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Player Manor Solomon

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TonySoprano said:
:mourfinger:Yes, Kane. You mean our greatest ever goal scorer and one of the greatest players of Spurs history.

See if you can figure out the difference between him and Manor fucking Solomon.
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Only one has the ability to impact Tottenham Hotspur's future. If Solomon got healthy and started playing excellently, that'd be a great development for us. We can either recall him or sell him.

Kane was a great player for Spurs, but if he scored 50 in the German farmers league it'd mean fuck all for Tottenham.

And I wasn't the one bitching about someone posting in a thread. I'm happy for people to post in this thread, that thread, the 3 different Ange threads, the countless ENIC threads, the NSFW thread, whatever. It's a fucking internet forum - who the fuck appointed you the arbiter of what threads people can post in?

:mourfinger:
 
Airfixx said:
Paywall.... Is there a punchline, Blakey?
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Here you go mate.

“I can say something here I’ve never said before in interviews.”

Thank you, Manor Solomon, and thank you, Dana Voshina. Leeds United’s loan star serves up every interviewer’s dream sentence at the midway point of our sit-down.

Dana, Solomon’s fiancee, might also be getting thanks from the wider Leeds fanbase by the end of May. At this current trajectory, the Tottenham Hotspur loanee might be toying with the Championship by the time the run-in revs up.

Four months have passed since Solomon joined Leeds on loan. His rebuild, from virtually a year lost to injury, through the fire of the Championship and intense competition for places, has taken time, but things are coming together.

Four starts in the past five matches over the busy festive period, with Wilfried Gnonto and Largie Ramazani breathing down his neck, underlines Daniel Farke’s growing faith in the 25-year-old. Four goal contributions in as many starts have not hurt either.

But he would not be at Elland Road, having this impact, if it were not for his partner.

“She’s been amazing,” he tells The Athletic. “We’re getting married in the summer. We’ve been together for six and a half years, so it’s quite a long journey. She’s been with me in Ukraine, in Fulham, in Tottenham, and especially here.

“I can say something here I’ve never said before in interviews: she pushed me to come to Leeds. In the beginning, when I heard Leeds, I knew it was a big club but I said, ‘It’s second division, I don’t know. After a long injury, to go to the Championship, it can be risky; it can be hard because everyone knows the Championship is a really tough league’.


Solomon celebrating a recent goal with Joel Piroe (George Wood/Getty Images)
“She pushed me, because our goal is to stay in England, to get back to the Premier League. She said, ‘OK, it’s not London. We will not be with our friends, but I’m sure Leeds is a good place’. After I signed, I told her, ‘Thank you’.

“Our goal was to stay in England, after the loan, next year, and to be in the Premier League. Everyone knows, in the Premier League, the teams, they all look at the Championship, especially at one of the best teams or the biggest club in the Championship, like Leeds.

“We could go somewhere else, where it would be easier for us, for her to live because, in London, we had so many friends. She told me, ‘Don’t worry about me. I will be OK. This is the next step. This is the challenge we need and we need to go for it’.”

Dana has been Solomon’s rock and constant through two and a half tumultuous years. There have been four different clubs, two loan spells, long-term injuries, and two major conflicts to contend with.

In February 2022, Solomon had to drop everything when he woke up to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Then at Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk, he fled at short notice and eventually made it to safety after a 17-hour car journey to the border before a further 10-hour wait to even cross into Poland.

More recently, the Israeli has inevitably been affected by the war in his homeland and Gaza. In October 2023, Hamas invaded southern Israel, killing roughly 1,200 people and capturing 250 hostages, according to figures reported by The New York Times. Officials say roughly 100 of those hostages taken on October 7 are still being held in Gaza, The New York Times reported.

More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed during the war, according to the health ministry in Gaza, as reported by The New York Times, following Israel’s response to that invasion. It is an episode that has weighed heavily on Solomon.

“The last 15 months, 16 months, has been really difficult for me, for my country, for our people,” he says. “I know a lot of people, a lot of friends, that got terror, that got killed even, so it’s not an easy situation.

“My brother was in the army, so it was a bit terrifying. You have to cope with it and we pray for better days.”

Leeds condemned a new chant about Solomon during the festive period, as reported by The Daily Telegraph. The song contains anti-Palestinian lyrics and generated a lot of headlines around the turn of the year. The winger did not want to address that directly in our conversation but did have a wider message for supporters.

“I prefer not to comment about it,” he says. “I just want to say I’m grateful for the support of the fans, for everyone, and it doesn’t matter where they’re from and what they believe and what they support.


