“Just TALK, just TALK. TELL her!” Doncaster Rovers Belles manager Sam Winch told his number 9 midway through the first half against Leeds United. Jasmine Saxton was tentatively pressing Whites keeper Carrie Simpson. It wasn’t the day to be making unnecessary efforts, much too hot to bust a sweat without reinforcements.

Following the sudden departure of Leeds United manager Rick Passmoor, the Whites can be grateful that his legacy is knowing the value of a good chat.

Few living things can create such noise as Passmoor from the technical box, who shook the foundations of the i2i, the Whites’ former home in Tadcaster, as he let everyone know what they were supposed to be doing. Rebekah Bass would be giving it a pretty good go next to him on the bench, channelling all her desire to affect her girlhood team through her voice box while the wait for a functioning knee dragged on. When Bass tore almost every ligament going in January, Leeds United lost their captain and a very able defender, but gained a passionate coaching prodigy who could go decibel-for-decibel with Passmoor.

Football was cruel to Bass, and it was cruel again at the start of this season when a bigger, richer team picked off the talented manager who had Leeds on track to fly up the leagues, leaving Bass to make the noise on the sidelines alongside some combination women’s academy coach Simon Wood, goalkeeping coach Nick Dingwall and general manager Julie Lewis, an interim trio in charge until the club finds Passmoor’s permanent replacement.

As the club treads water, trusting the players and caretakers to protect United’s season while they work out what to do next, many will wonder what could have been this year. United’s mid-table finish after Passmoor’s first season in charge disguised the manager’s success. Leeds reached the fourth round of the FA Cup, and the ultimate round of the FAWNL Plate, dominating Stourbridge in the final to bring home the Whites’ first piece of silverware since Passmoor led them to the 2010 League Cup trophy during his first stint with United.

His ambition remained high. Reflecting on an emphatic Plate final win, Passmoor described his team as “a work in progress”. His project was not finished, the Plate a mere taste of what promised to be a stronger, more successful second season at Leeds.

In August, United’s opening day win over Stockport County confirmed the trend. But then Passmoor’s phone rang. Only appointed this summer, West Ham United manager Rehanne Skinner was on the line offering a chance to create something new, with plenty of resources and the likes of Australian World Cup star Mackenzie Arnold already in the squad.

If nostalgia inspired Passmoor’s return to Leeds United, then it could motivate him to leave, too – now the former Scunthorpe defender is back in claret and blue, cheering for a different Iron in a division where he feels at home, having once been named the Women’s Super League manager of the season.

“I knew instantly that this would be a fantastic opportunity for me,” Passmoor told West Ham’s website. With Skinner, he said, “We both know what direction we would like to take the club in and, although it won’t happen overnight, we have a chance to build something special here and I’m really looking forward to being a part of that.”

The speed of Passmoor’s move was an instant delight for him but catastrophic for Leeds United, whose work with Passmoor came to a sudden stop with no chance to plot a succession plan. It’s tough to unexpectedly get the next move right in the wake of someone brilliant.

While Bass does an effective impression of the vocal coach, when Passmoor left for London he took some skills that were irreplaceable. In conversation with The Extra Ball, Leeds United captain Olivia Smart described Passmoor as “categorically the best people manager in football I’ve ever met. And there are people in England teams, WSL teams, people who are retired who will say the same.”

Though the game has changed since his last top-flight job, there aren’t lots of managers kicking around with five years’ experience of coaching the country’s best players – and he is certainly the only manager of his calibre with emotional ties to draw him to Leeds United, so any moves to attract a like-for-like swap will have to take a different shape.

This weekend, Andrea Radrizanni’s new club Sampdoria gave in, reinstating their female outfit after it was the first thing to go amid financial constriction earlier this summer. It’s likely that 49ers Enterprises have grander ambitions for United’s women’s side, but the Whites’ new owners probably didn’t imagine they’d have to make a managerial statement of intent this early in their tenure.

After Newcastle United semi-professionalised their way out of Leeds’ division last summer, it’s clear that money means more than ‘the right appointment’, but an appointment who fills Passmoor’s shoes will be costly.

While the 49ers mull over their priorities, the women’s side are having to redefine theirs after losing their leader. Fresh from learning of Passmoor’s departure, the Whites suffocated Leek Town in the FAWNL Cup last week. They were on course for a tougher challenge on Sunday at Doncaster Rovers Belles, who had begun their own hunt to restore former glory with a 7-1 opening day win over FC United of Manchester.

Even without Passmoor, Leeds made it look simple. Belles keeper Eleanor Sharpe kept the scoreline decent for the hosts, but couldn’t stop United stealing all three points as Kathryn Smith’s header and Paige Williams’ brace gave Leeds a well-deserved 3-1 victory.

Passmoor’s presence is a big miss for Leeds, but they’re not short of voices nor, as Williams insists, new reasons to win games of football.

“We’ve just got to be patient. We said in the changing rooms from the start – we’ve just got to fight for each other, we play for the badge, we play for each other, we’re all friends and family.

“We see each other probably more than we see our own friends and family outside of football, so if anything that’s the thing we need to utilise to give us the passion and inspiration to get the results that we need on the weekends.” ⬢