Flippin’ Heck!

Now Largie Ramazani is back from injury, maybe some amateur acrobatics are what we need to add a bit of razzmatazz to this season, even if his backflips do make Daniel Farke wince. Rob Conlon looks back on a proud Leeds United tradition of ropey roly-polies and cack-handed cartwheels.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink

There’s a school of thought that Hasselbaink’s time at Leeds can be neatly divided into two acts: his first season, when he giddily celebrated every goal with a gleeful cartwheel, as surprised as the rest of us that we had the most lethal finisher in the Premier League; and his second season, when he looked permanently furious, scowling after every strike, his mind presumably on the uncashed cheques awaiting him at Chelsea.

That’s not quite the case, though. Even when Hasselbaink was cartwheeling through his debut campaign in England, he looked pretty miserable, as if he regretted making the celebration his trademark. That might have been because he was quite bad at cartwheels — his arms were a blur of motion, and a warning sign to get out of his way, but the parabola of his legs barely got high enough to scrape a toddler’s chin. It’s a lesson for us all. When the fun stops, stop.

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