Leeds United hero Luke Ayling earned right to flip motto as contract call dictates new direction

No footballer can play 268 times for a club without doing so in some measure of pain, now and again, and that feels especially true of anyone who lived through the Thorp Arch murderball years under Marcelo Bielsa. At Leeds, not only in the last few years but through the generations, there have been players willing to do just that and Ayling was one of those. Where some need to feel 100 per cent before they agree to step out on the pitch, Ayling along with Liam Cooper and Stuart Dallas, were known for sticking their hand in their air despite knowing they were short of peak physical wellbeing and carrying niggles and knocks that would keep others out of action. Maximum effort is not something footballers should be credited for, not when they take some such eye-watering sums of cash each day, but going above and beyond and putting the needs of the team first certainly is.

There's always a temptation, when writing or talking about the Bielsa boys, to focus more on the physical exertion required to play his football, the running up and down, the pressing and chasing of the other man in a man-to-man marking scenario. Yes, strength and conditioning played a big part in Leeds' success under the Argentine and the willingness of the squad to submit to those requirements helped immeasurably. But to play Bielsaball you also need to have more than a bit about you and Ayling did. The run down the flank to tee up Pablo Hernandez for arguably the most important goal of the promotion season, that volley against Huddersfield Town - the penultimate pre-pandemic goal - and his cracker at Old Trafford were highlight reel moments of the highest quality. His debut season in the Premier League, when he made a fool of anyone involved in Bristol City's decision to discard him in return for £200k, when he put himself right up there as the division's most influential player when it came to progressing play, when he filled in comfortably at centre-back and performed so solidly at right-back that the England conversation included him, showed what Ayling had about him.

There was nous in his game, sufficient to tempt dozens of players into just enough contact that he could initiate his trademark 'flop' and delight his fans while simultaneously enraging the opposition. There was leadership too, seen in performances, behaviour and behind-the-scenes moments spoken of by those fortunate enough to witness them. His facing the music after that infamous Nottingham Forest defeat, his facing the cameras at any time in defiance of a speech impediment and his point blank refusal to drop points at Birmingham City in that famous 5-4 win banked huge credit with the fans.

Footballers, like prizefighters, rarely go out on top and perhaps that summer of 2021 was the perfect time for Ayling and Leeds to move on and part ways. It was dangerous for Leeds to continue relying on players who had spent so much of themselves in their peak years, and it was natural for Ayling's ability and game influence to wane. But when the going is that good, when you finish in the top half of the top flight and everyone is raving about you and your style, a decline and the pain it will cause is almost impossible to conceive.

Things never got better than that for Ayling or the club he fell in love with and his pain was seen in the tears at West Ham United and at Elland Road on the final day of last season, when he realised that his and everyone else's Premier League dream was coming to an end. Ayling was emotional again on Sunday as he approached the travelling Whites at Peterborough, because he likely knew deep down that another dream - returning Leeds to the top flight once more - was coming to an end. Going out, at the end of his contract, with one more final blaze of glory and this time being able to celebrate in person with the fans, might just have made the physical and emotional pain he has suffered at Leeds all worthwhile. But that contract and its expiry date are precisely why Ayling has had to make the decision to finally put himself first. Being a footballer at Leeds United must have been the greatest job, but for men like Ayling if you're not playing then you're not a footballer. Becoming a cheerleader, as this season's involvement has often rendered him, was never going to sit right for someone who has wrung every possible minute out of his career and his body.

To keep playing, you need to play. To win a contract - a new one was not forthcoming at Elland Road - you need to play. Staying to be part of what could yet be something special at Leeds must have been a huge draw, but when you think of Adam Forshaw, hanging back to let others celebrate on the night the Championship trophy was hoisted, you wonder how special it really feels for those who don't play.

Side before self is a wonderful motto for a footballer to have. It's a manager's dream to have players who adopt it and then embody it. But side before self is not feasible all the time, not for everyone and not when the side no longer appears to need you. It's up to Ayling to make a success of his time at Middlesbrough now and perhaps he will even have a part to play in Leeds' promotion race, because it would be no surprise to see him draw from his reserves of main character energy when Boro face the likes of Leicester City, Ipswich Town and Southampton. Whether or not he gets the minutes he desires remains to be seen, and whether or not Leeds have enough leadership in the dressing room without him is another question, but the two parties will part on good terms. The time feels right. He leaves a hero, not a flop.