In his latest column for leedsunited.com, lifelong supporter Jon Howe looks at the progression of Stuart Dallas.

Howe is the author of two books on the club, 2015 hit ‘The Only Place For Us: An A-Z History of Elland Road’ and ‘All White: Leeds United’s 100 Greatest Players’ in 2012.



For everyone connected to Leeds United, the summer of 2018 was a period of time we will find endlessly fascinating. It was a turning point in the club’s fortunes, in our lives as long-suffering supporters, but also in the careers of a number of players. It was a Road to Damascus moment when they could either sink or swim.

A lot of players probably didn’t realise it at the time, but they faced a crossroads in their careers during the summer of 2018. Leeds United was a club where there was pressure and it was difficult to handle, but it had become something of a comfort zone; somewhere players could spend a couple of seasons, pick up 40 or 50 appearances and move on with the name ‘Leeds United’ on their CV, to see out a respectable career at clubs with much less expectation. It said as much about Leeds United as them, that this situation was allowed to fester for so long.

Many of the players we are watching in the white shirt today faced that scenario; decent pros doing their best, but finding the titanic struggle of reversing the fortunes of a behemoth like Leeds United potentially beyond them. Stuart Dallas could have become another incidental footnote in Leeds United’s history at that point, so too a number of other players who fans had become conditioned to seeing disappear through a revolving door.

But something changed in the summer of 2018, and yes, of course that ‘something’ was Marcelo Bielsa, and whilst he had clearly seen things he liked in the players he retained during that blistering, dizzying and incomprehensibly intense crash course in Bielsaball, those players still had to deliver.  Famously, we know that Bielsa had watched every game from the previous season before he even landed the Leeds job, so he arrived with preconceived opinions and ideas, but he didn’t know the players’ characters and attitudes. He didn’t know which players would be able to cope mentally and physically with a cornucopia of technical information and his incessant fitness demands, and those players still had to find it within themselves to reach certain standards and maintain them, every day.

For this reason we should have eternal respect for the players who have ‘cut it’ with Bielsa, just because the requirements to prevail are so exacting, and because the fundamental obligation to raise standards cannot be found in everyone. The players rejected in that summer period may look back with regret that they didn’t or couldn’t buy-in to the standards required, but those that did have taken a path that has led to a perpetual status amongst Leeds fans few of them every imagined they would enjoy.

It is no surprise, therefore, that many of those players are likely to make the 200-game mark for Leeds United. Liam Cooper was the first to breach the double century, and in starting last weekend’s 0-0 draw with Arsenal, Stuart Dallas became the second. In a period of much uncertainty and short-termism at the club, it follows that in the 16 years outside the top flight only Jonny Howson and Luciano Becchio reached 200 appearances for Leeds, and that some long overdue stability and progression will soon bring a rush of others, with Kalvin Phillips and Luke Ayling likely to be the next two.

But Stuart Dallas reaching the 200-mark is perhaps as big an achievement as any of those, because Dallas has been on a journey within a journey. He started only 13 games in Bielsa’s first season but worked to establish himself as an indispensable fixture in the following promotion campaign, missing just one league game all season (Blackburn away). That he did this with no fixed position to call his own, is one of the most singularly impressive triumphs of the Bielsa tenure.

Bielsa calls him “generous” and “brave”, but the virtues of Stuart Dallas are as much about the sacrifices he has made for Leeds United, and we don’t mean being the first player to sport a fully-grown beard when they were barely fashionable all the way back in 2015. Under Bielsa, all the players have made sacrifices in terms of their lifestyle, dedication and isolation from family and normal life, but Dallas has done so whilst being a dependable asset in any position he has been asked to fulfil. Signed by Uwe Rosler in a period which feels like it happened in some other form of reality, he started his Leeds career operating on either attacking flank. But under Bielsa, Dallas has proved to be a more than worthwhile deputy for Luke Ayling at right back, and then became the first choice left back. He has also played his part in various midfield positions.

Of course it is a pre-requisite of playing under Bielsa that you can fulfil a variety of different roles on the pitch – often within a ten minute period of the game – but when Bielsa always seems to find a place for Dallas in the team, whatever the position, you know you have a rare commodity that you should cherish.

The inescapable comparison is with Paul Madeley, who was dubbed the ‘Eleven Pauls’ because he could operate to the same standard in any position, and did so for Leeds via 726 appearances. Madeley is rarely named in the ‘classic’ Revie Xl and yet he was almost always in it. He played everywhere but goalkeeper, and you get the feeling Stuart Dallas could and would do a decent job of covering for Patrick Bamford or Liam Cooper in a crisis, and other than between the sticks, he has filled in capably everywhere else.

Revie called Madeley his “Rolls Royce”, and it was the perfect label that has stood the test of time. He was graceful, flawless and refined in anything you asked of him; the best of class. I don’t know much about cars, and I’m guessing Marcelo Bielsa cares little for them either, but there must be a model of vehicle that perfectly describes the ‘8/10 every week’ reliability, the ‘side before self’ humility and the considerate world view and empathy of Stuart Dallas? A “practical, reliable family car with a powerful engine, excellent on all terrains, cost-efficient on fuel economy and good CO2 emissions, perhaps with a decent boot capacity for long weekends away”. It’s not as catchy as “Rolls Royce”, but it will do for now.

With his performances over the last two seasons Stuart Dallas has become a respected statesman for the best Leeds United team in a generation. This is because he stepped up when others didn’t.

There is no hiding place when Marcelo Bielsa lays down his requirements and challenges you to deliver. And when there is always a place for you in the team, you can go man-for-man for 90 minutes as if your life depended on it and your heat map is like an explosion in a red paint factory, then there is no hiding the eleven Stuarts either.