Bench on Saturdays, reserves in midweek — not that Derek Lilley was complaining. In the reserves he had the pleasure of being coached by Eddie Gray, in a team that went from the ridiculous — playing alongside Rush, Brolin and Palmer — to the sublime.
This time last season Leeds were a team with dimensions we hadn't had seen, possibilities we hadn't yet explored. And they're like that now, again.
Milan, and Barcelona, and Kim Milton Nielsen, and UEFA, and probably Christos Michas, all stood between Leeds and six more lucrative group stage games.
Casper Ankergren fell in love with English football, and with Leeds, straight away. He even fell in love with Dennis Wise.
Everyone working in football knows that everyone working in football — at and near the top, at least — is paid too much money, and that the game would be better in almost every way if they were paid less money. The inflation of football, in Bielsa's phrase, needs to pause.
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This gets to the heart of why some Leeds fans don't get along with Daniel Farke's management: he is pathologically incapable of telling fans what we want to hear.
Davide Somma scored every 114 minutes for Leeds, and the sensation of his potential has never left many of us who watched him play: imagining what he could do if he was first choice, knowing what he would do when he came off the bench.
The second goal summed up the second half. Bournemouth were incisive as soon as Leeds were disorganised, after Leeds hadn't disorganised Bournemouth enough to get a shot on target.
Leeds fans are clamouring to see Jean-Mattéo Bahoya, but Daniel Farke is a gradualist, who just wants to do his shopping in peace.
David White was a first class midfielder in the prime of his careers, who rather than find a new, positive path at Elland Road wandered, frustratingly, further away. But there was more to his story.
Leeds are doing fine. But when every opponent has something to prove to themselves and against our history, do we need some drama of our own for more than fine?
We're lucky, as football supporters, that we have two ways to win: the goal, or the tackle that stops the goal, are equally valuable to our weekend.
Diligent, loyal, reliable: you can see why Howard Wilkinson loved having David Wetherall at Leeds. And why Leeds fans who watched him play didn't have the urgency of others for moving on from the Molenaars, the Wetheralls of this world.