'Fuming and swearing' - Leeds United man reveals Amazon documentary experience on eve of release

Joe Gelhardt and Sam Greenwood began the 2021/22 campaign as Under-23 players with an outside chance of first-team cameos in the season to come.

On the Premier League’s final day – an occasion fraught with tension and emotion – the pair started for Jesse Marsch’s senior side as top flight safety was secured.

Gelhardt found the back of the net with an instinctive finish during the first half, only to see his effort ruled out by a marginal VAR call.

Meanwhile, Greenwood’s selection raised eyebrows given the magnitude of the fixture.

The decision to name the tenacious England Under-21 forward alongside Kalvin Phillips, as his defensive midfield partner, was a bold call, but one which paid off in the end.

Leeds fans will need little reminder of what transpired in west London, but will be treated to intimate, on-the-ground footage of that final day with the release of ‘Academy Dreams: Leeds United’, a new Amazon Prime Video documentary series which followed the club’s Under-23 side and its main characters last season.

Speaking to the YEP ahead of its release, 20-year-old duo Gelhardt and Greenwood recall the campaign in which cameras followed their every move on the pitch, at the training ground and away from the world of Leeds United.

"It's been strange for us but I think over time we got used to it and we just learned to deal with it especially during the tough times,” Greenwood said.

"I think the natural thing to do is to try and act as sensible as you can but obviously emotions run high when you get beat and stuff, and I think there'll be a few clips when I was playing of the lads fuming and swearing,” Gelhardt adds.

The access-all-areas documentary charts the path of several youngsters from bonafide reserves to fringe first-teamers, with Gelhardt and Greenwood featuring heavily.

Football is often dubbed ‘the working class sport’, and both players are a testament to that, hailing from ordinary backgrounds.

“When I went back, I haven't done that for a while, obviously because I’m living up here now, and I've moved house so to go back to where I actually grew up, it was nice to see all the people back there.

"A few of them came out to say hello, so that'll be on the documentary as well. It was good to show where we came from,” says Gelhardt, a Merseysider released by Liverpool as a schoolboy.

And Greenwood, from Murton in County Durham, once a thriving coal mining community, is equally keen to show his roots in the documentary series.

“It shows good insight for the people who don't really know us personally, it gives them a good view of where we come from and our background and stuff.

"We both come from humble backgrounds, so I think it's important for people just to see what kind of people we are off the pitch as well – not just on it.” the ex-Arsenal and Sunderland youth-teamer says.

"They [The fans] only know us as players and what they see on the weekend when we’re playing, so for them to see our day-to-day, what we’re like and our personalities, I think it'll be good insight for them – at most other clubs you won't get that,” Gelhardt adds.

Academy Dreams premieres on Amazon Prime Video this Friday, September 23.