Phil Hay Column: Pablo Hernandez and Leeds United - in a state of mutual excellence

That time in Hernandez’s life, the out-of-a-suitcase existence in which he and his family were separated for a while, cast him as a roaming footballer or a gun for hire but there are things about him which imply that attachment matters more than a pay-day in the sand.

Two years ago Hernandez and other investors bought into Castellon, a lower-league club in northern Spain who Hernandez supported as a child, played for as a teenager and used as a stepping-stone to Valencia’s academy. Valencia are the team with ‘Pablo 19’ graffitied on the wall of their training ground but Castellon were Hernandez’s first love and the takeover he took part in kept them afloat. Ambition played a part too, naturally, and Castellon were promoted from Spain’s fourth division last summer but Hernandez was compelled to invest by the thought of what would happen if he didn’t. “It’s my city, my club,” he said. “It was important to me to help.”

Leeds are not his club and this is not his city, not in the sense of blood running thicker than water, but he and Leeds have come to understand each other as both deserve to be understood. Hernandez’s talent has always been easy to admire, the artistry and precision which, as Marcelo Bielsa says, is nigh-on impossible to mimic or manufacture, but he has reached that zenith where the only things surer than him rescuing a fraught day against Millwall were death, taxes and Neil Harris offering up some easy headlines. Leeds have never seen Hernandez like this and Hernandez has never seen the club like this: excellence as it was mutually promised when they got together in 2016.

His omission from the EFL’s Championship team of the year was contrary to that excellence and all the more baffling on the basis that it was put together using votes by those closest to the fray: all 72 managers across the EFL. The midfield was narrowed to allow for the inclusion of three 20-goal forwards – and who, these days, plays two up front anyway? – but his exclusion misunderstands days like Saturday when the list of Championship footballers capable of managing the mayhem as Hernandez did dwindles to almost nil. It was partly what Bielsa was getting at when he was asked last week about the team of the year. “I’m not thinking I would like to have any other players to what we have,” he said.

The Hernandez Leeds sourced from the Middle East was not the player they have now; every bit as blessed with the technical skill which never leaves a player like him but less physically suited to the Championship and less comfortable playing as a de facto captain. Al-Arabi wanted Hernandez to be an example in Qatar but an example of quality to local footballers rather than a pillar of nerve and stomach. Valencia and Swansea City never demanded those traits either, more interested in the quick, dynamic wing play which the younger model of Hernandez made his name with. In Swansea’s dressing room he had Garry Monk and others. The armband at Valencia went to stalwarts like Carlos Marchena and David Albelda, internationals with stacks of caps.

Hernandez was the flair, the luxury of speed and invention, but his mental brawn and durability has grown at Leeds, reinventing his game as time began taking pace from his legs. He predicted when Bielsa became head coach that Bielsa would make him a better player and Bielsa has, finding the cold-blooded streak which promotion run-ins depend on. It is not a new thing for Leeds to defer to Hernandez when bombs are going off around them. The difference now is that Hernandez is wholly comfortable with taking the baton and running with it.

He is 34 in a week’s time and Leeds are tapping into the best of him, making gold out of a transfer which the club were careful not to risk too much at the start. The premise of a signing Hernandez made sense but there were variables involved: the strain on his body in the Championship and the impact on his personal ambition of drifting off to Qatar. Even last year there were questions about him as Hernandez asked for a new three-year contract, Leeds initially offered 12 months and the two sides eventually agreed on two before the Spaniard left on a free transfer. He is due an automatic year's extension if the club go up and no-one at Elland Road will be moaning about that.

Every successful season needs stories within the story and any promoted teams needs a Hernandez, a player who rises above it all when the fixture list is down to a few spins of the wheel. They still revere Gordon Strachan in these parts, never forgetting that goal against Leicester City, and it is hard not to think that if Leeds see the season through they will talk about Hernandez’s performance against Millwall with the same respect. Different men, different personalities, different days and different eras but moments when both were touched from above.