and the way he conducts his leadership is very demanding.”

But that didn’t happen. Instead, Leeds signed Daniel James and Junior Firpo. Both later became fan favourites for their honest graft during the climb back out of the Championship, but neither ever looked the calibre of player Leeds needed to establish themselves in the Premier League.

Those two signings ultimately fell well short of the open-heart surgery – to borrow a Rangnickism – that Bielsa privately felt was required. And his fears were soon realised.

Injuries mounted, the paper-thin squad was exposed, and players who had been performing well above their natural level came crashing back to earth. Bielsa was sacked, Leeds survived by the skin of their teeth, but years of poor decisions finally caught up with them as relegation inevitably arrived 12 months later.

Those of a fatalistic persuasion would be forgiven for feeling a sense of deja vu looking at Leeds in 2026. Daniel Farke is following a similar path to Bielsa, approaching his fourth season after incremental improvements every year. Once again, after a comfortably mid-table finish, the club would have every excuse to believe only minor tweaks are necessary.

But the parallels only go so far. There are genuine, legitimate reasons to be optimistic. Leeds finally look like a well-run football club under 49ers Enterprises. For any supporters under the age of 40, these are uncharted, slightly unnerving waters.

This is a different Leeds. Compare the scattergun recruitment under Victor Orta to the remarkable hit rate of signings under the current ownership and the difference is night and day.

This is not a squad built on Bielsa’s particular brand of alchemy, where every player seemed to be operating at the absolute peak of their powers. You look back at that core of players, with the major exception of Raphinha, and it feels like a miracle they ever finished top half in the Premier League.

Not only Phillips and Bamford, but Liam Cooper, Luke Ayling, Jack Harrison, Stuart Dallas and Mateusz Klich. They all reached unthinkable peaks when you take a wide-angle look at their careers as a whole.

Farke has done a great job, but he has not needed to turn water into wine. Players like Ethan Ampadu, Joe Rodon, Anton Stach and Dominic Calvert-Lewin look like they comfortably belong at this level.

Most importantly, the club are not resting on their laurels.

Harry Wilson arrives at Leeds off the back of his best season to date. His wicked dead-ball deliveries look a cheat code in waiting for a team of 6ft giants.

Tarik Muharemovic has looked immensely promising in his early friendly appearances and could prove an immediate upgrade on the departing Pascal Struijk.

And then there’s club record signing James Trafford, the kind of statement that Leeds desperately could have done with making five years ago.

Touted to be Jordan Pickford’s long-term successor for England, the 23-year-old was outrageously brilliant when Burnley matched Leeds’ 100-point Championship tally, breaking all kinds of defensive records in the process. While Trafford can count himself unfortunate not to have broken through at Manchester City last season, his performances in their cup successes showed a goalkeeper ready to thrive at the highest level.

“The bar to get into the squad and get minutes is pretty high,” chairman Paraag Marathe told reporters back in June.

“So just by that… maybe there’s going to be a few moonshots here and there to get some really high creative differential players.”

It looks as though Leeds have found said moonshot. The three additions made so far this summer appear to have considerably lifted the ceiling of Farke’s first-choice XI – a team that, according to the underlying numbers, were already performing like a top-half Premier League outfit.

There is still work to be done. More depth would be welcome in certain areas, while another injection of real attacking quality would not go amiss. Difficult decisions also await over fringe players, like Joel Piroe and Wilfried Gnonto, who are unlikely to get many opportunities.

But that’s all window dressing for the remainder of August. Leeds have tackled the important business incisively.

There will always be a sense of nervousness around Leeds – that’s what years of chaos will do to a fanbase – but all the evidence suggests this time really is different.

The club is moving forward, not standing still, and the ghosts of 2021 may finally be exorcised.