Брентфордтой хийсэн тоглолтод тэнцээ авснаар Лидс Юнайтед улирлыг хожигдолгүй үргэлжлүүлж, багийн нэгдмэл байдлаа харууллаа.
Элланд Роуд цэнгэлдэхэд болсон тоглолтын эхний хагаст Брентфорд давамгайлж, Лидс Юнайтед тоглолтын хэмнэлээ олох гэж ихээхэн хүчин чармайлт гаргав. Тоглолтын явцад Жо Роден бэртлийн улмаас талбайг чөлөөлөх шаардлага гарсан нь Даниел Фаркегийн хувьд хүндрэл учруулсан ч хоёрдугаар хагаст тактикийн өөрчлөлт хийснээр тоглолтын санаачилгыг эргүүлэн авч чадсан юм. Улмаар Лукас Нмечагийн дамжуулалтаар Доминик Калверт-Льюин гоол оруулж, тоглолтын харьцааг тэнцүүлсэн байна.
Лидс Юнайтед сүүлийн үед бүрэлдэхүүнээ чанаржуулж, Манчестер Ситигээс хаалгач Жеймс Траффордыг клубийн дээд амжилт болох 40 сая фунт стерлингээр эгнээндээ нэгтгэн, Итан Ампаду нарын гол тоглогчидтой гэрээгээ сунгаад байна. Удирдлагын зүгээс тогтвортой бодлого баримталж байгаа нь багийн амжилтад эергээр нөлөөлж, арванхоёрдугаар сараас хойш хийсэн 27 тоглолтод ердөө таван удаа хожигджээ.
Дасгалжуулагч Даниел Фарке багийн уур амьсгал болон тоглогчдын өөртөө итгэх итгэл нэмэгдэж байгааг онцлоод, ирээдүйд Европын тавцанд гарах болон дээд лигтээ байр сууриа бэхжүүлэх зорилготой байгаагаа илэрхийлэв. Хөгжөөн дэмжигчид болон багийн удирдлагын нэгдмэл байдал нь Лидс Юнайтедын энэ улирлын амжилтын үндэс болж байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
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Mel describes himself as “buzzing” as he waits and wobbles in an unfeasibly long queue outside Graveleys Fish & Chips.
It is an hour before kick-off at Elland Road and Mel has enjoyed “a couple” of pints which, as everybody knows, is code for several, and he is craving something battered and deep-fried to either soak up the alcohol or gently pickle in it. “We’ve made some decent signings,” he says/sways. “It feels like we’ve got a chance. We’re managing to not f*** things up.”
The last sentence is accompanied by a tone of incredulity, which turns out to be prophetic because after a summer of Marching on Together, as the anthem goes, Leeds United are suddenly marching directly into a brick wall. Our league can be like that, turning off-days into mood-crushers, and this has all the hallmarks of one, from the early loss of Joe Roden to injury to a meekness that feels ingrained beneath the skin.
They fall behind to Brentford and deserve to. They are passive, uncomfortable. By the end, though, the gears have ground and the volume risen and it is pure force and full-throttle and “Leeds, Leeds, Leeds”. Even now, there are few ballsier or more intimidating arenas than here on matchday, when players swarm like the crowd sounds and they become undeniable. There can be beauty in bile and artistry in aggression and, historically, Leeds have specialised in both.
“The storm was always going to come,” Brentford’s Keith Andrews says, a poetic way of putting how Elland Road can feel.
“It’s an amazing place. The club has ebbed and flowed over the past 10, 15 years, as everyone is aware, but it’s always a spicy atmosphere, which I really love. Some of our players will be used to it, some less so. You’ve got to be ready for every punch that gets thrown at you.” A storm of punches are what Leeds are, except they are now boxing clever.
The adrenaline of Elland Road (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
Back where it all ended, there is regrowth amid the rubble. Behind the West Stand is a building site, a place of physical transformation in granite and steel and a scene of rejuvenation. Leeds were the last team to win the English title prior to the formation of the Premier League in 1992 and a great northern powerhouse is stirring. They are no longer dream-chasers and club-wreckers, but reconstructed on stable foundations and common sense.
