Championship

Leeds United: Phil Hay on Max Gradel

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Image for Leeds United: Phil Hay on Max Gradel

Phil Hay of The Athletic has been discussing former Leeds United winger Max Gradel.

The Ivorian, who is now valued at £3.6 millionjoined the Whites from Leicester City in October 2009 on a free transfer and went on to play 82 times for the Yorkshire-based club, scoring 25 goals and providing his teammates with 13 assists (as per Transfermarkt.co.uk).

During a recent episode of The Phil Hay Show, in which listeners had voted to look back at the winger’s Leeds career, the journalist, alongside The Square Ball’s Dan Moylan and Michael Normanton, reminisced about the player’s time at Elland Road.

Hay told his fellow panellists: “Anyone you speak to who remembers Gradel from his time at Leeds just remembers him as the most loveable guy. Really easy to warm to, really full of life, full of fun, and a great, great footballer to boot – certainly at Championship level. I think alongside [Robert] Snodgrass and a couple of others, probably as good a player as we’ve seen at Leeds in these post-Premier League years.”

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Nice easy one to start off with, from which club did Leeds sign Hernandez?

Gradel left the club to sign for French side Saint-Etienne in August 2011 in a deal worth £1.8m (via Transfermarkt.co.uk), spending four years at the club before returning to the United Kingdom to play for Eddie Howe’s Bournemouth.

The Cherries paid £9m for the winger’s services but he only managed two goals in 27 appearances during what was his second spell down on the south coast.

Would Max Gradel have been a success in this current Leeds United side?

Yes

Yes

No

No

TIF Thoughts…

It’s clear that Hay remembers the player’s time at Elland Road fondly and to be fair to the Ivory Coast international, his record since returning to France with Toulouse has been impressive.

In 96 appearances, he has scored 28 goals and provided 17 assists for the side (via Transfermarkt.co.uk). At 32 years old, Gradel is still going strong and prior to the French season coming to a halt due to the global pandemic, he had averaged a solid performance rating of 6.77/10 (via WhoScored.com).

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