Solomon has been in excellent form in recent weeks (Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)
“I’m just grateful for them and I’m happy with them and to see them in Elland Road, in the away games when it’s a five-hour drive and you see them, they’re all chanting for everything. It’s really amazing and I can say it’s maybe one of the best fanbases I’ve ever experienced.”

Solomon is proud of his religion and his heritage. He is happy to represent his faith — especially when there are not many Jewish footballers. That was at the heart of his appearance at a Hannukah event at Elland Road recently.

“Some people from the community approached me and asked me to come,” he says. “I was really happy to. It’s a great thing to see the Jewish community, where most of the people support Leeds.

“It was lovely to see it. When I came, when you see all the kids with Solomon shirts, it’s really a privilege for me and I’m happy I make them happy. They made me happy as well, that I could celebrate with them Hanukkah because we don’t have our family here.

“When you see all the Jewish people in the Jewish community, it makes your heart really warm.”


GO DEEPER

Leeds United or Jewish? The religions coexist, side by side

Meniscus — a piece of cartilage in the knee that works as a shock absorber — injuries dogged Solomon at Tottenham and Fulham. His first, with the latter, came in August 2022. He would return that January and score in five consecutive games from the February. He bounced back quickly, but it was a different story at Spurs — who he joined permanently in the summer of 2023.

Solomon needed further meniscus surgery that October. He did not play competitively again last season. There were several operations over the course of it. He wondered if he would ever play again.

A visit to a pain clinic, where Solomon was given tablets and gels to ease his chronic pain, solved the issue. Despite footballers getting the best treatment in the world, according to Solomon, this is rare for people in his sport. While the surgeries had done the repairs, he needed painkillers to get him over the line and ease him back to his best. They did the trick.

“The first thing is physically, but the second thing is mentally,” Solomon says. “After such a long time, when you come back, you don’t feel like yourself, you’re not confident and you’re afraid. You’re afraid to get injured again. After you’ve played for a few months, that’s it. Everything eases off and then you feel much better.”

Solomon has not been without his issues since arriving in West Yorkshire. Two promising starts against Hull City and Burnley, which included his unfortunate slip that led to the concession of the game’s only goal, were followed by issues with his back and hamstring. It set him back. It meant he had too much time to stew on the mistake at Burnley, something he would have been very angry at himself for if he had been younger.

That fire has been present in many of Solomon’s performances. Most recently, there was very public unhappiness with his substitution during the New Year’s Day draw with Blackburn Rovers. Eyes were rolled, arms were held out and gloves were launched. If he had a dummy, Solomon would have spat it out.

“First of all, I’m Israeli, I’m from the Middle East, so really emotional,” he says. “As long as I’m on the pitch and as long as I’m in Leeds, I want to give my best and I want to be on the pitch to help the team.


Solomon struggled with injury at parent club Spurs (Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)
“In the Blackburn game, I was dangerous, I was helping the team and I wanted to get the goal or to assist. I really wanted to win this game and to take three points in a really difficult game. When I was subbed off, I was pretty frustrated because I want to be there on the pitch to help my team and to help the players, but this is the manager’s decision and you have to respect it. That’s OK.”

Farke repeatedly says his door is open to his players if they feel they need an explanation about something. Was Solomon knocking on the timber last Thursday morning, though?

“I didn’t speak to the manager, but at some point, you can speak with the manager,” he says. “Our manager is really open. His door is always open and I’ve had some really good conversations with him, in good periods and in bad periods.

“After my hamstring injury, when I didn’t come back in the way I played before or that I could play, he really helped me and really pushed me forward to get back to my shape. I don’t take it for granted. I really appreciate it and I’m happy it paid off.”

Ange Postecoglou is watching Solomon’s progress from afar. His contract in the capital does not expire until June 2028. All parties could see Solomon was not himself in pre-season and with little prospect of playing in the Premier League, a loan somewhere in England appealed to everyone.

It is impossible to predict where Solomon may play after this spell in Leeds ends, but he is very happy with what he has seen during his latest loan spell.

“I love it here,” he says. “I love the fans. I love the club. I love the players, the manager. Especially now, I’m really enjoying it and I love living here. Of course, it’s different to London, less things to do and we have less friends here. All the Israelis, they live in London, but we found our place here.

“You can’t predict what will happen in the future, whether I come back to Tottenham, whether I go to a different team, or whether I stay here in Leeds, you can’t predict it, but, of course, for me, the door is really open.”
 
Watched him play the other day against Hull when Leeds played them. Far to good for the championship he had the Hull RB on toast all game and put some decent balls in.

Still think it's odd we shipped him out so quickly
 
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