Georginio Rutter exclusive: Leeds United's Bellwether Boy on turning around his and his club's fortunes

The outrageously gifted but at times frustratingly mercurial striker has become a bellwether for his club. Last season he looked a little boy lost, but in 2023-24 he has been one of the very young leaders, or in the 22-year-old's case, cheerleaders, behind their fightback.

The effervescent personality called for interview at the end of seemingly every televised victory Leeds have recorded this season, Rutter would surely be the world's worst poker player. He admits he needs to be more level in his emotions but he is not there yet, so to see a huge perma-grin on his face as he did his media duties in the build-up to Sunday's Championship play-off final against Southampton is reassuring.

Global club football’s most expensive game – the financial stakes are higher than winning the Champions League – should by rights be a tense affair but Rutter's happiness, his eagerness to take the ball in tight areas and take risks with it, is his main contribution to the well-being of his team, leading that way whilst others bark the orders.

Kicked from pillar to post this season by opponents unable to think of another way of stopping him, he always seems to come up smiling. It has not always been that way.

Signed for £35m to be the No 9 who could kick-start Leeds' fight against Premier League relegation he instead came to symbolise where it all went wrong – ill thought-out and ill-fitting (he is, by nature, not an out-and-out centre-forward), a long-term solution to an urgent problem, he failed to score a Premier League goal or even contribute an assist for anyone on the carousel managers Jesse Marsch, Michael Skubala, Javi Gracia or Sam Allardyce hopped onto.

Leeds went down miserably.

Not that Rutter could shoulder too much blame. He started just one league game and his only involvement in the final seven came an hour into the last when, 2-0 down at home to Tottenham Hotspur, relegation was essentially a done deal.

Perhaps if he had not been on the wages of a £35m Premier League striker (minus relegation pay cut), he might have been moved on but Leeds were never going to find a buyer.

So Leeds had no choice but to work with the unwitting posterboy for a failed season, with more highlights in his hair than his football. He could easily have been scapegoated but crucially, supporters did what it says on the tin.

By his own admission, Rutter has not been perfect this season either, but seven Championship goals and 15 assists have taken Leeds to Wembley and the cusp of a Premier League return, and shown what then-director of football Victor Orta saw in him in January 2023.

Promotion might already be in the bag but for a difficult period after hernia surgery in March which Rutter was quick to return but slow to recover from, not contributing a goal or an assist until he, and therefore his team, belatedly sparked into life in the second leg of the play-off semi-final against Norwich City.

"If everything was very good, life would be easy," Rutter says, the smile that has become a regular feature shining through beneath this season’s far more sober, natural-coloured hairstyle.

Sign up to our Sports Editor’s TeamTalk newsletter

"Last season my smile was not like this season. It was difficult for everybody.

"I came, we lost some games and with the position of the team, it was hard. When you came to training and you saw some people, it's totally different to this season.

"It was difficult but that's football.

"If it's a clear goal and I miss, I'm going to be frustrated. Before it was worse. When you are young, when you are 18 years-old, if you miss it gets in your head but as the years pass I learn – like every player. This season has been better.

"If I start to play and I'm sad, it's not me. When you're a striker and you don't score you're in a bit of a bad mood. Sometimes I'm happy but not happy but I try to keep a smile on my face."

The Leeds fans and the understanding of Daniel Farke were crucial to Rutter's turnaround, he feels. It started with the manager.

"Everything changed," recalls Rutter. "When pre-season was starting we had new (coaching) staff and a new president (chairman Paraag Marathe), so you don't know what will happen. A manager could come who doesn't like you, you don't play, and it's a bit difficult.

"But the coach knew me before (having managed against Rutter's previous club Hoffenheim at Borussia Monchengladbach) and he gave me confidence.

"At this time I was not feeling good because of the last season and I told him that. He told me, 'It's normal.'

"As a striker, when the confidence is down you can't play with freedom. He said to me, 'I understand.'"

Farke reflects that "Communication was quite important, to listen to what he said. Sometimes you feel you have to give message after message after message, sometimes it's important to let the player speak, to listen and get a feeling for what the problem is.

"And then to work with him and communicate about finding good solutions and sell your plan and your ideas to the player. Then it's not so much about talking, it's about acting.”

That came gradually, with the help of the supporters."As each day passed it was better and I totally forgot about confidence and just played my game of football,” recalls Rutter.

"For the first three games (of the season) I was not on form but I could hear the fans singing my name when I'm not good, I was (just) okay. They kept pushing.

"This helps a lot because you're frustrated, you haven't scored, but the fans are saying. 'It's okay, Georgie.' That made me more confident and I started to score and assist and create a relationship with the fans. This is amazing.

"I play football to excite the fans. If I don't score and someone else does, it doesn't matter. If we win, I'm happy for them. I try to do my best and play with a passion.

"I should have had more goals this season because I've missed a lot of chances – this is my weakness – but I've made some assists so I'm happy."

Leading the forward line – something he did a lot in the first half of the season but not much since – in the first leg at Norwich, Rutter set the tone for a dour 0-0 draw with his airshot at an early pull-back.

It was the same, in a very different way, in the second game, won 4-0. Or rather the fans set the tone at Elland Road, and he gleefully followed.

"It was the best atmosphere of my life in a football match," he says of the reception when what felt like everyone in the stadium held the white scarf left on their seats above their heads.

"Leicester was crazy but Norwich... I don't have the words. If you could see my face when I came out of the tunnel and I saw every scarf... it was crazy.

"For every kid, this is your dream. You see this on PlayStation but to play in a type of game like this is unbelievable."

Just four minutes in a lovely flick released Crysencio Summerville down the line, like a bat signal to Elland Road that the Bellwether Boy – restored to "the hole" in a 4-2-3-1 formation – was on it. He went on to end his barren spell in front of goal.

It was not how he planned it, though. Like his smile, he could not help it.

"I think a lot about it because sometimes players say to me, 'Georgie, play the first touch easy,'" he reflects. "A lot of players say this to me.

"But it's my instinct. I want it to be easier but it happens.

"I could see the fans grow more confident and I think it helped my team-mates a lot to come into the game."

It signified perfectly his role in this team.

"You can't be very good every game and when it's the moment to produce you can be frustrated," he admits. "When I have a game like Norwich everybody's happy but you have a game like Blackburn where we lost 1-0 and I didn't have a good game, I can feel like the stands want something from me or another player to make the difference. When that doesn't happen, you can see the frustration. It's hard sometimes. But this is football.

"I try to have fun but not be arrogant. If we win 4-0 and you try to do something stupid – no, I don't like that. I want to play the same whether it's 0-0 or 5-0.

"If you stop enjoying playing football, stop playing.

"This season was good, last season was not but that's football. Maybe tomorrow won't be good but if I play, I'm happy."

And when Rutter is truly happy, Leeds' chances of victory rocket.