Leeds United produced a scintillating comeback at Elland Road on Monday night to beat Sunderland 2-1 in a big Championship game. The three points took the Whites back to the top of the table while ensuring that the Black Cats are more or less out of the automatic promotion race. Pascal Struijk scored two late goals to send the stadium into a delirium. The resultant celebrations also earned Daniel Farke a ridiculous yellow card, which banned him from the touchline for his side’s trip to Bramall Lane next Monday. However, there is now an atmosphere of joy around Leeds as the fans are anticipating a return to the Premier League at the end of the season. But their work will be cut out if they go up given the poor record of promoted teams in recent years.
The Whites are now looking poised to earn automatic promotion and return to the promised land of the Premier League at the end of the season.
Sheffield United boss Chris Wilder has already anointed Leeds United as the probable champions this season and while it is just more mind games, there is merit to his words given their form.
However, people around Leeds are acutely aware that promotion will bring more challenges and surviving in the Premier League is getting increasingly difficult for the teams going up from the Championship.
The three teams inside the relegation zone in the Premier League are the sides who got promoted from the Championship last season and at least two of them look certain to go straight back down.
But there is an expectancy around Leeds that if they go up, the Whites would do better and everyone remembers Marcelo Bielsa’s first season in the top flight when the Yorkshire giants finished in the top half.
Leeds United are a legacy club, they should do better if they come up – Simon Jordan
There is palpable excitement around Leeds and everyone is now expecting them to go up and be part of the Premier League next season, possibly as the Championship winners.
However, the Premier League has a cruel way of bringing down teams to earth. Leicester and Ipswich’s domination in the Championship last season has counted for anything this year.
Jordan conceded that the numbers are clear – teams coming up from the Championship are finding it harder every year to survive in the top flight.
However, he believes ‘a legacy club’ like Leeds to do better as they have the pedigree and the experience to buck that trend and stay up in the top flight.
He feels Leeds made several mistakes in their last season in the Premier League, which include persisting with Marcelo Bielsa for too long and appointing the wrong manager in Jesse Marsch.
But the former Crystal Palace owner believes Leeds are one of the big clubs who deserve to be in the Premier League and will add to the top flight’s iconography.
“We’ve got this statistic that suggests that more teams are going straight back down that have come up, is not the ideal scenario”, Jorda said on talkSPORT.
“I think Leeds have an opportunity to avoid that, they’re a bigger club, they’ve got the experiences of being in the Premier League, they committed an act of self-harm, I think the appointment of Jesse Marsch was a bad appointment, they let Bielsa go on too long, the wrangles in the boardroom between Radrizzani and the Americans created a disconnect.
“But they’re a big, big club and I don’t like to say they deserved to be in the Premier League but they’ve got the scale and size to add to the Premier League.
“Leeds United are a legacy club in lots of ways.”
Recruitment will make-or-break Leeds in the Premier League
If Leeds get promoted, the summer transfer window could go on to decide whether they survive in their first season back in the top flight.
The club paid for making some expensive mistakes during their last two transfer windows in the Premier League and got relegated from the top flight.
While transfers are not an exact science yet, Leeds need to ensure that most of the players they end up bringing in play a big role in keeping them in the top flight.
Can you name these 10 Leeds United players from the 2000s?
Leeds cannot afford to make too many expensive errors as even a solid transfer window is no guarantee of survival but a bad window will almost surely end up costing them.
Daniel Farke will need to do better than his previous experiences in the Premier League and show a more pragmatic side but he will need the club’s backing in the summer.
Leeds should be able to attract better players if they are in the Premier League but they must learn from their past mistakes and be a bit more judicious in the next window.
