Farewell Junior Firpo

The Inside Elland Road podcast says goodbye to a Leeds United promotion winner and champion.

Transcript

00:00um i think you summed it up quite nicely he was a three moonlighting as a nine um towards the end

00:07of his lead stint uh he was great fun to watch he was very fun to interview as well um good talker

00:12seems like we had really uh good emotional intelligence um and the message that he's put

00:19out uh to leeds fans after you know confirming his exit uh on a free transfer um i think is really

00:27heartfelt as well so i do think it's the right time for him and to part ways and leeds are able to

00:33you know evolve that position evolve the squad he goes out on a high and he'll be fondly remembered

00:40for those last two seasons um and you know the litany of assists and goals that he contributed

00:47with um yeah what are your what are your favorite junior firpo memories graham i really enjoyed

00:54interviewing him twice last season um we did two exclusive sit downs with him and both

01:00times were excellent um just the the fact that with a lot of footballers you get very very little

01:06actual detail or anecdotes and he's talking about his granny not realizing he's famous and um walking

01:13along the beach with her and selfie hunters appearing and her being all surprised um really enjoyed his kind

01:19of candor um but i think for me uh the the one thing that i really enjoyed and the best example

01:27of it i think i can bring to mind is hillsborough last season where he slid was that last season or was

01:34it just the start of this season it feels it feels like a long time ago but he slid across it must have

01:40been last season because it was to bamford slid across between the back four and the goalkeeper to the

01:44back post where bamford came in and finished it and it's it was the angle of that cross that he

01:50always got right for me like he didn't he didn't whip it in so it was curling away from goal you know

01:57with so much pace that striker or someone else couldn't get on it he angled it brilliantly you

02:03know it's like it's like he was almost passing the ball from a crossing position diagonally towards

02:10the back post um he always put it in a great area and there was quite a few examples of that this

02:14season as well you know he set up dan james for a couple of goals he set up bogle for a goal and he

02:19scored some great goals himself the the rudhullet header uh at bramall lane was a real highlight um

02:27and yeah it was just we we've talked we talked last week didn't we about um

02:33putting unlikely people up front but when he played up front he actually did it really well he you know he

02:40deals with the ball so brilliantly that he probably could at a certain level play as an attacking

02:45midfielder now he could certainly play as a winger um but you're right in football quite often

02:52players miss the moment to say goodbye they missed the chance to go out on a high and then

02:57and then things maybe dwindle or go downhill or as the as as time takes its natural course or as the

03:03level gets harder um but why not go out as a champion

03:17you