Report: Sam Allardyce has already called two Leeds players aside, wanted meeting with them before training

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Sam Allardyce doesn’t have long to get to grips with this Leeds squad, but he’s already pulled two players aside for a chat in training as he figures out who the influential figures in the team are.

Indeed, Allardyce wanted to have a meeting with the team leaders before his first training session, and according to The Daily Mail, he sought to speak to both Liam Cooper and Luke Ayling before his first session as manager.

Allardyce is no fool and it didn’t take him long to figure out that Ayling and Cooper were two players that he needed to get on side if he was going to make his time at Elland Road work.

As the club captain, Cooper is one of the most well-respected figures at Leeds, while Ayling himself has been one of the longest-serving players at Elland Road, wearing the club’s armband on a number of occasions.

What was said between Allardyce, Cooper and Ayling is unknown, but it’s fair to assume that Allardyce wanted to get an internal view of how the team is doing at the moment and the dressing room atmosphere.

Cooper and Ayling themselves have been underperforming as of late, and Allardyce won’t have skirted around that issue we’re sure, but, right now, the most important thing for Big Sam is to get as many of his squad as he can buying into his way of doing things.

Whether or not Allardyce can turn things around at Leeds or not remains to be seen, but everything that is coming out about his first few days at the club seems positive, and we can’t help but think that he’s making the first strides towards turning this sinking ship around.