Dan James chats to Sky Sports about Leeds moving on from play-off heartache and the upheaval in the squad this summer. Watch Sheffield Wednesday vs Leeds United live on Sky Sports Football from 7pm on Friday night; Kick-off 8pm
Friday 23 August 2024 20:52, UK
If things had gone a little differently in May then Daniel James would be sitting here talking as a Premier League player.
Instead, the Leeds winger is still in the Championship, but in a reflective mood.
"We didn't do much wrong," he tells Sky Sports. "We got 90 points, and two teams went up above us, which doesn't happen very often.
"It just came down to the end of the season, and then losing in the play-off final."
The performance at Wembley was a source of disappointment. They just never really got going against Southampton, as the play-off hoodoo for the club continued.
Again James, who was a second-half substitute that day, displays some perspective.
"It's just one of those things," he says. "It was disappointing, but that's football. But you can't dwell on it too much.
"It was a great season throughout and it went to the wire. One team has to lose, and unfortunately that was us.
"We were just a little bit off it on the day and we just had to regroup as a team.
"But over the summer period, which is quite long, you don't dwell on it too much and just look forward to the new season."
James, now 26, has had his ups and downs in his career. It has helped him develop a sense of calmness in his approach to such setbacks.
"We had a meeting straight after the game and we squashed it there," he says.
"We went away all together and I thought we had a great pre-season all together and came into this season really confident."
You would think that some of that confidence will have taken a hit after some key departures.
Leeds have paid the price for failure to win promotion, with Crysencio Summerville, Archie Gray, Georginio Rutter and Glen Kamara all leaving this summer for pastures new.
James remains unaffected by the upheaval.
"This happens every season, the comings and goings," he says. "You get used to it as a player.
"You just have to concentrate on yourself and your team and what you want to achieve."
But it has seen Leeds endure another slow start to the campaign. They have drawn their opening two games in the Championship at home to Portsmouth and then away to West Brom and have crashed out of the Carabao Cup against fellow Championship side Middlesbrough.
The club paid for a slow start to last season, winning just three of their first nine games. In the end it left them with too much to do.
"I think Leicester were 20 points ahead of us at one point," James remembers. "We reached that gap but obviously they pushed on from there and we dropped a few points towards the end of the season.
"The start of the season is obviously so important. You can't let teams get too far ahead of you.
"You've always got to be within touch so you don't have too much to do towards the end of the season.
"I think that's a big thing for us going into this season. It's a marathon. It's a very long season, as we all know."
But even with all that in mind, James still has his eyes firmly on the prize.
"We know what we want to achieve," he says. "We know where we want to be. So I think we've just got to keep pushing."
Leeds fans will be hoping and praying they do.
Watch Sheffield Wednesday vs Leeds United in the Sky Bet Championship live on Sky Sports Football and Main Event from 7pm (kick-off 8pm) on Friday.
