'Gobsmacked' father of Leeds United fan in viral team hotel video gives his side of the story

A statement from the first team squad was released at lunchtime on Monday in response to a video that has attracted millions of views and thousands of comments, most of them critical of the players' conduct. The original clip shows a number of Leeds stars walking straight past eight-year-old Dylan Wale as he smiles and waves. Players, who were en route to the team bus to travel to the Vitality Stadium for the match against Bournemouth, felt moved to apologise in Monday's statement for not acknowledging him and other fans in the foyer.

A slightly longer version of the video shows Luke Ayling fist bumping the youngster, and a supporter who was present told the YEP that a handful of others, including Javi Gracia, interacted with Dylan too. Dylan's dad John says the family were unaware of the uproar on social media until this morning.

"We live in Southampton but we heard Dylan could get the chance to see his heroes at Bournemouth," he told the YEP.

"He had a fantastic day. Luke Ayling fist bumped him, Javi Gracia came and tickled his chin and had a chat with him, Jack Harrison had a laugh with him, Adam Forshaw came down the stairs with his hand out to high five him and Brenden Aaronson signed an autograph. Max Wober turned and said hi, Willy Gnonto said hi. He was buzzing. He's got three autographs, we had a great day and there you have it. Then this morning, Caleb his elder brother spotted this post from SportBible and I was gobsmacked. The video just shows the players who didn't say hi. We know full well they're under pressure, they're trying to stay in the Premier League and we're devastated because we don't want to be involved in negative press."

According to John the players are entitled to focus squarely on the task at hand.

"Why should they apologise? Do they all have to say hello? You've got headphones on, you're trying to focus on a very important game, the press are slating you saying you're not very good at your job, the fans are turning on you and you're expected to be on your best behaviour all the time. We all make mistakes.

"They don't need to make an apology as far as I'm concerned. I don't want the players slated. Weston McKennie for instance. He's been torn apart by the press and he's probably fed up with everything going on. Just because they play football or they're millionaires or whatever doesn't mean they don't have things on their mind. They're performers on the football field."

The youngster will go back to school on Tuesday with a story to tell, not least how he revealed to Harrison that his mum fancies him.

"He was over the moon to meet Jack," said John.

"He told Jack his mum fancies him and she was ready to kick him, she said don't embarrass me like that and Jack chuckled. He still hasn't come down from cloud nine yet."

In a statement the players apologised for their performance at the Vitality Stadium, where they fell to a fourth defeat in five games, and their behaviour leaving the team hotel.

It read: “As the first team squad at Leeds United, we wanted to reach out to the fan base regarding yesterday’s game and subsequent posts on social media. Firstly, the performance was not good enough. There is no other way to look at it and the only way to respond is on the pitch. Leeds fans travel up and down the country in huge numbers and deserve more than this.

"What is just as concerning to us as a group, is the video online of us leaving the hotel. Words can’t express how sorry we are that the youngster in the video wearing the Leeds kit is not shown more love from the squad. On a matchday we do an activation walk, before and after this we stop for photos and autographs to ensure we interact with fans, but that we are also on time when leaving for games. However, there is no excuse for not acknowledging fans and if the parents of the fan wearing the Leeds kit in the video could make themselves known to us, we would be grateful."