Leeds United passed up the opportunity to recruit club great Joel Ward in 2012, a move that would have changed history.
Ward’s leadership skills and consistent performances have made him a vital asset to Crystal Palace.
Despite being in his mid-30s, Ward remains an important player for the Eagles, making several appearances and demonstrating his importance.
Joel Ward, a former Portsmouth defender, joined Crystal Palace in the summer of 2012 and has gone on to become a club icon at Selhurst Park over the last 12 years.
If Leeds United supporters cast their minds back to the summer of 2012, they were connected with a deal for Ward, and looked close to clinching his signing at one point, with the Daily Mail stating that they
Joel Ward, who was 22 years old at the time, had progressed through Portsmouth’s youth ranks and became a regular in the club’s starting XI following relegation to the Championship in 2010.
Despite an outstanding 2011/12 season in which he played in a variety of positions ranging from defensive midfield to wing, Pompey were relegated to League One, and due to financial concerns, the club was obliged to sell players to balance the books.
Ward was one of them, and Leeds were eager to sign the kid after his strong displays in the Championship. Despite being named by the Daily Mail as the front-runners to sign him in early May, he was a Crystal Palace player by the end of the month.
The rest is history, and Ward was a member of a Crystal Palace club that gained promotion to the Premier League and has been there ever since, with little chance of relegation.
Given the volatility and failure to compete for promotion during the next few seasons under a variety of managers previous to Marcelo Bielsa’s arrival, someone of Joel Ward’s caliber would have been an excellent addition to Leeds, and his leadership would have been important to the team.
However, Leeds’ loss was Crystal Palace’s gain, and it’s easy to imagine how different things would have been if the defender had joined the Whites in 2012.
