It’s hard to imagine what the scenes inside Elland Road would’ve looked like in the final run up to Leeds United’s promotion during the 2019/20 Championship season.
As beautiful a moment it was for Leeds supporters when the club finally clinched their spot back in the top flight for the first time in 16 years, there will always be a bittersweet feeling that the fans couldn’t celebrate those moments in their own ground.
Marcelo Bielsa and his players from that 2019/20 team cemented themselves as legends in West Yorkshire, and that first season back in the Premier League was a joyride, even while fans still weren’t allowed back into the stadium until the very end of the season.
Flashforward to 2024, Leeds are back in the Championship but singing quite a different tune.
“I Predict A Riot” by local Leeds band Kaiser Chiefs (named after United legend Lucas Radabe’s former club) is pumping through the Elland Road soundsystem, while the stadium is bouncing off the walls.
Jubilant 17-year-old Archie Gray and 21-year-old Georgino Rutter are prancing past the West Stand with their hands in the air and the widest smiles on their faces.
The biggest match of the year in the second division has just ended 3-1 to Leeds, as the number two team in the Championship took down Leicester City who, before the match, had seemingly already run away with the title.
The cast of characters this time around look much different, but that hopeful feeling has returned to Yorkshire.
Even after dropping out of the FA Cup midweek following a hard fought contest at Stamford Bridge that eventually finished 3-2 to Chelsea, the feeling wasn’t dampened. If anything, it was emboldened.
A big reason for that is due to the performance of Gray in midfield.
The youngster has played 3,102 competitive minutes this season, the majority of them at right back. On Wednesday he was dropped into a midfield battle with the €121m and €116m transfer fee duo of Enzo Fernández and Moisés Caicdeo, and more than held his own. As the rest of the footballing world continues to wake up to the talent Gray possesses, it’s something Leeds fans and Football Manager wonderkid aficionados have already known for a while.
What makes Gray special to Leeds fans isn’t just that he’s become the latest prodigy to emerge from their academy, but it’s his familial ties to the Club. His uncle and Leed’s legend Eddie Gray was on hand for the match against Leicester when Archie scored his first ever senior goal for the club. The Grays are as Leeds as they come.
And Gray isn’t the only youngster carrying Leeds towards the promised land either. 22-year-old Crysencio Summerville has the highest FotMob rating in the Championship. Rutter has the second most assists, and 23-year-old goalkeeper Illan Meslier has kept the second most clean sheets in the second division.
The storylines keep coming when you factor in some of the veteran players as well. Daniel James, who was famously painfully close to joining Bielsa’s Leeds before his transfer from Swansea fell apart during the 2018/19 season, is thriving in the Championship.
Deemed surplus to requirements by Jesse Marsch last season, the Welshman returned to his relegated parent club during the summer while so many of his teammates who Marsch had kept left instead.
James now has 17 combined goals and assists for Leeds, and became a face fans could look to for loyalty when so many decided to depart.
Those transfers away from the club at the beginning of the season hampered Daniel Farke’s side as they tried to form an identity.
In the end, the club had to swallow an exodus of high profile players such as Tyler Adams, Robin Koch, Rodrigo, Maximilian Wober, Jack Harrison and Luis Sinisterra.
Meanwhile the club managed to retain James, Summerville, Wilfried Gnoto, and then brought in shrewd signings in Ethan Ampadu, Joe Rodon, Ilia Gruev, Glen Kamara and Joel Piroe.
Mix in some of the Bielsa veterans like Patrick Bamford, who’s having a renaissance year, and club captain Liam Cooper, and you’ve got a squad who not only rebounded from their early season troubles, but are fighting for more than promotion. They’re after the same exalted status of that 2019/20 promotion team.
Leeds now boast the best defensive record in the Championship, and have won every single game in the league in 2024. The momentum keeps building and the gap behind league leaders Leicester keeps shrinking, now down to 6 points.
Elland Road is ready to experience the riot they couldn’t in 2019/20. This latest group of Peacock promotion pushers wants to deliver that and more. For now, the beat goes on at Elland Road, and supporters have no problem signing along.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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