It’s been 16 long years since Leeds United graced the eternal lights of the English Premier League.
The likes of Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell, Alan Smith and Aaron Lennon scoring goals for fun and working the midfield while Paul Robinson, who would go on to play for Tottenham was solid as keeper, are all a thing of the past. How did they go from being one of the Premier League ‘big clubs’ – playing in the Champions League semi finals in 2001 – to being relegated to League 1 in 2007?
After years of heartache and nearly returning to the promised land on a few occasions, Leeds have one of the greatest managers of our times in Marcelo Bielsa. Biela has influenced the likes of Mauricio Pochettino, Jorge Sampaoli, Gerando (Tata) Martino, Diego Simeone and Pep Guardiola.
Following the events of last season when Leeds were ever so close to gaining promotion, everyone at the club is hoping that Bielsa call pull of his greatest achievement to date by returning this club, rich in history, to the English Primer League – all in their 100th year.
Going back to the early 2000s, then chairman of Leeds United, Peter Ridsdale took out massive loans against the club, believing that Leeds would qualify for the UEFA Champions League and survive from the revenue provided by the competition.
Unfortunately it wasn’t to be as Leeds failed in successive seasons to qualify, leading to a large amount of debt that was causing financial pain for the club. This was evident when Manchester United purchased Rio Ferdinand off Leeds to become the most expensive British footballer in history at the time for £30 million pounds.
Following the sacking of then coach David O’Leary over the direction of the club, Ridsdale appointed Terry Venables hoping to revive fortunes – unfortunately this wasn’t the case.
During Venables short tenure, Leeds won only one of eight games. You can’t blame all of this on him, considering the club had so sell the likes of Jonathan Woodgate to Newcastle United, Robbie Fowler to Manchester City while also releasing English midfielder Lee Bowyer and Republic of Ireland striker Robbie Keane during the same period.
I also believe that had Venables been given the full picture, he wouldn’t have accepted the job. You can start to see a clear pattern emerging by this stage that the hierarchy at the club had no idea how to actually do their job, which resulted in Leeds United being relegated from the English Premier League during 2003–04 season.
After Leeds had sampled the Championship for a few years, other managers tried to return the club back to their glory days – again all failing in the process. In total, there have been 21 managers who have been appointed and sacked since 2004, starting with Kevin Blackwell all the way to the current manager Marcelo Biesla.
Biesla boasts the most points per game on average by any manager in the history of Leeds United (if you take out Neil Redfearn as he was only in charge for four matches, his return was 2.50 points per game). All seemed to take a turn for the worst when the club entered administration and were again relegated to the third tier of English football.
Having played in League One for three seasons, Leeds finally made their way back to the Championship, finishing second and claiming automatic promotion. However, not everything went to plan.
After finishing in seventh position in their first season back, the club remained outside the top ten for the next five years. Just to give further insight into how bad things were, during the 2014-15 season, their top scorer, Italian striker Mirco Antenucci managed to bag only 10 goals all season.
Looking back at the Cellino era at the club, which can be described as chaotic, Massimo Cellino pulled a Roman Abramovich of sorts by going through six different managers during his two-and-a-half year-reign at the club.
It makes your mind boggle considering Manchester United and Arsenal kept faith in both Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger for 20 plus years, although recent form would suggest otherwise for United at this stage. By going through this amount of managers in a short amount of time, the club didn’t progress.
Liam Cooper of Leeds. (Photo by Steve Christo – Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
Finally we come to the Radrizzani era who managed the ultimate coupe – bringing the great Bielsa to England. It is not secret that Biesla has always wanted to manage in England and now has the perfect opportunity to show off his expansive attacking style of football.
Upon his arrival, Bielsa was given a £20 million pound war chest to bring in players that would suit his style of play and provide support to the current squad. A whole raft of players were brought in such as, Lewis Baker and Jamal Blackman (Chelsea loans), Barry Douglas (Wolves), Jack Harrison (Manchester City loan) and Patrick Bamford (Middlesbrough).
They may not sound like big names that will capture the attention of neutrals; however, they have been brought in to support Bielsa’s tactical vision for the club.
Bielsa is known for his creativity, especially when it comes to tactical formations. Last season, Leeds played 4-3-3 and or 4-1-4-1 which resulted in Leeds being top of the league at Christmas before his players began burning out towards the end.
This is one area that Bielsa’s critics always return to as has been with his previous clubs where the team starts off well, then fizzles out towards the end of the season.
I understand that every manager demands their players to give 110 per cent throughout the entire season during training sessions and games; however, this is an area that I hope Bielsa looks at more carefully this season and try to prolong the fitness levels of his players and not let fatigue creep in.
This was particularly evident when Leeds lost the final play off game against Frank Lampard’s Derby County 4-2 at Elland Road (4-3 on aggregate) last season.
So far, things are looking promising for the West Yorkshire club with five wins, two draws and only one defeat in the opening eight games with only one goal conceded on the road this season.
The English media adore him, the players respect him and the fans love him with his ever imposing presence on the side lines bring back memories from the old days when Leeds were a force to be reckoned with.
Bielsa would have learned his lesson from the previous season and the demands that are placed on players across all English football competitions.
You never know, with a bit of Bielsa magic, hopefully we’ll see Leeds United hold it out this season and return back to the English Premier League and become a powerhouse of English Premier League clubs once again.
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