{"id":163200,"date":"2025-06-06T14:52:16","date_gmt":"2025-06-06T14:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/163200\/"},"modified":"2025-06-06T14:52:16","modified_gmt":"2025-06-06T14:52:16","slug":"james-trafford-makes-honest-leeds-united-admission-after-what-a-ball-boy-told-him-on-the-final-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/163200\/","title":{"rendered":"James Trafford makes honest Leeds United admission after what a ball boy told him on the final day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leeds United and Burnley both secured 100 points to gain promotion back to the Premier League, with Leeds pipping the Clarets on final day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Manor Solomon scored in added time against Plymouth Argyle to win Leeds United<\/a> the league, with Burnley coming from 1-0 down to lead Millwall 3-1 heading into the 90th minute.<\/p>\n

In the eyes of many, James Trafford was one of the main reasons it was so close between the two clubs. Trafford has been called \u2018world class\u2019 by Scott Parker<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Leeds had better underlying data than Burnley and, were it not for Trafford\u2019s heroics<\/a> and his consistently excellent performances, it would have been much easier for Leeds<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by Robbie Jay Barratt \u2013 AMA\/Getty ImagesBurnley goalkeeper James Trafford makes final day admission regarding Leeds\u2019 title win<\/p>\n

His level of performance has put him in strong contention for England. Trafford and Dan James were two nominees for Championship Player of the Season<\/a>, which was won by Sheffield United\u2019s Gus Hamer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s previously been reported that Leeds are interested in Trafford<\/a>\u00a0who led the Championship for clean sheets this\u00a0season with 29 \u2014 a record in the second tier.<\/p>\n

That underpinned their success and almost saw them snatch the title on final day back in May. Since then, Trafford has spoken on the \u2018Fozcast \u2013 The Ben Foster Podcast\u2019 and explained his thoughts.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe Millwall game, it was a weird game to be fair. Obviously, we knew we wanted to win and try and win the league \u2014 because it\u2019s always better winning the league than coming second.<\/p>\n

MORE LEEDS UNITED STORIES<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we knew Leeds were probably going to beat Plymouth. Plymouth were more or less relegated \u2014 and Leeds were massively in-form.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the sort of murmurs while the game\u2019s going on are like, \u2018Leeds are losing\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou think, \u2018oh, we\u2019ve got a chance here\u2019. Then, at the end of the game, a ball boy told me it was 2-1.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like, \u2018ah, bloody hell\u2019. It was a bit anticlimactic the end of that game. We did our celebrating after we beat Sheffield [United].<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause that was to gain promotion and our main goal was promotion. All we wanted to do was promotion.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it would\u2019ve been nicer to win the league but it is what it is.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it was a bit anticlimactic after the Millwall game because our big joy was the Sheffield game. It was like, \u2018right, we have achieved what we want. Now, go and win something else\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThrough no fault of our own, because we won both of our last two games, but so did Leeds.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PhotoPhoto by OLI SCARFF\/AFP via Getty ImagesJames Trafford could help Leeds to secure Nick Pope<\/p>\n

Newcastle United want Trafford to replace Nick Pope<\/a> in goal, with the 22-year-old so highly coveted in English football right now and deserving of a step up already.<\/p>\n

The problem is, despite Leeds\u2019 Pope interest, Eddie Howe wants to keep him<\/a>. The Newcastle boss wants him to challenge Trafford\u2019s place, but Pope might want to maintain regular first-team football.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old is still more than good enough to play consistently for a Premier League<\/a> side and that could well be Leeds if Newcastle\u2019s stance changes by signing Trafford.<\/p>\n

It would also weaken Burnley, which could make it a win-win given that he is arguably their best player and primary hope of keeping them in the division next season.<\/p>\n

It remains to be seen how it all unfolds, but Leeds will hope things materialise in a way where they are stronger and a relegation rival is weaker.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leeds United and Burnley both secured 100 points to gain promotion back to the Premier League, with Leeds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":163201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,62012,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-163200","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-james-trafford","12":"tag-leeds","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114636989757973623","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/163201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}