Just to prove that football never stops, there was Illan Meslier in Romania last night, watching from the bench as France’s Under-21s crossed swords with Italy. Three-and-a-half weeks on from Leeds United’s relegation, with the fixtures for the next English season already released, and still the games keep coming for those in national colours.
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That Meslier was on the bench was not in itself a good sign, a regular pick for France’s junior side demoted behind Lille’s Lucas Chevalier, and if ever a player needed to take stock, Meslier is it. He got a rest of sorts after Leeds drew a veil over a horrible Premier League year, getting away for a brief break in Miami, but his call-up for the European Under-21 Championship could occupy him until July 8. The end of his stint of internationals will only bring the start working out what comes next for him.
Leeds are clear that they expect Meslier, their first-choice goalkeeper for all but seven games of the past three seasons, to leave in this transfer window. They are not pressing him to leave or actively fishing for offers — to date, no concrete bid has been tabled — but they will take the money if an agreeable fee is presented to them and they are planning for the Championship with the assumption that somebody intends to take him. There is a mutual feeling that a departure might be for the best.
Meslier cuts a figure who could benefit from new pastures. Leeds cut a club who need more surety in the role he occupies. None of this is to say that Meslier is not a big talent or that on paper he does not have strong credentials. He is more experienced than most 23-year-olds in his position. He has 117 league appearances behind him at Leeds and all but 10 of those were made in the Premier League. Of the keepers who played regularly in the division last season, Gavin Bazunu at Southampton was the only one who was younger than Meslier and the spread of ages was such that even David Raya at Brentford was made to look fairly young at 27.
Leeds pushed Meslier and pushed him hard, sooner than many clubs would have done with a prospect so raw at the outset but by the time Sam Allardyce dropped him, Meslier was like General Custer, besieged and peppered with arrows in his hat.
Different coaches take a different view of goalkeeping attributes, like Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton & Hove Albion. Robert Sanchez, hitherto a good asset for Brighton, lost his place there because De Zerbi looked at Jason Steele and decided Steele would cope better with the uber-passing theory the head coach was trying to teach.
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Allardyce’s decision to drop Meslier for the final four games of Leeds’ campaign probably followed a more basic train of thought. Leeds were conceding a ludicrous number of goals, Meslier’s body language oozed little confidence and whether the greater share of the fault lay with him or not, the state of play was desperate and something had to change.
But even so, Joel Robles was more about the basics and the fundamentals of keeping the ball out of the net (not that turning to him made any difference). Robles was a more Allardyce keeper and perhaps that change was preordained, without Allardyce having to look at them much.
Allardyce said Meslier was “not happy” at losing his place, which might have been putting it mildly, but people around the club say Meslier took the knock well enough. The club’s pool of keepers were in the habit of working collaboratively together and carried on as before.
Data analysis, though, showed that Meslier was conceding more goals than he should have been. Even allowing for a defence which did not seem to know how to defend, Meslier’s individual record was justification enough for Allardyce to consider the switch. The sign of Meslier plateauing, if not going backwards, fostered the idea that a change of scene was necessary.
It might have come to that this summer whether Leeds were relegated or not. Like many other things at Elland Road, Meslier is an example of how plans laid down on paper have not worked out in practice. A year ago, Leeds cashed in on Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips, no longer willing to do incoming transfer business without selling certain players at the same time.
Other names were off limits, including Meslier’s, but Leeds discussed the possibility that when this transfer window came around, selling him would be a way of securing fresh funds to reinvest. It would also address the fact that Meslier’s ambitions might outgrow theirs. Ideally, his form would be strong and his value would peak as much as it could for a footballer of his age. The market for him would be wide and a big fee would be useful. None of that came to pass.
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There is, still, a market for Meslier but not quite as active as it would have been had Leeds put him up for sale this time last year. Tottenham Hotspur have watched him closely for a few seasons, but they appear to have found their man elsewhere, as they close in on a deal for Empoli’s Guglielmo Vicario.
Links to Chelsea a few weeks back seemed to be prompted by Meslier being asked about him rejecting an offer from Stamford Bridge when he was at Lorient. Meslier’s only comment on how the summer will pan out for him was to say that while a takeover of Leeds by 49ers Enterprises was pending, he could not be certain of anything. “For the moment, I have my contract until 2026,” he told RMC Sport in France. “After that, I will have to think about what is best for me, whether that’s at Leeds United or another club.”
There are others in that boat at Elland Road, a raft of players who need the clarity of a completed takeover and, more significantly now, a decision on a new head coach to grease the wheels on the recruitment front.
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Meslier, for all that the last two seasons have weighed heavily on him, continues to be well-regarded in the game. He was schooled in a very modern style of goalkeeping by Marcelo Bielsa and there is a view that, among keepers in a comparative age category, he possesses more potential than most. He is a worthwhile investment, a potential source of cash, and Leeds anticipate that attention on him will increase when the window gets going in earnest next month. To that end, they are on the lookout for keepers themselves — and open to the idea of retaining Robles beyond the end of a deal which officially expires next week.
Romania, then, can be something of a shop window for Meslier, provided his omission last night is not France’s starting line-up set in stone; an international tournament which scouts flock to, follow closely and feed back from readily. This is his last hurrah with France’s under-21s, his last round of games before he is no longer eligible for that age group. And the French, with typically high standards, expect to go far.
France’s senior coach, Didier Deschamps, had talked about moving Meslier up to the full squad once the summer was done and Hugo Lloris’ international retirement is sparking a renewed fight for places but it might be that Meslier is asked to reassert himself on the club scene first, demonstrating that his trials are no more than a bad patch. It was not the future as anyone at Leeds saw it, even though they always suspected that their future and Meslier’s would one day lie apart.
(Top photo: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)