Who told Raphinha about Tim Krul?

After adding Tim Krul to his list of casualties this season, Raphinha made sure the goalkeeper got the message, settling a score most of us had probably forgotten about. In the immediate aftermath of Leeds’ 2-1 win at Norwich, Rapha posted a screenshot to his Instagram stories of a 2019 Daily Mail article in which Krul dismissed the hype around Marcelo Bielsa’s first season at Leeds, saying, “They are not Barcelona.” Raphinha wasn’t even at the club back then but wanted to put Krul straight, adding the caption, ‘No, we are not Barcelona. We are Leeds United.’

It was, let’s be clear, brilliant. Plenty of Leeds fans are worrying Rapha is quickly outgrowing the club, becoming bezzies with Neymar for Brazil and the Premier League’s latest hype man, but here he is reigniting beef from the Championship, when Leeds were still desperately striving to reach a position where they could buy footballers like him in the first place. Maybe we only need to worry about Raphinha leaving when Neymar is posting snake emojis over pictures of Garry Monk.

It was great, it was also confusing. What made Rapha want to put Krul in his place so emphatically? Which players told him what happened in February 2019? How long has he been secretly holding this grudge? Did he delete a draft saying ‘2-1, it’s yer ‘keeper’s fault’? I’ve been thinking of little else since.

It’s worth remembering just how fraught that night at Elland Road was. Leeds were top of the Championship before Norwich overtook them on goal difference with a 3-1 win. Leeds were wobbling post-Spygate and it was their fourth defeat in six matches. The collapse of Daniel James’ transfer from Swansea two days earlier hardly helped settle nerves, and Leeds shat the bed. You know it’s a bad night when Pablo Hernandez is replaced by Barry Douglas at half-time, while Jack Harrison was in his phase of routinely being subbed off at the break for Jack Clarke. Kalvin Phillips was an unused substitute as Adam Forshaw anchored the midfield, and Kiko Casilla, making his home debut, was the only player in the starting eleven to get more than a four in Phil Hay’s player ratings in the Yorkshire Evening Post. He got five, and the warning signs were there: ‘Done by deflections for goals one and two but the killer third from Vrancic went straight through him.’ Sounds like one of his better games.

For all the talk of burnout, Spygate and mental collapse, that loss also showed how much bad luck was a major contributor to Leeds ultimately missing out on promotion in Bielsa’s first season. While Norwich scored twice via deflections in the first half, Leeds had fifteen shots towards Krul’s goal. Leeds ended the game with 21 shots to fourteen and 63% of possession, but were unable to score until Patrick Bamford, who earlier hit the bar, headed in a stoppage-time corner. Krul was at the centre of frustration throughout. He could have been sent off for flying into Tyler Roberts outside the penalty box, connecting with none of the ball and all of the player, and was deemed to have been fouled by Pontus Jansson as Luke Ayling had a goal disallowed. Intent on proving himself Norwich’s enforcer, he later squared up to the intimidating figures of Kemar Roofe and Patrick Bamford before giving it the big one to the Daily Mail.

Krul’s much quieter now Norwich are destined to return to their spiritual home of the Championship after they yet again waste everyone’s time in the top flight. He hasn’t posted on Twitter or Instagram since October 16th. It turns out there are only so many times you can take the positives and move onto the next one after a defeat.

Rapha’s story is still there for all to see as part of his Instagram highlights, but I’m still trying to work out what prompted it in the first place. Was it just the adrenaline of scoring and winning, mixed with frustration that it should have been more comfortable? Or were the players reminiscing about their last visit to the pink away dressing room of Carrow Road and remembering what a cringeworthy bunch of losers Norwich are? One of only four Leeds players to start in both games, Harrison is one suspect; his haircut and poor performances are straight out of 2018/19, so maybe he’s feeling nostalgic.

Alas, the smoking gun has Bamford’s fingerprints all over it. Leeds’ goalscorer that night was a surprise inclusion in the squad after missing the previous seven matches with what is known in medical circles as a knackered knee. Bamford was still in his annoying sanctimonious schoolboy phase. Discussing his clash with Krul after the final whistle, Bamford lived up to all the cliches about him, saying, “We’ve got to make sure and realise — and you don’t really realise in the moment — that there are a lot of kids watching in the stands and on TV. Putting your head against somebody, even if it’s nothing, is all about egos and it’s not setting a good example to the kids.” Three years of listening to the words, ‘Get into ‘em, fuck ‘em up,’ at Leeds has helped Bamford do a lot of growing up since then, transforming him into a rough and ready centre-forward who loves going into battle against brutish defenders.

Bamford may not have been available for the win this weekend, but that won’t have stopped him DMing Rapha with a screenshot of the Daily Mail article, knowing some words of motivation would help our star player go full gunslinger. Some might argue Raphinha’s Instagram post was petty and unsportsmanlike, but they’re wrong. Rapha was teaching the kids watching in the stands and on TV a valuable life lesson. Does anyone know the Portuguese for ‘chat shit, get banged’? ⬢