Patrick Bamford has shared what he and the Leeds United players did after leaving Wembley following The Championship’s play-off final defeat to Southampton.
Leeds suffered a 1-0 loss to Southampton at Wembley and condemned Daniel Farke’s side to another season in The Championship at least, despite accumulating 90 points during the 2023-24 campaign.
It was a result that stung for Leeds players and fans. Georginio Rutter, Ilia Gruev and Georginio Rutter were all in tears at the full-time whistle, especially after the impressive performance against Norwich.
The aftermath of defeat and another season in the second tier means Leeds need to sell their best players to raise some funds. Parachute payments have been reduced at Leeds ahead of the 2024-25 campaign.
Speaking to Joe Wilkinson on his My Mate’s A Footballer podcast, Bamford shared what the Leeds players did after leaving Wembley following the narrow defeat to Russell Martin’s Southampton last month.
Bamford shares what Leeds players did after Southampton loss
This is a Leeds squad that is likely to be broken up to some degree over the next few weeks and months, with The 49ers needing to sell some players to raise cash to deal with the £190m owed in player transfers.
But, Bamford says that the squad shared some time together back in Leeds at a rooftop bar. He says it was a bit of a “strange atmosphere” to begin with after the defeat but it was nice to spend time together.
“The changing room was silent. the manager spoke a little bit, but he knows that it didn’t matter what he said, no-one wanted to hear. The one thing we did do, which was quite nice, was we went back to Leeds
“People’s families could come and we went up to the rooftop bar of the hotel. Not a celebration, but just being together, showing we were together. Strange atmosphere for the first couple of hours, it was nice.”
Jon Newsome predicts five players to leave Leeds this summer
The summer presents a whole load of uncertainty at Leeds. Which players are going to stay? Who is going to go, and which will players will be brought in at Elland Road to replace those that are likely to be sold?
Immediately after the defeat to Southampton,former Leeds man Newsome predicted five players key to the 2023-24 season that could go. He thinks Joe Rodon will go back to Tottenham, not signing on again.
He thinks Crysencio Summerville and Willy Gnonto will go, before suggesting there could be interest in Ethan Ampadu and James. But both Ampadu and James have said on Instagram they are staying put.