Page 2 - We Are Going Up: YEP LUFC Premier League Promotion Special

2 I YORKSHIREEVENINGPOST www.yorkshireoveningpost.co.uk Monday.July20,2020
WE ARE GOING UP: LUFC SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
Dream realised as
Leeds return to a I
Premier League in
which they belong
This is no dream. It is reality. Leeds United are back in the Premier League, a top-flightthat
has changed enormously in the 16 years since they were last there, but one in which they still
undoubtedly belong. Graham Smyth reflects on a truly memorable achievement.
k**
THE CELEBRATIONS will be
watered down, but promot ion
has given Leeds United a
vindication that is pure and
unfiitered.
Our new normal and
the pandemic restrictions
that remain in place have
robbed a city’s people of their
opportunity to gather in tens
of thousands and share the joy
a team of footballers has given
them.
A16-year wait has finally
come to an end and the party
to end all parties would have
resulted, in any other year.
But this is 2020, the year
of loss. To achieve a dream as
big as the one the Whites have
been chasing in this exact
period ofworld history is
textbook Leeds.
Nothing can dim the
satisfaction or the relief,
however. And not even a
pandemic has been able to
halt Leeds United’s return to
the big time, under Marcelo
Bielsa.
He came from Argentina
with a big reputation and a
cultish following around the
world.
He fell in love with Leeds
United and the affection the
city has for the club, which
helped keep him at Elland
Road when his first season
ended in heartache.
The manner in which
Leeds' promotion charge in
his first season spluttered to a
halt gave further ammunition
to the critics who fire bullets
marked ‘burn out’ or ‘no Plan
B' at Bielsa.
because he trusts his Plan A,
so did the club and, maybe
most crucial of all, so did the
players.
Now?, with that Plan A
taking Leeds to the top flight,
with Luke Ayling having
enough gas left in
the tank to sprint
the length of
the pitch in the
89th minute
ofthe 44th
game of a
Championship
season that, has
lasted almost a
full year, Bielsa and
his methods have been
fully vindicated.
He has not compromised,
nor has he ‘sold smoke’ as
some in his native land have
accused him of. He sold an
idea, in which he was fully
convinced and invested, and
proved beyond all doubt that
it wrorks.
There wTere, as there ahvays
will be in a game ofcountless
variables and a division as
volatile and competitive as
the Championship, bumps
along the road and questions
that kept threatening to
undermine the city’s faith in
the man and his plan.
First it was Patrick
Bamford or Eddie
Nketiah, then it
was Bamford
or Jean-Kevin
Augustin, then
Bamford or
Roberts.
Bielsa stuck
with Bamford,
who saved a
p*'
too. His decision to put his
Premier League future on
hold and say no to Aston Villa
only enhanced his popularity
among his fellow Leeds fans
and now it can be rubber-
stamped as the correct
decision.
He put his loyalty to Leeds
and his faith in the plan
before the financial gain
and glamour of top-flight
involvment and played a key
role in putting his boyhood
club back at the top table.
Pablo Hernandez, at 35,
no longer hears his name in
talk of big money moves. That
kind ofspeculation and those
compliments are paid to the
new, exciting young guns who
are trumpeted as the next big
thing.
His game-changing
cameo appearances in the
most important games of
the season, while nursing a
hamstring problem, proved
Hernandez is still the current
big thing, the biggest in the
Championship.
Ayling, surplus to
requirements at Bristol City,
has been an irresistible
force for Leeds, driving them
forward to rescue points that
looked lost.
Stuart Dallas, previously a
winger and a bit-part player,
made himselfa Player ofthe
Season candidate and an
undroppable utility man.
Mateusz Klich vowed to
prove Leeds wmong when
they farmed him out on loan
in 2018 and has hammered
home his point writh 90-plus
3J
consistency, defensive solidity
and classy ball-playing ability,
it was a masterstroke.
The signing of another
little-known quantity, Ilian
Meslier, was - on the evidence
of the 20-year-old's assured
performances - another
shrewd bit of business.
The club put a lot of stock
in Bielsa’s ability to elicit
improvement from players
who featured in season one
and if nothing else could
simply point to Jack Harrison
to prove themselves right.
Yet no matter how
good Leeds looked or how
many metrics suggested
improvement, there was
always the fear ofthe
unknown, unquantifiable
factor - how strong were they
mentally and how would they
cope with the pressure?
The answer can be found in
a 2020-21 Championship that
will take place without them.
Leeds did not fall apart
again and by holding it
together, through the
distractions of Nketiah and
Augustin’s loan deals, Kiko
Casillas racism case, a mid­
season wobble, a three-month
suspension from action,
the tragic loss of three club
legends and a number of
nerve-inducing moments of
adversity since the behind-
closed-doors restart,
vindicated their fans who have
held fast to the belief that this
club isn’tjust a big club, it’s a
Premier League club.
Leeds United are back
where they belong. Leeds
Those bullets bounced off.
consecutive starts.
United are eoine home.
The number of years
Leeds United have had
to wait to get back to the
Premier League.
MASTERSTROKE: Victor Orta was determined to sian Ben White.
^
quarter ofhis 16
goals for the run-in and can
now forever call himselfa
promotion-winning Leeds
United centre forward .
He too can feel a measure
ofvindication, having been
questioned and criticised
with more than a hint of
scapegoating on a frequent
basis.
Kalvin Phillips can feel it
*J
Liam Cooper, written offas
a League One player in some
quarters, had a fine season
for the team he supported
as a boy, more than making
up for the high-profile 2018-
19 slips that hurt him as
much as anyone. He played
through the pain barrier
on occasions to give a team
famed for attacking excellence
the defensive reassurance
they needed to pour forward
with abandon. Alongside the
captain stood a young man
who had never before played
a minute of Championship
football. Ben White was a
player Victor Orta wanted for
Bielsa’s first season in charge
and he finally got his man last
summer in what was then
seen as a gutsy, if not risky
piece of recruitment. In the
light ofWhite’s astonishing
Leeds did notfall
apart again and
vindicated their
fans, who have
heldfast to the
beliefthat this
club isn’tjust a big
club, it’s a Premier
Wk
League club.