'Phenomenal' - New Leeds United 'issue' no concern and truth if team miss top two: David Prutton

But when I think back to my days as a player, it's a great position to be in. In the Leeds team that I was part of, how many times could you say ‘international break so there's hardly any players around?’

We didn't have an international break because it was League One and also it was a completely different complexion of squad. It's a bigger football club now, it's a bigger football team now than the League One variation that I was part of. I think it's a great reflection on the standard of players that they have got.

The international players would have been in various states of emotion. But that being said, I think it's a very positive thing. It shows the size of the club and the aspiration of the club.

At this stage of the season, I know that training is important and I know that Daniel Farke places a huge responsibility on it. But Leeds are up and running, they are well into the final straight, they know each other's games inside out. It just needs them to be able to handle the physical and emotional side of it.

Also, you take someone like Dan James who is going to have had a very emotional week given what he has been through with Wales. And Ethan Ampadu, Joe Rodon and Connor Roberts as well. Part of it is managing that. But footballers have got a great knack of compartmentalising and moving on and that's what they are going to have to do.

I wouldn't have any concerns about the issue of a lack of team training going into these next two games against Watford and Hull City. I chat a lot about Hull City and the makeup of their squad and what they've got. I've got a lot of time for their manager Liam Rosenior. And Watford under Tom Cleverley have got very experienced players. But Leeds should be beating Watford, they absolutely should be beating Watford.

The Hull City game is a slightly different vibe because you have got a team there gunning to get back into the play-offs and there's a Yorkshire derby element and all that type of stuff. But if Leeds have aspirations and not just aspirations but wholehearted determination to go up in the top two then they absolutely should be boxing these games off.

Leeds will now be without Pascal Struijk for the promotion race run-in following surgery for the defender. As and when the permutations of the team changed, he seemed to be one that could slot in in different places. He strikes me as a tremendously likable member of the squad and one of the players that was still here after the abomination of dropping out of the Premier League in the way that they did.

There's lots to like about him and it's unfortunate for him both as a player and a person in isolation but also unfortunate for Leeds because a player of that quality only adds to the depth of the squad. It's disappointing but obviously you look to the future and hope he's better and hope that by the time he is fit he is playing Premier League football.

Speaking of the future, we have seen both Archie Gray and Mateo Joseph excel in their first outings at under-21s level for England and Spain respectively in this last break. I think if you have got young kids that are excelling at international level then it's a great reflection on the quality that they have got.

You have got to take Archie first because what he has done this season has been nothing short of phenomenal - establishing himself and showing us all what he's capable of in a position which is not his real position at right back. Plus just the way that the kid has gone about it, the way that the family has handled the situation, the pressure, the exposure.

Mateo is another part of the squad and when you look across the breadth and the depth of the attack options then he’s going to have to bide his time. But you have got a player there that is established as a young kid and a player there that is hungry to be established as a young kid which can only speak wonderful volumes for the future of Leeds.

Leeds have taken 37 points from their last 39 and to say that's looking good would be a very succinct way to put it. As ever with this and with the majority of things in life, it's not how you start, it's how you finish. Leicester City may have set a hot pace but if Leeds' 2024 carries on like this then they are absolutely in with a shout of going up as champions.

As a footballing romantic, Leeds went up as title winners under Marcelo Bielsa and went up during Covid. Them going up as champions in a season like this would be absolutely brilliant because it would be a proper celebration.

The bean counter in me, the kind of person that looks more from a journalistic point of view of what promotion means says that it's about getting up. It's that absolute ticking the box. The final minute of the final whistle of the last league game in May with a big box ticked. You are up, you are done, no messing around with the play-offs which I love covering and being involved in. But instead, top two means you are up, you are done and dusted and you then attempt to right the wrongs of the last time you were in the Premier League.

I think from a manager's point of view and a players' point of view, the cache that comes with being a league winner is absolutely right and I was never anywhere near it so absolutely I would say go for that.

But it's about getting up. Getting up, getting up, getting up is the most important thing and I definitely think they can do it. Without wanting to throw it back in a negative way, I think if they don't go up automatically from this stage then something's gone massively wrong.