Page 28 - We Are Premier League: LUFC Promotion YEP Special

56 I YORKSHIREEVENINGPOST www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk Satu
25,2020
WE ARE PREMIER LEAGUE: LUFC SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT
Our panel give their verdict on what proved to be a memorable promotion campaign...
So many memories as we march on
togetherbacktowherewebelong
Name: Andy Rhodes
Age: 25
United fan for. 14 yrs
Lives: Leeds
I LAVING HAD time to sit back
and reflect I’ve realised that
this season has been aboutjust
one thing: exorcising demons.
After falling to Derby County
in the play-olfs last season,
Leeds and Marcelo Bielsa had
to prove themselves all over
again. Boy have they done that.
Continuity was always
going to be Bielsa’s weapon
of choice this season and it
worked spectacularly. Key
players stayed and quality new
additions came in, something
which we’ve rarely seen before.
Together it resulted in a
perfect storm ofambition,
determination, team spirit
and talent culminating in an
achievement that will be rightly
talked about for generations to
come.
In righting the wrongs of last
season United won games they
might have previously lost.
Bielsa has squeezed every
last drop out of his players and
elevated them and himselfto
legendary status.
After 16 long years no set
of fans, players, owners or
coaches deserve it more.
Champions, again.
■ Player of the Season: Ben
Name: Jacob Starr
Age: 21
United fan for: 13 yrs
Lives: Wetherby
WELL THERE we are, another
season is over but this one is
unforgettable, unlike many
others in the past 16years. Not
simply because the surreal
times of Covid-19 caused a
four-month layoff, but because
Leeds United finished 10
points clear at the top - that’s
right, meet your 2019-20
Championship title winners.
The renowned ‘chokers’
certainly did not choke this
time around, accumulating 93
points.
Notable ment ions must go to
Ben White, calm and composed
and here's hoping his heart
is with us; Jack Harrison has
come on leaps and bounds,
Stuart Dallas, the 'Cookstown
Cafu’ and Mr Versatile, my pick
for player ofthe season.
/Mid Pablo Hernandez - the
magician and nutmeg king.
But this season hasn't been
about individuals, the spirit
ofthis team was summed
up in that manic 5-4 victory
at Birmingham and the less
eventful 1-0 win at. Swansea.
Thank-you Marcelo Bielsa.
The dream has finally become
reality. Leeds are back.
■ Player of the Season:
Stuart Dallas.
the squad pulled together and
went forward with strength.
The passion, the pride is
back in the city, the Premier
League awaits and I for one
cannot wait for the new season
to start. I’m proud to be a Leeds
fan and always have been but
this season the football I’ve
watched has been superb and
there is no better team in the
Championship.
■ Player of the Season:
Stuart Dallas.
learned and no amount of
pressure from Fulham and
then Brentford could shake the
Whites from their course.
All of our team were good
players before Bielsa came on
the scene. Every one ofthem
is now a better player and as
a unit they have nothing to
fear from their forthcoming
adventure in the Premier
League.
■ Player of the Season:Ben
White.
.
Name: David Watkins
Age: 62
United fan for: 51 yrs
Name: Matthew Evans
Age: 35
Unitedfanfor:27yrs
Lives: Great Preston
it was comfortable home
victories or grinding out
difficult away wins. The double
header at Luton and Reading in
late November was, for me, the
pivotal moment ofthe season.
Two winnable games ended
with us scrambling for a late
goal - we got it both times and
the away end went mad.
And that’s the bittersweet
coda to the season having
watched every game up until
lockdown. How we would have
It would prove to be possibly
the strangest season in the
history' of the game due to
Covid-19 and the closing of
grounds to fans. For that reason
alone it was so very Leeds that
we chose this season, ofall
seasons, and in our centenary
year, to reach the Holy Grail of
Premier League football again.
The first halfofthe season
mirrored the previous
campaign, with Leeds top at
celebrated wins over Fulham,
Stoke and Charlton at Klland
Road. Howrwre would have
exploded at Hernandez’s late
winner in Swansea.
But it wasn't to be and
watching the TV it felt almost
like the trophy lift was
happening to another team.
Thankfully, it was very much
Leeds United and we are finally
back. Next it’ll be the fans’ turn.
■ Player of the Season:
Mateusz Klich
a wobble, but another year’s
experience ofthe Bielsa MO
meant w'e were in sight of
promotion when Covid came.
TV schedules ensured
maximum pressure was heaped
on us in the final sprint, but we
dealt with it w'ell and turned
the heat on West Brom and
Brentford at the critical time.
They couldn’t deal with it and
the rest, as they say. is history.
■ Player of the Season:
Name: Keith Ingham
Age: 59
United fan for: 46 yrs
Lives: Keighley
Pablo Hernandez striking right
at the end.
The worst was another
defeat to Wigan, who seemed
determined to put a spanner in
the works ofour season. Even in
that defeat as in others United
still dominated possession and
w'ere unlucky to lose.
Another game that sticks in
the memory was Forest away, as
me and my son sat in the LUTV
studios downcast Luke Ayling
looked as distraught as us, but
longer than a single season.
Two sets ofevents stood out as
the key to our success.
Firstly, the 11-match
unbeaten run after the autumn
setbacks against Millwall and
Charlton. Then, after the low
point ofdefeat at Nottingham
Forest in February, United then
went on the rampage atjust the
right time, losingjust once in
their last 15 games, wanning 12.
The lessons from the
THIS IS the season I dreamed
of for a long 16 years. Bielsa’s
project has delivered
exactly what we required to
return to the top: honesty',
discipline, ambition and. most
importantly, belief.
We’ve gone on to get the
results we needed whether
HOW DO you put a season into
a single article?
It’s pretty1hard because
you could fill an entire sports
section with your thoughts on
it . There have been many highs
and a couple of lows, the best
for me was the last-minute win
over Swansea, the ‘magician’
Name: Mike Gill
Age: 72
United fan for. 63 yrs
Lives: St Albans
AFTER THE period of
mourning was over for the
previous season almost
everyone's thoughts were ‘how'
can w'e secure the services of
Marcelo Bielsa for another
season to finish thejob off.’
From the beginning Bielsa
^Rr Lives:MarketDrayton
WHEN PABLO Hernandez
curled a delightful left-footer
into the top left bin ofthe
Sydney Wanderers net on the
July 20,1919 little did we know'
that the forthcoming season
would not end until a year later,
almost to the day. and that
Leeds would be the Chamoions.
the turn of the vear. There was
Pablo Hernandez
set lid his olans to endure far
orevious season had been
White.
MARCHING ON TOGETHER: Leeds United’s fans may not have been there in person, but they were still able to celebrate a memorable
promotion campaign under the guidance of Marcelo Bielsa, whose players won the Championship title by 10 clear points.
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