If Leeds United are wanting to be ‘aggressive’ in this summer transfer window, then signing a centre-back – the most aggressive of all positions – makes sense. Liam Cooper’s injury on the opening day only exacerbated the need to sign some bloody footballers, but who was it going to be?

Nat Phillips had been most regularly linked, but a Liverpool reserve called Nathaniel who used to play for Bournemouth and has the face of a greengrocer was never going to be aggressive enough. AZ Alkmaar’s Pantelis Chatzidiakos was also mentioned as a potential target, but it felt like his name had been found scribbled on a notepad left in Victor Orta’s office.

Instead, Joe Rodon is our guy, loaned in from Spurs, with the tattoos, earrings, and blonde highlights of a man dragged straight out of Tiger Tiger. And tigers are pretty damn aggressive, if you ask me.

Career so far

A Swansea season ticket holder and Lee Trundle fanboy growing up, Rodon came through that club’s academy alongside Dan James, and was coached by former Leeds loanee/Garry Monk clone Alan Tate. While Swansea were busy getting relegated from the Premier League in 2017/18, Rodon went on loan to Cheltenham before a couple of seasons in the Champo put some hairs on his chest and earned him an £11m move to Tottenham.

Rodon was given opportunities at Spurs under Jose Mourinho but fell out of favour under their replacement miserabilist Antonio Conte, and spent last season on loan in Ligue 1 with Rennes, who had the option to sign him permanently for €20m but couldn’t afford it.

He’s basically a slightly older Ethan Ampadu, having played almost the same amount of games for club and country. And we already like Ethan Ampadu!

Do we have history?

After breaking into the first team under Graham Potter, one of Rodon’s earliest appearances for Swansea was against Leeds as they became the first team to earn a point against Marcelo Bielsa’s Peacocks in a 2-2 draw at the Liberty Stadium. Rodon was praised for his performance, even if he kindly failed to stop Pat Bamford’s cross for Pablo Hernandez’s late equaliser.

The hype around Rodon was continuing to grow when he came to Elland Road a year later. Steve Cooper was in Swansea’s dugout as they shithoused a late 1-0 to subject Leeds to their first defeat of the season and replace us at the top of the Championship.

Rodon was named Swansea’s player of the match, but he was already dreaming of playing at Elland Road more often, telling South Wales Online: “The more games I’m playing, like with Leeds away, it’s a very big atmosphere and it’s only going to help you on and off the pitch the further you go.”

Best moment

Rodon played eight of Rennes’ first nine matches in Ligue 1 last season, only to drop out of the team after being sent off in the final minutes of a 3-0 win over Nantes. He missed the next eight league fixtures, then returned for the daunting visit of PSG. The Death Star of French football had Leo Messi and Neymar in attack, and brought Kylian Mbappe off the bench, but they still couldn’t find a way past Rodon as Rennes snatched a 1-0 win. He told The Times:

“I loved every minute of that game, playing against top players like that. They played the young striker [Hugo] Ekitike up top at first and they had Neymar coming off the left and Messi coming off the right. Then they brought Mbappe on when they couldn’t score, so it got even more difficult. In the last few minutes I’ll admit we were wasting time and just seeing out the result.

“In the game you’re so focused and locked in you don’t get time to think about the names and the players you’re up against, because if you switch off, they punish you. After the game you realise you’ve just beaten a top team, it was a very proud achievement for me and the team. It’s an experience that will stay with me for the rest of my life.”

If he can do that, he’ll be fine against Jordan Rhodes, right?

Worst moment

Tottenham have existed in a permanent state of existential crisis for the majority of the time I’ve been following football, so playing in their defence can’t have been easy, especially when Rodon was having to partner Eric Dier. In a 3-1 defeat to Liverpool in January 2021, Spurs were threatening a comeback only for Rodon’s costly mistake to allow Sadio Mane to score Liverpool’s third.

Mourinho still had his back, describing Rodon as “a brave boy” who had played “very, very good”. “Next game he plays for sure,” Mourinho said afterwards, which was far more sympathetic than Conte, who gave him all of nine minutes of Premier League football.

“It was a difficult time,” Joe said. “It’s never easy for a player when the manager changes. I didn’t play anywhere near as much as I wanted to, but the manager did speak to me and keep me part of the group. I learned a lot during that time.”

I’m not sure whether that was better or worse for Rodon than being completely fed up of listening to Gareth Bale’s insistence that aliens exist, or the time he went to Africa and “slept on a bookshelf for four weeks“.

Rate the announcement

Fair play to Leeds for teasing his signing with this photo, because after the Max Aarons saga it felt like there was as much chance of this being the return of Jason Pearce as the arrival of Rodon:

pic.twitter.com/X1d7TMm07V

— Leeds United (@LUFC) August 10, 2023

Dan James seemed to be as relieved as we were:

"See you next weekend, be good for your mum." #lufc pic.twitter.com/zcjtkU7a0E

— MrPaulRobinson (@MrPaulRobinson) August 10, 2023

How will they win us over?

There are plenty of clips on Tottenham’s YouTube channel of Rodon chatting with Gareth Bale and Ben Davies and coming across as a funny, normal, relatable bloke, unlike the robotic gap year shitebags who have left us over the summer.

At Spurs, he formed the ‘Welsh Mafia’ with Bale, Davies, and honorary member Son Heung-min, so maybe he could form something similar at Leeds with Dan James, Ethan Ampadu, and Luis Sinisterra, and inspire a resurgence of the city’s ancestral roots as the Kingdom of Elmet.

Either that, or just help us keep some clean sheets and stuff. ⬢