Coventry City may have taken four points off Leeds United this season but defender Milan van Ewijk still believes the Whites have the best player in the league.
Van Ewijk was a player Leeds were chasing last summer in their quest for a new right-back, until he joined Coventry in a deal worth around £3.4 million.
The 23-year-old has quickly established himself as one of the best full-backs in the division despite Coventry’s likely failure at reaching the play-offs, after narrowly missing out on promotion via that route last season.
Coventry actually inflicted Leeds’ first defeat of 2024 earlier this month after a phenomenal run of form from the turn of the New Year, which has still left them in with a chance of the top two.
That run also contributed to Leeds scooping the majority of the awards at the EFL’s ceremony last weekend. Three players were named in the TOTS, while Crysencio Summerville and Archie Gray picked up the Championship’s player and young player of the season.
Coventry’s van Ewijk says Leeds have the Championship’s ‘number one’ player
Given the strength of the sides that came down from the Premier League last season, the quality of player in the Championship this term is arguably the highest it has ever been.
From Leicester and Southampton, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Ricardo Pereira, Kyler Walker-Peters and more are all comfortably top-flight players, while Leeds have a few of their own, too.
And it is a member of Leeds’ squad who Coventry’s van Ewijk believes is the best player he has come up against directly this season, in Summerville.
The two players were teammates for Netherlands’ U21s side last summer and speaking in an interview with Voetbal International, van Ewijk spoke extremely highly of Summerville’s quality.
He said: “That man is really exceptionally good, that’s not normal. He’s the best wing attacker in the Championship. People are finally starting to see how good he is.
“He is in my top three best left wingers I have come across and he is number one. He is showing that he is a Premier League player. He is going to make a step, there is no other way.
“He has to be able to handle that. But to stand against him, that’s a nice challenge. Even if I can keep him calm, you know that one moment is enough for him to create so much space and threat right away.”
Will Summerville stay at Leeds this summer?
After the season he has had, Summerville is already attracting interest from some of Europe’s biggest clubs. His return of 17 goals and eight assists has not gone unnoticed.
Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen are the latest side to have been linked with the £1.3m ace, and if Leeds do fail to get promoted, an exit would be inevitable.
However, a return to the Premier League just might be enough to secure Summerville’s future for the long-term, with Leeds clearly a place he can be the main man.
Summerville has two years left to run on his contract at Leeds after the end of this season, and hopefully a new one can be agreed.