Leeds United’s current closest rivals are captained by Elland Road loan flop Matt Grimes

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Leeds United are the early pace-setters in the Championship this season after an excellent unbeaten start to the campaign. While it is still early days, the one team who have managed to keep pace with Marcelo Bielsa’s side after five games are Swansea City. 

Helped by the return of loanee Borja Baston the Welsh side are the Championship’s top scorers and are currently level on 13 points with Leeds and are one of four unbeaten teams along with Charlton Athletic and West Brom. 

If Leeds do end up in a promotion battle with Swansea, they will be going up against a team captained by an Elland Road flop. 

Matt Grimes was signed by his former boss at the Liberty Stadium when Garry Monk brought him to Elland Road in July 2016. Grimes went on to play just 12 games for the club and struggled when he did make an appearance. Speaking about his time at Leeds to Wales Online in 2018 he discussed how much the spell had shattered his confidence.

“I took a bit of a knocking going to Leeds, it just didn’t happen for me.

“It was hard but I think it did me some good. Things aren’t always going to be great and you have to deal with that and be strong enough to handle it.”

But since then, Grimes has been on the up. He rebuilt that confidence during a loan spell at Northampton Town before becoming a regular at Swansea yet again last season.

He was the club’s Player of the Year last season and this summer new Swans boss Steve Cooper handed him the captain’s armband. 

Now he will be hoping to push Leeds in a promotion battle this season after Swansea’s excellent start to the new campaign. Time will tell if he can get some payback on his former loan destination. That might all start this weekend coming, when Swansea and Leeds face off at Elland Road.