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As football fans, we very rarely get a proper insight into the inner workings of a footballers life and what happens behind the scenes at a football club to ensure they're at their best every Saturday.

My Mate's A Footballer delves into the life of Leeds United forward Patrick Bamford, through the eyes of comedian Joe Wilkinson. Joe asks Patrick about how things have operated throughout his career since he became a professional footballer back in 2011.

We've picked out six things from the latest series that we didn't know about being a footballer...

Listen to every episode of My Mate's A Footballer on the free 大象传媒 Sounds app.

To be at their peak performance, footballers have to have really strict diets.

Most football clubs have a canteen at the training ground where players get their meals made for them.

Patrick Bamford revealed that he and his team-mates have to pay for their meals at Leeds United.

Joe: "How many meals do you have on a normal training day at the training centre?"

Patrick: "Two, every day that we're in"

Joe: "Two free meals a day, lovely."

Patrick: "No, we pay for them! Yeah, it gets deducted from your salary."

Joe: "Do you know how much it is?"

Patrick: "I'm gonna say £3.50 a day."

If you've ever watched a football match, you'll probably have noticed players raising their hands when they take a corner or a free-kick.

But why is this? Patrick Bamford explained what the different signals mean:

Joe: "You know the hand up thing? It obviously is signalling. Is it simple, short or long?

Patrick: "Sometimes the one hand can mean it's going near-post, two hands can mean it's going far-post.

"But also, it might be, for example, that you've agreed in the changing room, the first corner, whichever side we get, 'we're going to do this', in terms of, 'we're gonna put it in this area and we're gonna crash that area.'

"So, the actual hand going up and then when it comes down is as a cue for them to start their run."

The mysterious team bus, where the pre and post match conversations between the players and staff happen.

Footballers spend a lot of time travelling up and down the country with each other on the team bus, so they have to keep themselves occupied and they all have their favourite places to sit.

Patrick: "On my table, there is me and [Joe] Gelhardt facing forwards.

"And then opposite us is just Junior Firpo.

"And then on the table next to us is Joe Rodon, normally Ethan [Ampadu], if he's not injured, and Sam Byram and Alex Cairns.

"Basically, we all have a chat and then Cairnsy...

"Everyone's got like their iPads, so it doesn't take up much room and then Cairnsy whips out, I kid you not, the biggest laptop I've ever seen in my life."

When a player gets injured, they normally receive treatment from the club physio or end up getting surgery, but that's not always the case.

Patrick Bamford mentioned the time his former Leeds United team-mate, Ezgjan Alioski used an onion to help with an injury.

Patrick: "One day, he had, like, a knock or something, or got hurt in the game.

"And the next day he came in. As he walked into the physio room, he was just in his own clothes.

"There was, like, a funny smell. I'm like, 'what is that?'.

"And he took his tracksuit bottoms off. He had onions mashed up and strapped to him".

Joe: "My friend's wife did that to my friend. She's from South America.

"She put plastic bags on his feet. He had hurt his ankle, and there was slices of onion in it."

It'd be pretty nice having someone that runs around sorting out little bits of life admin for you.

Footballers kind of do have that. Most clubs have a player liaison officer that's there to help out so players don't turn their focus away from what happens on the pitch.

But do player liaison officers really do everything for players?

Patrick: "Yes and no. But there might be players that use the player liaison officer more than others.

Joe: "Some might take the ****, you mean?"

Patrick: "The player liaison might sort out something specific that a player needed.

"Say somebody driving into training cracked their windshield, and then they'll get it sorted whilst you're training."

Joe: "There'd be a line, obviously, if you went, 'can you get us a selection of different crisps?'

"Could you go, 'can you get me the new Harry Potter DVD?'

Patrick: 'No, I don't think they'd do that. I have heard of someone, though, who obviously got to training, but their petrol was low, so asked them to go fill up their car for them."

Marcelo Bielsa is an absolute legend at Elland Road. He took Leeds back to the Premier League in 2020 after a 16-year-absence.

It's quite widely known that his methods at Leeds were slightly different to other managers.

In a special episode of My Mate's A Footballer, Kalvin Phillips came on to talk to Patrick and Joe.

The former Leeds United and England midfielder recounted the time when Bielsa named the players by numbers instead of their names.

"He came and named us by numbers, didn't he? In the first team meeting

Joe: "What does that mean?"

Kalvin: "So let's say, he came up and he was like, 'number one.' Pointed to the goalkeeper.

"Pointed at me, 'number four!' and I was looking around like, 'what?!'

Listen to every episode of My Mate's A Footballer on the free 大象传媒 Sounds app.