The first time Jack Harrison met Jesse Marsch the circumstances were not ideal.
A teenager playing for New York City FC in the American MLS, Harrison made his debut in what they call the ‘Hudson River derby’ against Marsch’s New York Red Bulls in 2016. ‘They beat us 7-0,’ smiles Harrison.
The next significant time the two men met, things were different but not much better. Marsch had just taken over at Leeds United last February and, on the American’s first day, Harrison was late.
‘I was waiting on the cleaners to come to my house,’ laughs Harrison. ‘They showed up late and because they didn’t have keys I had to wait for them. I was thinking, “This cannot be happening right now”.
‘Jesse was like, “Hey, Jack, I hear you were late this morning…” On his first day. Can you believe it?’
Under Marsch’s regime at Leeds’ training ground at Wetherby, fines go straight to a member of staff. So Fiona on reception got a £500 John Lewis voucher from Harrison that day. ‘That did actually make me feel better,’ adds Harrison. ‘But I have done my best to make sure it doesn’t happen again.’
Harrison, 25, is sitting in the games room in his training gear, two days out from Sunday's home game against Chelsea. He was last off the pitch. ‘I was practising my free-kicks,’ he tells Sportsmail.
Things feel good at Leeds right now, certainly better than they did towards the end of last season. When the enigmatic Marcelo Bielsa was replaced by Marsch, the new manager took a while to steer the great Yorkshire club upwards.
Much changed under the 48-year-old but for a while results did not. Only when Harrison scored in the last minute of the final game at Brentford did Leeds know they were safe from relegation.
‘People cried that day, it meant that much,’ recalls Harrison. ‘We were almost rock bottom. The home game against Aston Villa (a 0-3 defeat) was the epitome of that.
‘Fans were chanting for Marcelo and not everyone was on the same page. We had new tactics and new ways of playing. It was tough.
‘So to survive meant everything. I have watched that clip back from the Brentford game so many times. Players were on their knees. People were crying while we were actually still playing.
‘As we went back to the kick-off after my goal, Junior (Firpo) was playing behind me. I had never seen him cry before. Never. But he had a tear in his eye.
‘I had to tell him to concentrate on defending! The manager was on his knees. It was an incredible moment and it’s amazing now to look back at that period and what we went through. It’s like night and day.’
Having taken four points from their two opening games, Leeds are a settled football club. Plans are afoot to expand Elland Road — there are 25,000 on the season-ticket waiting list — while there is an intent to move the training ground to the same site.
Harrison is determined to be at the forefront of it and spent much of the summer working on his fitness at the Marbella Football Centre in Spain. It is something he has always done.
In his fifth season as a first-team player, Harrison wants to take his game to a new level. He wants to be a leader. He also wants to play for England. Subject of an enquiry from Newcastle in the summer, Harrison was asked about it on pre-season tour of Australia and was rather ambiguous with his answer. He regretted it immediately.
‘I knew nothing about it and it threw me off,’ he explains. ‘My answer gave the wrong impression from what I meant. Social media was talking about it and people were like, “What have you said?”
‘But it was nothing. My intention is to be here and work hard for this team. If anything I want to make a greater impact than before and I think this is the best place to do that.
‘My performances at the start of last season weren’t the best but I think I improved. My goal is to try to make the next England camp in September. If I am to have any chance of the World Cup at all, I will have to make that next squad.
‘It’s a big goal and my grandad would be proudest. He says he had trials at Chelsea but you never know with him! It’s a joke between us. I tell him there is no video footage...’
An attacking midfield player, Harrison knows the queue to get in to Gareth Southgate’s squad is long.
‘There is a whole bunch of talent ahead of me,’ he nods. ‘But I think I can offer versatility and my stats have been comparable with some of those guys. It makes me think I can play at that level.’
Harrison has had to have belief in himself ever since his mum Debbie suggested he leave Manchester United’s academy as a 13-year-old to pursue football opportunities in America.
‘At the United academy they have pictures of each age group on the wall and my mum asked if I recognised any of them,’ Harrison recounts.
‘Maybe there was one or two. Jesse Lingard, Ravel Morrison. But that was it. Mum was saying that just because I was at United it didn’t mean I would definitely make it. Looking back at my age group now, many are playing lower league or not playing at all.
‘She didn’t want me to have all my eggs in one basket. She wanted to open other doors for me.
‘In the end it worked out perfectly. I was able to follow my dream but also to have great experiences as a person.’
Alone and only 14, Harrison left the North West for the Berkshire School in Massachusetts. He excelled at mountain biking and at squash.
But football remained his life and he was eventually picked by Manchester City’s new MLS franchise New York City FC. There he was managed by Patrick Vieira and joined a playing roster that included Frank Lampard and David Villa. When he made his debut against Marsch’s Red Bulls, he was just 19.
‘Moving to the US was daunting but I was always an explorer,’ says Harrison. ‘It was probably more difficult for my mum as she was a single mother and I was her only child. She actually gets upset when people suggest she made me go over there. She didn’t send me anywhere. I decided.
‘I loved the New York experience even though the first thing I realised was how expensive it was.
‘My apartment was absolutely fine, but basic and about 30 minutes outside New York. But it was still $1,800 a month. I was just happy to be living that American dream.’
Life in Yorkshire is less glamorous but no less fulfilling for it. Harrison has a Costa Rican girlfriend, Fiorella, who chides him about his approach to free time.
‘She says I am like an old man who likes going for dog walks and coffees, and she is right to be fair,’ he says. ‘I am not an extravagant person.’
Back at work, Harrison sees similarities between Vieira and Marsch. Both are very much of the ‘arm round the shoulder’ school of management. Bielsa, of course, was not.
‘What Marcelo did here and how he transformed the club meant so much to millions of people around the world,’ says Harrison, who still speaks with traces of an American accent.
‘It was really meaningful so when he left there was a lot of emotion. We had so many highs and lows together. I saw him on the last day but couldn’t speak English with him.
I would have liked to have said more, to have been able to say thanks for what he did for my career. I didn’t have the chance and that’s a shame. Really sad.’
Everyone at Leeds says the same about Bielsa. Equally, there remains an acknowledgement things had to change.
Marsch’s regime is less obsessive. Players are only weighed twice a week rather than every day. The old-fashioned players’ dormitory — designed by Bielsa for sleep between training sessions but rarely used — is going to be a media room.
An intensity remains, though. Harrison reveals that his GPS stats — to measure running and sprinting intensity during training — are just as high as they were under Bielsa.
‘I was really interested to see what Jesse would do here and what he could offer the team in what was a really difficult situation,’ says Harrison.
‘But it’s been incredible. Everyone has been so positive. The start was difficult but he has imposed his style and he has managed to get us all on board now in terms of the direction he wants to take us.
‘I brought that 7-0 up when he was first here and he said we didn’t have to talk about it. It was a good ice breaker though…’