Illan Meslier was re-established himself as Leeds United number one this season after a return to form
Illan Meslier insists the guilt of Leeds United’s Premier League relegation was why he so keen to stay at Elland Road this summer. After struggling for form and traction in the Whites fold last season, Meslier was one of those expected to leave West Yorkshire by many this summer in favour of pastures new.
The Frenchman was linked with a move back to the top flight with Chelsea one club rumoured to be interested in his signature at the start of the transfer window. According to the club’s chief executive Angus Kinnear in last week’s interview with The Square Ball, he did have opportunities to leave, too, with the club fielding an offer of over £20m.
Unlike some of last season’s teammates, though, Meslier felt the best course of action for him was to stick around with the Whites and redeem himself by helping the club bounce back from relegation under the guidance of Daniel Farke.
Sometimes it is difficult to leave when the club is going down,” Meslier told the Leeds United official podcast. “Of course inside you feel guilty because I played most of the games and unfortunately the results were not good.
“Also, it wasn’t good for me maybe to leave and just leave the club in the second division. You go somewhere to play and see them in the middle of the table in the second division, you think ‘oh no’, you contribute to this result.
I think the best result for me, personally, inside myself, was like ‘OK, stay, play, big performance and try to give your best to put Leeds in the first two places to be promoted directly and let’s see after’.”
He’s certainly going the right way about that at present, returning to form and seeing off the competition of new arrival Karl Darlow to reclaim the club’s number one status. A first clean sheet since February last time out against Sheffield Wednesday represented a huge step forward individually and he’s keen to see Leeds make more progress under Farke in the coming weeks.
“Everyone is just thinking about the idea of the boss and we know how we want to play,” he added. “It’s just good that everyone is printing the idea that we want to put into the game. Now we will try to have the full squad ready for the next few games and try to beat every opponent.”
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