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Leeds United: Pick me and we'll get promoted - McSheffrey
In the days after his arrival on loan at Elland Road, Gary McSheffrey made tentative but enthusiastic noises about a permanent transfer to Leeds United.
Three months on, McSheffrey is less inclined to think so far ahead. "There's not much point in speaking about the future," he said. "At the moment, I don't know where my next game's coming from, never mind a contract."
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McSheffrey's outlook betrays the mood of a player whose time with Leeds has generated more questions than answers. The winger has not played in a first-team fixture for six weeks; in his own words, another appearance before the end of this season is "unlikely".
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As for a full-time contract at Elland Road, that possibility seems remote if not entirely extinct.
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It is fair to surmise that McSheffrey's loan from Birmingham City has not mapped out as he or Leeds expected it would. The 27-year-old was a marquee signing in January, a Premier League player drawn into League One by an offer made to him three days before the end of the transfer window.
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Leeds invested a substantial portion of their transfer budget in the deal and McSheffrey jumped at an opportunity to escape the inactivity he was experiencing at Birmingham. For a number of reasons – in part down to injury but increasingly due to the selection policy of United manager Simon Grayson – his appearances for Leeds stalled at 10 after their defeat to Southampton on March 13.
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United's season will potentially conclude in three games' time, or in no more than six if they are elbowed into League One's play-offs. McSheffrey can already see his year tailing off quietly, unless Grayson decides to revert to him in the aftermath of last Saturday's bloodbath at Gillingham.
"I'm always hoping for a game but if I'm being realistic then it looks unlikely," McSheffrey said.
"I'd like to think that with my experience I'd be chosen but to not even come off the bench in the last few games – when I think I should have done – says it all. The manager's got his decisions to make and he'll have his reasons behind them but I'm a little bit in the dark about it because I haven't had an explanation as to why I'm not playing.
"The fans here haven't seen anything from me, nothing like my best form. That's been down to me in some games but it'll be six weeks on Saturday since I last played. I honestly feel that if I did play, we'd get promoted. I really think I'd contribute to that and help make it happen. That's my opinion and it's probably a bit of frustration coming out of me.
"I'm big enough and experienced enough to deal with disappointment and I will, but this isn't how I want it to be."
His outing with United's reserves against Middlesbrough on Tuesday night offered little fulfilment, providing only a chance to protect his match fitness in the event that Grayson calls on him this weekend.
The ineptitude of United's defeat at Gillingham has given their manager a legitimate reason to drop certain players and recall others for Saturday's game against MK Dons. Whether it motivates him to recall McSheffrey – an unused substitute for the past three matches – is a different matter, influenced by the range of other options in the squad at Leeds.
McSheffrey has the reputation of a goalscoring forward but has played as a left winger in all bar one of his appearances for Leeds and scored only once. He sustained a mild knee injury during the club's sequence of four successive defeats but has been fit for most of this month.
"My last game was at Southampton (where Leeds lost 1-0 ) and it wasn't a good day," he said. "I know I didn't play well but we didn't play well collectively. We were outclassed in every area of the pitch, mine included.
"I had a niggly, annoying injury at a time when we went on a four-match losing streak but I really thought I'd have a chance to come back in after that. To be fair to the manager, we won at Yeovil and it's understandable if he didn't want to change a losing team. I'm quite a firm believer in that.
"But we've lost again now and it seems like an opportunity for someone like me. I think I should be playing, of course I do. I want to play. But at the same time, I'm 100 per cent behind the other players and 100 per cent set on seeing Leeds winning promotion, whether I play any more part in it or not.
"I'll give my opinion when I'm asked for it and this is how I feel but I'm not one to upset anyone else or to cause bad feeling. You need to keep the right attitude and hope for a call, whatever happens."
McSheffrey's contract with Birmingham ends in the summer and his next step would seem to be as unclear as it was when he came to Leeds in January.
City have an option to extend his deal until 2012 but they have not made regular use of him at first-team level for two seasons. A transfer to Elland Road, meanwhile, was always dependent on Leeds winning promotion and McSheffrey's face fitting within the confines of Thorp Arch.
"What happens to me next is a big deal and when I came here in January I said that I had to play for my future," he said. "At the minute, it's not looking great.
"That's obviously on my mind but I'm less concerned with contracts than I am with playing some football. Reserve-team games keep your fitness topped up but I'm not going to get many options while I'm not playing first-team football. Maybe the next few games will draw a better
picture for me leading into the summer."
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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