Page 15 - We Are Going Up: YEP LUFC Premier League Promotion Special

RESTORING ORDER
THINGS GOT rough after
United’s remarkable victory
at Birmingham despite Leeds
starting the year with a 1-1
draw at West Brom and then
excelling in a third round FA
Cup clash against Arsenal.
The Whites dominated the
first-half against the Gunners
but were ultimately sent out
via a 1-0 defeat. All focus now
on the league.
Yet United then lost four
of their next five games with
a 3-2 win at home to Millwall
sandwiched by a 2-0 loss at
home to Sheffield Wednesday
and 1-0 setback at QPR with a
WITH BIG POINT AT BRENTFORD
THE DREAM
WEEKEND I
LEEDS LOOKEDto be
cruising to automatic
promotion after seeing off
Fulham with the Whites
holding an eight-point
cushion in the
automatic
promotion
spots. -m
But the
gap was
quickly
reduced to six
points after United
were held to a 1-1 draw at
home to Luton Town and a
relentless Brentford side
were winning every game.
Leeds replied with back-
to-back wins at Blackburn
Rovers and Swansea
City either side of a 5-0
battering of Stoke City at
Elland Road meaning four
points from United's last
three games would take
them up. Stress free?
Hardly, with United then
surviving an onslaught
from bottom-of-the-table
Barnsley at Elland Road as
the Tykes wasted several
glorious chances. But
United somehow dug out a
1-0 victory that ultimately
sent the Whites up after
West Brom’s subsequent
defeat at Huddersfield Town
the following night with the
title sealed the next day as
Brentford also lost at Stoke
1-0 Elland Road reverse against
Wigan Athletic and 2-0 defeat
at Nottingham Forest on
the other side.
Someofthe
results beggared
belief given
United's
dominance but
Leeds’ continued
failure to take
their chances was
proving the major
Achilles heel and the 2-0
defeat at Forest felt like a very
dark day. From being 11 points
clear in the automatics, United
were now clinging on to second
place by goal difference and
with next opponents Brentford
only three points away in
fifth. Leeds were only
five points clear of
seventh. Yet United
produced a fine
display at Griffin
Park in which
only a gaffe by
keeper Kiko Casilla
allowed the Bees
to take the lead. Liam
Cooper soon bagged a
United equaliser and the result
proved the start of a huge
turnaround with the Whites
winning their next five.
FULL CONTROL
MATTERS TOOK another huge
step forwards on May 23,
2017 when Andrea Radrizzani
announced his 100 per cent
buyout of the club
by purchasing
the remaining
50 per cent of
shares owned by
Massimo Cellino
who was now
gone.
But Leeds were
rocked just two days
later when head coach
Garry Monk resigned after
failing to reach an agreement
with Radrizzani. Radrizzani
appointed Danish manager
Thomas Christansen as head
coach and despite selling
Chris Wood to Burnley for
£15m with Charlie Taylor
also leaving for the
Clarets, Leeds
began brilliantly.
Yet United’s form
then dropped
with Christiansen
sacked and
replaced by Paul
Heckingbottom in
February. Heckingbottom
won just four games as Leeds
finished 13th and Radrizzani’s
next move was crucial.
PUTTING AWAY FULHAM IN FRONT OF 15,000 CROWDIES
LEEDS MADE it five wins in
a row with a 2-0 success at
Huddersfield Town on March
7 - and nobody could have
envisaged what would happen
next.
Due to the global pandemic
of coronavirus, United
would not kick another ball
competitively until June 21
as the Championship season
was suspended with United
top and seven points clear in
the automatics with Fulham
third. Would the season even
be concluded? If not, news
emerged that United would
another ball via the EFL’s points
per game method.
But come the third
weekend in June,
the show finally
got back on the
road with games
played behind
closed doors
and United’s
return did not
go according to
plan via a 2-0 defeat
at Cardiff City. Leeds
were still looking good but
the importance of their next
clash against third-placed
Cottagers presented with an
opportunity to move within
four points of the Whites.
Yet in front of 15,000
life size cut outs of
fans at Elland Road,
Scott Parker's side
were left rueing
their inability to
make their first-
half dominance
count as goals from
Patrick Bamford,
Gjanni Alioski and Patrick
Bamford gave Leeds all three
points. A thriving Brentford
side were now the clear main
M ARCELO BIELSA
WHITES CHAIRMAN Andrea
Radrizzani, managing director
Angus Kinnear and director
offootbalI VictorOrta had to
get the next managerial
appointment
right with clear
momentum
lost during the
second half of
the previous
campaign.
And on June
15,2018, the trio
announced they had
landed former Argentina
manager and the world-
the club's new head coach.
Patrick Bamford joined for
£7m and Leeds destroyed
title favourites Stoke City
on the opening day
before spending the
majority of the
‘Spygate’ season in
the top two only
to somehow fall
away and finish
third with more
play-off heartache
and defeat to Derby
County in the semi-finals
to follow. Yet this time, the
ultimate compensation would
be promoted without kicking
Fulham was obvious with the
dangers.
City.
renowned Marcelo Bielsa as
be on its way one year later.
2015-16: FROM ‘HEAVY METAL TO
STEVE EVANS
WITH CELLINO having
been given Football League
permission to return to
United’s board, Leeds began
what was now a
sixth consecutive
season in the
Championship
with another
new manager in
former Brentford
and Wigan
Athletic boss Uwe
Rosier.
But Roster’s ‘heavy metal’
football lasted only 12 games
with Cellino firing Rosier
in October and looking to
former Rotherham United
boss Steve Evans as Roster's
replacement. Evans out-lasted
his predecessors by some way
as part of a season which
saw Leeds sign Chris
Wood for £3mfrom
Leicester City plus
Stuart Dallas from
Brentford for
£1.3m. There was
clear promise on
the pitch yet United
ultimately still only
finished 13th and a teary Evans
waved farewell to United’s fans
in the season finale 1-1 draw at
Preston.
2016-17: GARRY MONK AND ANDREA
RADRIZZANI
THERE WERE clear signs of
promise under Redfearn,
Rosier and Evans and the 2017-
18 campaign saw Leeds make
giant strides under new
boss Garry Monk,
only for the season
to ultimately end
in tears.
Even more
significantly,
January also
saw the arrival of
Andrea Radrizzani
who became co-owner
in purchasing 50 per cent of
the club. Before Radrizzani’s
arrival, former Swansea City
boss Monk was brought in
by Cellino to replace Evans in
June and United signed two
of today’s promotion-winning
stars in Pablo Hernandez
and Luke Ayling,
as well as Kemar
Roofe and Pontus
Jansson. Out
went Lewis Cook
to Bournemouth
for £7m but United
and Monk quickly
clicked only for a
dreadful start to the new
year and awful Easter to
cost Leeds dear in a seventh-
placed finish.
2017-18: ANDREA RADRIZZANI IN
2018-19: ALMOST THERE UNDER