Leeds United in Slovenia (July 11): Read Phil Hay"s tour diary

Phil Hay is in Slovenia on Leeds United’s pre-season tour. Enjoy his tour diary.

THURSDAY, JULY 11

One of Slovenia’s leading sports papers devoted a full page of coverage to Leeds United’s first friendly, noting that the old Eastern Bloc is attracting more and more clubs for pre-season.

Ekipa, a daily broadsheet published in the capital Ljubljana, found room for analysis of Leeds in amongst a huge feature on Bayern Munich who are staging a training camp close to Lake Garda in nearby Italy.

The Slovenian journalists had their history of United well mapped out, describing a “fallen giant” who “until recently represented a strong fortress on the English football map. Then the ship began to sink.” Quite.

Ekipa’s view was that United’s presence in Slovenia had attracted more attention than any other tour, a comment which put Reading, West Bromwich, Valencia and others in their place. A glowing piece was blotted only by a photo caption about United’s friendly in Norway last summer – printed over a picture of their supporters massed at Torquay. The seagulls gave it away.

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Goalkeeper Darjan Curanovic has trained with Leeds United during their tour of Slovenia and local football reporters expected him to play in yesterday’s friendly in Murska Sobota.

In the end, Curanovic did not feature against Pomurje’s representatives but the mention of his name still raised a few eyebrows. He is not altogether unknown in England.

This time last year Curanovic arranged to join Portsmouth on trial at their Spanish training camp. The 26-year-old told our friends at Ekipa that the opportunity was “a dream come true”.

Then it all got interesting. A video montage of some of his performances – posted on YouTube by the keeper himself – gave Pompey the jitters, showing dubious positioning and plenty of difficulty with bouncing balls. The invitation was withdrawn and Curanovic sat tight at Triglav Kranj.

Leeds are slightly short of keepers with Jamie Ashdown recovering from injury and Curanovic is essentially making up the numbers. There is no likelihood of him arriving at Elland Road.

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Slovenia grows dark by around 9pm at this time of year so the late decision to change the kick-off time of last night’s friendly was a sensible one.

ND Mura 05, the club who use Fazanerija Stadium week-to-week, have never been wealthy and presently carry debts of around £1.5million. As yesterday’s diary recorded, they are up a certain creek without a certain implement.

Fazanerija hosted Premier League fixtures last season yet the ground does not possess any floodlights, as far as any of us could tell. The half-hour shift to a 6pm start ensured that the players could still see the ball by the time full-time arrived.

WEDNESDAY. JULY 10

Leeds United play a representative side from Slovenia’s Pomurje region tonight.

Pomurje have named a 26-man squad: Denis Banfi (NK Grad), Matej Andrejč, Damjan Kaučič, Rok Ropoša, Jernej Trstenjak (NK Veržej), Jernej Janža, Jaka Šafer, Damjan Grah (NK Tromejnik), Uroš Bagari, Marko Lapoši, Rok Godvajs, Aleš Kalamar (NK Rakičan), Mitja Mauko, Tomaž Recek (NK Čarda), Tadej Vogrinec, Primož Smolkovič, Aljoša Kuzmanovski (NK Ljutomer), Jernej Slavič, Aleš Kerec, Jernej Tkalec, Marko Smodiš (ND Beltinci), Dejan Mlinarič, Mitja Žerdin, Dejan Sreš, Rok Vouri, Bojan Matjašec (NK Odranci).

Dejan Sreš, a 25-year-old midfielder, is considered to be the pick of Pomurje’s bunch.

All 26 of the players selected feature domestically in Slovenia’s third division east.

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The YEP shared its flight to Ljubljana with a smattering of Leeds United supporters, including Gary ‘Paint it White’ Edwards and Mick Hewitt – organising pre-season tours since 1981.

Big Mick (not to be confused with Little Mick Hewitt, another pre-season regular) has arranged the itinerary for travelling Leeds fans for more than three decades and every year without fail from 1984 onwards. A total of 30 are on this summer’s trip to Slovenia, including Jonny Howson’s brother Danny.

The summer of 1981 took United to the Ikast tournament in Denmark while the warm weeks of 1984 were spent in Marbella (the refuge of Hewitt’s wife while he’s on the loose in Eastern Europe).

His most memorable tours were Japan in 1991, when a total of eight supporters travelled, and the World Cup year of 2002 which sent his party to Japan, Singapore, China, Australia and Thailand. “That was the last great tour,” he says.

And the worst? “Boden in Sweden,” Hewitt recalls. “It was a one-horse town. One Thursday night we were walking past a pub and we shouted to the landlord to ask when he opened. He said ‘Tuesday’.”

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Given that Leeds United are to appear twice at the Fazanerija Stadium in Murska Sobota, it stands to reason that they might play the ground’s tenants – ND Mura.

Sadly, Mura (or ND Mura 05 as they are officially known) will be liquidated in the near future after going bankrupt. A meeting arranged recently to discuss the club’s future came to nothing when a number of board members failed to turn up.

As recently as 2012 they were playing Lazio in the play-off stages of the Europa League but journalists in Slovenia expect the club to fold, reform and beginning competing again in the country’s fifth division.

The clue pointing to the fact that this is not Mura’s first dice with death can be found in their name. Back in 2005 they were dissolved for similar reasons and forced to start again. History is now repeating itself.

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United’s training base in Ptuj is not so random a location as it might sound.

McDermott embraced the facilities repeatedly while he was manager of Reading but West Bromwich Albion spent part of one pre-season there during Roberto Di Matteo’s reign. Valencia have also made use of the city in the past.

Such is the regularity of professional clubs’ attendance that numerous reviews of Leeds’ hotel on the Internet site Trip Advisor make reference to football tours. By all accounts it has not disappointed this time.

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The kick-off times for both tonight’s friendly and next Tuesday’s match against Ferencvaros have been moved at the last minute from 6.30pm to 6pm local time, or 5pm BST. The scheduling for Saturday’s 7.45pm start remains unchanged.

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The Yorkshire Evening Post’s coverage of Leeds United’s pre-season tour to Slovenia is in partnership with SPIRIT Slovenia – Slovenian Tourist Board and Ljubljana Tourism. Visit www.slovenia.info and www.visitljubljana.com for information.

Leeds United in Slovenia (July 11): Read Phil Hay"s tour diary