{"id":651684,"date":"2025-12-24T03:20:17","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T03:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/651684\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T03:20:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T03:20:17","slug":"throwback-to-leeds-ex-white-sees-similarity-at-new-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/651684\/","title":{"rendered":"Throwback To Leeds – Ex-White Sees Similarity At New Club"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Wood\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

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Former Leeds United<\/a> star Luke Ayling has revealed that playing under new Middlesbrough boss Kim Hellberg reminds him of his time with the Whites.<\/p>\n

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Ayling spent close to eight years with Leeds before joining Middlesbrough, initially on a loan, in 2024, and made himself a club legend in the process, with a glowing Whites message upon his exit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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He played under Daniel Farke, who dubbed his influence \u2018massive\u2019<\/a>, but most improved under the legendary Marcelo Bielsa as he helped Leeds back to the Premier League.<\/p>\n

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Bielsa came to Ayling\u2019s aid when his performances dipped and said the defender was \u2018a great player\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Ayling has now praised Hellberg\u2019s methods, saying that the Middlesbrough manager is constantly seeking to improve his squad.<\/p>\n

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Reminiscing about his time with Leeds, Ayling revealed that Hellberg\u2019s tactics are similar to those then-deployed at the Whites and said that he is greatly enjoying playing under such a manager.<\/p>\n

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Ayling was quoted as saying by Teesside Live<\/a>: \u201cI\u2019m absolutely loving it, to be honest.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a throwback to how we used to play at Leeds under our manager.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n Team Year Points <\/tr>\n\nReading (C)<\/td>\n2005\u201306<\/td>\n106<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nSunderland (C)<\/td>\n1998-99<\/td>\n105<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nNewcastle United (C)<\/td>\n2009\u201310<\/td>\n102<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nLeicester City (C)<\/td>\n2013\u201314<\/td>\n102<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nFulham (C)<\/td>\n2000\u201301<\/td>\n101<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nBurnley (C)<\/td>\n2022\u201323<\/td>\n101<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Top six most points total in Championship (from 1992-93);
(C) Champions <\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m really enjoying it. I can see him coming in every day. It\u2019s not so much about the results every day.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI feel like he\u2019s trying to improve us as players.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYounger players will learn so much from him.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI feel like the boys have really bought into the way he wants to play and the methods that he does it in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Hellberg, in his first press conference for Middlesbrough, credited Bielsa, along with Roberto De Zerbi, Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp, as being one of his inspirations.<\/p>\n

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Despite a 2-0 loss to Bristol City on Saturday, Middlesbrough are second in the Championship<\/a> standings and hold a five-point lead over the chasing pack.<\/p>\n

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Leeds meanwhile extended their purple patch, dispatching a high-flying Crystal Palace<\/a> side 4-1 at Elland Road.<\/p>\n

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Having stated last year that the period over which his association with Leeds ended was tough<\/a>, Ayling seems to have moved on from the difficult time and is able to recall happier memories with the Whites.<\/p>\n

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Ayling will want to help Middlesbrough to promotion, and hope that Leeds can ensure survival, enabling an emotional return to Elland Road next season in the Premier League.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Wood\/Getty Images \u00a0 Former Leeds United star Luke Ayling has revealed that playing under new Middlesbrough boss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-651684","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-leeds","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115772393939288614","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651684","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=651684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}