The Yorkshire Evening Post's Inside Elland Road podcast focusing on all things Leeds United will relaunch with a new-look presenting team at the start of September.
YEP chief football writer Graham Smyth will be joined by Chris O'Connor, a lifelong Leeds United obsessive who is known to some fans thanks to this summer's highly-successful run of his Through It All Together play at Leeds Playhouse. O'Connor's theatre piece was inspired by and dedicated to former manager Marcelo Bielsa. Two of the Argentine's favourites - Patrick Bamford and Kalvin Phillips - were among the audiences.
O'Connor was born in Leeds and moved to London at the age of four, where his Grandad made a valiant effort to convert him to Queens Park Rangers. But the six-year-old wasn’t having it, turning up to a QPR versus Leeds match in the home end proudly wearing a full Whites kit.
Some of his happiest memories are tied to the club: his mum taking him up to Elland Road around age eight to fulfil his dream of seeing Leeds in the flesh; watching Tony Yeboah’s thunderbolt against Liverpool in a Roscommon pub with his Grandad; and seeing Leeds beat Arsenal at Highbury.
He moved back to Leeds in 2007 to study and has lived there ever since. As a writer, Chris has woven Leeds United into several of his plays with Red Ladder; The Life and Soul, The Parting Glass, Connected, and most recently Through It All Together with the Leeds Playhouse. He also co-hosted the Mantality podcast with former Leeds Rhinos captain Stevie Ward, aimed at helping men become better versions of themselves. The podcast featured several Leeds United affiliated guests, including ex-YEP reporter Phil Hay, former Whites player Brian Deane, boxer Josh Warrington, and actor Ralph Ineson.
The Inside Elland Road podcast, produced and edited by Tailwind, will return officially in September but later this week listeners will get a preview of what to expect from the new line-up.
O'Connor said: "It’s genuinely a huge honour to be asked to co-host the Inside Elland Road podcast. I’ve written about Leeds already for my work, and now the chance to talk about them is a dream come true. I join it as a huge fan of the podcast and look forward to chatting with Graham about the highs, lows and dramas of a football club who must have the best scriptwriters in the business."
Smyth added: "The Inside Elland Road podcast is one of the highlights of the week at the YEP because it's a chance to talk about the myriad storylines encircling this enormous football club. We're delighted to have Chris on board and he brings with him as level-headed a voice as you're likely to find in the Leeds fanbase, while remaining as desperate for every possible bit of transfer news as anyone else. Now he can ask those questions out loud on the podcast on behalf of his fellow fans, instead of mithering me on WhatsApp."
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