The body has aged but the face not so much. Sprinting to the corner flag was Sam Byram as Leeds United remembered him, smiling like the kid who could not believe his luck. However much older he is than the last time, the adrenaline gripped him at Elland Road, the pinch-yourself vibes were no less real.
A lot can be read into the way footballers react to a goal and the race to mob Byram after his header put Leeds 2-0 up against Watford was more than just the release of a team who knew the game was won. Here was a player who cut his teeth at Leeds, almost completely unheralded at the outset. Here was a player who, since then, had seen injury pile upon injury until wear and tear left him without a club four months ago. Here was a good story, the human element of an unforgiving profession.
Something in the celebration said the mental strain of his body letting him down previously had resonated with the rest of the squad; that Saturday’s goal mattered to him personally, and they knew. Then there was the crowd, reattaching themselves to an old flame who left Leeds in acrimonious fashion in 2016 but did so without creating irredeemably bad blood. Genuinely, welcome back. And how reluctantly Elland Road ever says that.
There were not far off 3,000 days between Byram’s previous goal for Leeds, away at Nottingham Forest in December 2015, and the brute of a header that did the trick against Watford. Elland Road is still standing and faithful, Leeds remain lodged in their training ground at Thorp Arch, Liam Cooper is still captain as he was on that afternoon at Forest and this is still the Championship. But in the interim, the club have changed.
Byram himself, though? To look at him is like looking at Byram as he was when he broke out of United’s academy without warning in 2012 and casually won their player-of-the-year award in his first season: a technically adept and considered full-back who anticipates much, is hard to ruffle defensively and will chip in goals. All that altered with him in the seven and a half years between him leaving and rejoining Leeds was his switch from the right side of defence to the left, and there cannot be many players who have made both positions look identical.
It was far from certain that Leeds would give him a deal when Daniel Farke, his former manager at Norwich City, invited him to come and work at Thorp Arch in pre-season. Byram had been released by Norwich, his injury problems a factor in his exit, but he got through United’s schedule without missing a session and the players around him were impressed with his poise and ability.
By the time the start of the Championship season drew near, Farke was recommending to Leeds’ board that they table a contract offer. A fit Byram, in Farke’s estimation, would be as good as any left-back in the Championship. A small sample of evidence is yet to contradict him.
Byram celebrating his previous Leeds goal — in December 2015 (Matthew Lewis/Getty Images)
If Byram’s second coming was initially inauspicious, then inauspicious is as good a word as to describe how the door opened for him at Leeds in the first place. The tale begins at non-League Farsley where United played a pre-season friendly while Neil Warnock was manager in 2012. Warnock was lacking right-backs and had asked around to find out what was in the academy. An 18-year-old Byram stepped forward, linked up with the senior group and got some minutes in against Farsley; the usual routine of older pros mixed with prospects in the heat of July, into which very little can be read.
In the press conference huddle afterwards, Warnock spoke about him briefly but knew so little about the teenager that he had to ask the journalists present to remind him of Byram’s name. Warnock was not alone. Very few among the media in attendance would have recognised Byram in the street. But as one friendly appearance led to another and competitive matches got underway, he played so well that he was impossible not to pick and then, in no time, impossible to drop, making 42 league starts off the bat. In that period, the academy was about the only thing functioning effectively at Leeds.
That was largely true four years later when Byram’s future ran into doubt. His contract was running down and due to expire at the end of 2015-16. He had been made an offer of an extension by the club’s then-owner, but in keeping with Massimo Cellino’s idiosyncrasies, the new deal being proposed amounted to a salary cut, part of Cellino’s hell-bent effort to drive the wage bill at Elland Road down. Byram rejected it and Cellino sold him to West Ham United in January 2016, though not without digging him out publicly and spinning the exit as Byram’s fault. Leeds received £4million ($5.7m). West Ham secured what could and should have been a decent bargain.
Departures like that can have consequences with the crowd at Leeds, none of whom are ever gentle with perceived disloyalty. After the events of the summer just gone, there are players elsewhere on loan currently — Luis Sinisterra for one — who would find returning to Elland Road politically difficult, and possibly out of the question. Alan Smith to Manchester United is still the gold standard for betrayal in West Yorkshire but lesser examples have caused their own levels of annoyance. Willy Gnonto was in that line of fire a mere month ago, albeit without actually forcing his way out.
But with Byram, there seems to be an appreciation of the madness of the Cellino era. During that spell, there was little about Leeds that encouraged players to think it was a good place or a club to believe in. Those were the days when a coffin was carried by supporters to the front of Elland Road’s East Stand, representing their view that Cellino was killing the club (or at least killing its ethos).
When Byram re-signed for United in August, a day before their first game against Cardiff City, the announcement was met with slight indifference but largely because Leeds were so far away from bringing a relegated and fracturing squad up to strength. Nothing in the reaction cast Byram as a defector with a history to answer for.
At first, the club were wary of the idea of committing to him. The message initially was that Byram was there to get fit and find a club. He had been injured so much during the previous three years that handing him a deal was a risk. He was not the only free agent to appear at United over the summer, with goalkeeper Joe Lumley joining up briefly before moving on to Southampton.
Farke pushed hard for Byram (Ben Roberts/Getty Images)
But Byram’s success in getting through without breaking down was crucial, and his appearance as a substitute in a friendly against Monaco in July was an obvious hint that Farke was seriously considering taking him on. No matter how much Farke wanted to assist Byram, he did not have the luxury of wasting minutes in pre-season matches on players he had no intention of committing to. Over the next two weeks, a one-year deal was finalised, giving Farke a defender he knew inside out from his time at Norwich.
The relationship between them was strong enough that last Wednesday, Byram felt able to tell Farke to leave him out of the starting line-up for a goalless draw at Hull City. Leeds were facing three games in a week and Byram’s body is not fully up to it yet. “Sam’s an experienced player and I trust his choice,” Farke said. But he is doing to Farke what he did to Warnock by planting a seed in the German’s head, making him think that on any occasion when Byram can start, he should. The club are historically woeful at recruiting left-backs but Byram, when his conditioning allows, is looking safe as houses.
Saturday was quite the day, yielding a surgical defeat of Watford in which all of Farke’s players shone. Watford’s expected goals (xG) tally stood at 0.04 for 78 minutes, a team as far away from Illan Meslier as Jupiter is from the Moon. Georginio Rutter strayed into unplayable territory. Joel Piroe notched a fourth goal in five games. Glen Kamara ‘Rolls-Royced’ his way through a full debut. Jaidon Anthony’s first strike for Leeds signed the win off.
But there was no wider grin than Byram’s after he thudded in Dan James’ corner.
The previous weekend had been Byram’s 30th birthday. To mark it, he bussed in 30 of his friends and family from York to watch him play against Watford and watch him score. Dinner in Leeds later that night was smiles all round.
(Top photo: Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)
