Henry Winter is at it again. Why does he love Leeds so much?

Leeds United’s passionate fanbase will ensure club recover from latest heartache

One email shows why Leeds United will return to the Premier League one day, why all that incredible, unconditional passion for the team will be rewarded, why the heartache sweeping the city today will heal eventually and the fans will be there in force at Elland Road again next season, still believing.

The email to two Leeds fans read: “Happy Birthday from everyone here at Ipswich Town Football Club. Have a fantastic day and thank you for your support.” Over the past three weeks, at least two Leeds United supporters have received these merry missives from Ipswich congratulating them on their birthdays. They became members at Portman Road in the hope that the last game of the regular season would have seen Leeds promoted automatically. They wanted to be there, couldn’t get tickets among Leeds’s huge away following, but couldn’t bear the idea of missing such a glorious moment for Marcelo Bielsa and his team after 15 years out of the Premier League.

At the time, during mid-April wins over Preston North End and Sheffield Wednesday, it seemed that Leeds would hold off the challenge of Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United and progress with Norwich City back to the elite league. Hence the planned party at Portman Road that nobody wanted to miss. As Leeds’s season then collapsed, and they fell into the play-offs, the cheery birthday emails felt even more cruel. Typical Leeds, one of them felt. Snatching despair from the jaws of joy. And then getting that email.

This is a Leeds theme, going back to producing an accomplished team under Don Revie but having it belittled nationally as “dirty” when it contained players of genuine grace like Eddie Gray. When Jimmy Armfield’s side reached the 1975 European Cup final, they were undone as much by unsympathetic refereeing as Bayern Munich’s quality. When Howard Wilkinson’s side won the title in 1992, again it felt like slightly begrudging praise of a fine side with a beautifully balanced midfield in Gordon Strachan, David Batty, Gary McAllister and Gary Speed. Even Leeds’s prominence around the millennium, and run to the Champions League semi-final, blessed with a side brimming with precocious talent, was overshadowed by tragedy, court cases, overspending and, eventually, relegation. And now this. Heartbreaking for Leeds fans. Again.

Those who follow Leeds could be forgiven for thinking their beloved club was benighted. Time after time, striding towards the sunshine and they encounter a storm. Life’s an ambush. Last night, Derby County kept their nerve and progressed to the play-off final. Typical Leeds, it had to be Derby frustrating them, their nemesis after all the furore over Spygate.

Leeds’s season finished abruptly, painfully, leaving a difficult inquest raging. Yet amid all the words of anguish tumbling forth, here are a couple of numbers: 36,786 and 36,326. These are the last two attendances at a heaving Elland Road and this is why Leeds will one day return to the Premier League. The support. Another number: two, those emails from Ipswich. Other fans got membership, too.

Because this is what Leeds means to them, and why they will be refreshing their browsers at 9am on Thursday 20 June, to see where the EFL is going to send them in the Championship. They will plan trips, book trains and time off, knowing that TV will shift some of their fixtures. Leeds are box office, the biggest draw in the Championship. The broadcasters would have loved them in the Premier League. That atmosphere, that passion, and that football, too.

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And this is where Leeds fans will really hope and pray, that Bielsa stays. If anything, Leeds are ahead of schedule. Bielsa took a group of players idling mid-table and got them playing this mesmerising, high-octane, if sapping, football. The energy and intensity of the team, embodied by Kalvin Phillips, echoing the stands, was remarkable. Leeds players and supporters love Bielsa.

Leeds’s passionate fanbase is crucial in helping the club return to the Premier League
Leeds’s passionate fanbase is crucial in helping the club return to the Premier League
MATT WEST/BPI/REX
Leeds’s majority owner, Andrea Radrizzani, needs to be at his eloquent best to persuade Bielsa to stay, promising him sufficient funds to find a more clinical finisher, to bring in a player like a Che Adams from Birmingham City or Neal Maupay from Brentford. If Bielsa goes, it will be another body blow to Leeds, but they will recover. They must just find another galvanising leader. They can continue to build around hungry prospects like Jamie Shackleton, 19. Leeds’s support will rally round. They always do. The darkest hour is always just before the dawn.

Posted By: Trent_Canary on May 17th 2019 at 14:06:56

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