“If you don’t want to be here, then fuck off,” Liam Cooper commanded, an emphatic call to arms following a miserable season culminating in relegation. The last thing Leeds needed was people in the dressing room uncommitted to the fight that lay ahead. The second to last thing Leeds needed was everyone fucking off.

Coops might have felt slightly awkward, as scores of his peers listened to his words then called their agents and engineered moves faster than most of us can see a GP. What was intended to be a rallying cry became little more than a dinner bell for hungry clubs looking for unhappy players to poach. The uncomfortable question is still lingering — why did everyone want to go?

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