{"id":177071,"date":"2025-06-12T00:53:21","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T00:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/177071\/"},"modified":"2025-06-12T00:53:21","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T00:53:21","slug":"ilia-gruev-throws-his-own-leeds-united-future-into-doubt-with-comments-after-4-0-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/177071\/","title":{"rendered":"Ilia Gruev throws his own Leeds United future into doubt with comments after 4-0 defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ilia Gruev suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat with Bulgaria on Tuesday night in a friendly against Greece in Crete, with the Leeds United player playing a full 90 minutes for his country.<\/strong><\/p>\n

An up-and-down season has come to an end for Gruev<\/a>, who clocked up 31 appearances for club and country despite spending more than three months on the sidelines after undergoing knee surgery.<\/p>\n

Obviously, Gruev played a key role during the promotion run-in for Leeds<\/a> with Pascal Struijk and Joe Rothwell injured. The \u00a34m signing, though, endured a poor end to his season with the National Team.<\/p>\n

In their first game, Bulgaria conceded a late equaliser to draw 2-2 with Cyprus before being hammered 4-0 by a Greece side that contained Leeds transfer target Konstantinos Tsimikas<\/a>. Gruev spoke afterwards.<\/p>\n

\"LeedsPhoto by Alex Dodd \u2013 CameraSport via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Next season, Gruev\u2019s place in the side will be under threat. With everyone fit, Ethan Ampadu and Ao Tanaka start for Leeds in midfield anyway, and new midfield signings are expected in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

Leeds have made a bid for Strasbourg captain Habib Diarra<\/a>, a move which would push Gruev down the pecking order. If Jaka Bijol signs, the need for Ampadu in defence lessens and keeps Gruev on the bench.<\/p>\n

As per BNT News<\/a>, Gruev said his nation\u2019s form will only improve if the players picked are playing regularly for their teams. With Gruev likely to be on the bench next season, he placed his own future in doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the national team, you don\u2019t have much time to work. It\u2019s important for the players to play regularly for their teams and to perform at such a level. We have a tough group, but we will give everything we can. <\/p>\n

MORE LEEDS UNITED STORIES<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Greeks deservedly beat us, and they could have scored more. Unfortunately, this is the reality,\u201d the Leeds midfielder continued, immediately after his country were easily beaten in Tuesday night\u2019s outing.<\/p>\n

\"RepublicPhoto by Tim Clayton\/Corbis via Getty ImagesWhat Ilia Gruev has said about a return to the Bundesliga<\/p>\n

Leeds signed Gruev from Werder Bremen in Daniel Farke\u2019s<\/a> first summer at Elland Road<\/a>, costing a bargain fee of \u00a34m. Since then, he has more than proved that fee, proving to be a reliable, trustworthy option.<\/p>\n

Now, Gruev has two years left on his contract and towards the end of the 2024-25 season, Gruev said the Bundesliga remains \u201cvery attractive\u201d to him<\/a> but wants to sample the Premier League<\/a> with Farke\u2019s side.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Premier League would be an absolute dream for me. I want to play in the best league in the world. I find the Bundesliga very attractive but, for now, I want to continue proving myself in England,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But Gruev\u2019s comments are alarming and point to his own future at Leeds. If, by his own mantra, Gruev wants to play well for his country then he will need to leave, because he won\u2019t be a regular next term.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilia Gruev suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat with Bulgaria on Tuesday night in a friendly against Greece in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,47271,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-177071","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-ilia-gruev","12":"tag-leeds","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114667664740547015","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177071","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=177071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}