Does Berardi have a future at Leeds? 

Gaetano Berardi made his first league  appearance of 2020, replacing the injured Kalvin Phillips at the Riverside last night but with the popular Swiss out of contract at the end of the season, every time he plays it could be the last for Leeds. 

Leeds have been very proactive in renewing contracts to the team’s star players this season. Kalvin Phillips, Stuart Dallas, Liam Cooper, Luke Ayling, Pablo Hernandez, Leif Davis and Mateusz Klich have all penned lengthy contracts to secure a long term future at Leeds or at least insure the club against any possible transfers. 

 In CEO, Angus Kinnear’s programme notes (always worth a read) from November 30th he stated they have a “programme of contract renewals; securing players who are proven to be able to compete at the top of the Championship and we know have Premier League potential. 

 Of all of Marcelo Bielsa’s squad, the only player to not have a contract by the start of next season is the club’s longest serving first team player. 

 So it begs the argument should Berardi be offered a new contract to extend his Elland Road stay or have things ran their natural course? 

It is worth noting that this is a young Leeds team, in addition to Berardi, only Hernandez, Kiko Casilla and Barry Douglas are over 30. 

But Leeds already have a wafer fin squad as it is and should promotion happen or not the squad needs bulking up. Berardi has operated at left and right back more often than his natural right back position in recent seasons in a squad that currently only has 6 orthodox defenders. 

 It can only be imagined that with the obvious goal of promotion, the board and management team don’t see Berardi as fitting the bill of someone who has Premier League potential. 

 He has been somewhat of an enigma throughout his Leeds career. Trusted by each of his NINE managers he has played for, he has been a dependable player fitting in many positions playing with a passion fit for the white shirt. He is known to be a big influence in the dressing room. Pontus Jansson recently described him as ‘a big brother’ in a recent interview. 

 This dependable nature is also ironic in contrast to the fact he has been sent off a club record EIGHT times. This ranges from the unfortunate at Millwall earlier this season that was subsequently overturned to the outrageous head butt on Bristol City’s Matty Taylor in 2017. 

 All of this though has seen Berardi become a cult hero amongst the fans, especially before Bielsa’s reign when reasons to be positive were thin on the ground. Playing on with blood soaked shirts, offering out the entire Huddersfield bench for a fight, he’s been a quiet leader, able to win fans affection without the need for screaming at the crowd after a satisfying crunching tackle alas Pontus Jansson. He first made a real impression amongst the fans during the infamous ‘sicknote 6’ incident before a game at Charlton in 2015 when he told his toxic army of foreign contemparies to fuck off and boarded the coach to London despite him actually being genuinely injured. 

For the sake of this argument, for me personally he gets into my modern day Leeds XI for the reasons above but for footballing reasons he doesn’t make my Leeds team now when the squad is fully fit. 

 So with every passing game, we may of seen the last of our enigmatic Swiss psychopath. Cult Hero? Liability? 

 Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below. 

By Lawrence O’Sullivan