Those white strips of theirs have always been a mirage; Leeds are nobody’s idea of innocents. Yet the modern incarnation carries a tinge of it. In a pre-season poll in The Athletic, their fans declared themselves the most optimistic in the Premier League, a peculiar thing for a club that had been promoted the year before and then finished 15th. Yet since early December, their form has blossomed. It now features five defeats in 27 league matches and a list of sound decisions.
As plenty of clubs demonstrate, not f***ng up can be surprisingly problematic and Leeds made a habit of the opposite. Having entered the Premier League era as ferocious rivals to Manchester United, they bluffed and blundered, spending too much, delivering too little and then toppling down the divisions and splattering into League One. Their promotion from the Championship in 2020 was a fever dream of chaos, but they were relegated again three years later.
In the past 20 years, Leeds fans have seen them slip down to League One and bounce back to the Premier League (Molly Darlington/Getty Images)
The new Leeds is both different and the same. Outside the ground, it is old-school sensory overload: a lad in a replica kit with “0 DAYS SOBER” on the back; scarves wrapped around the forearms and biceps of Billy Bremner’s statue; a brass band playing the Kaiser Chiefs and duelling with a bag-piper; the South Stand Catering truck doling out salt and chilli chicken chunks for £10 a pop; a beery waft from outside The Old Peacock.
Mel is simultaneously bullish and fatalistic. He kept coming when the club was flatlining; he fell in love with Marcelo Bielsa, the maverick Argentinian who took them up six years ago; he believed and then cursed himself for his naivety and told himself he would never believe again. “Part of me knows how this ends, because it always ends the same way,” he says. “But another part of me feels positive. I just don’t really want to say it out loud in case I jinx it.”
The way Leeds begin is distressing evidence of Mel’s profundity. The stadium bellows as the game starts, but it is a climax in reverse. Brentford take the ball and keep it; “we were magnificent”, Andrews tells reporters. At half-time, Daniel Farke notices that his players “are a bit shocked”, as if “they were doubting themselves”, but he makes changes and switches formation, and the team stop doubting. They earn their point in the most basic meaning of the word.
This Leeds optimism was provoked but survived, which is what happens when clubs have a bedrock of solidity. Farke negotiated a challenging November, when his position was vulnerable and he now finds himself the third longest-serving manager in the league. They have bought quality — James Trafford, the England goalkeeper, arriving from Manchester City for a club-record fee of £40million — while key players such as Ethan Ampadu have agreed contract extensions. They are settled.
Leeds head coach Daniel Farke (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
After staying up, with Elland Road being modernised and remodelled, there is a feeling of forward momentum to Leeds. Farke’s squad is populated by firm characters, and the ownership is aligned. Paraag Marathe, the chairman, did a lap of the pitch before the game, posing for selfies, shaking hands and chatting to fans. If there was an edginess to their first-half performance — no shots on target, three touches in the Brentford box — there was also knowledge; they can and would be better.
“Someone outside was saying to me that the place felt calm today, even though it was a difficult first half, that there was big belief,” Farke says. “I’m not sure if Leeds will ever be calm. I don’t want this place to be calm. We are the most passionate club in the whole country, and I don’t want to change that one bit. But you could really feel there was a confidence and trust that we would find a way back into this difficult game, to not crumble or fall apart.”
To clarify, this was absolutely not calm. Leeds roused and rallied and roiled. Their fans railed, singing “We are Leeds” and chanting “W***ers, w***ers, w***ers” at the officials. The storm came, and it was a rager, pushing Brentford back and bringing with it a tang of inevitability, made flesh when Dominic Calvert-Lewin met a driven cross from Lukas Nmecha to equalise. But nor was there fluster or panic. Carnage was controlled.
This idea of Leeds and trust, Leeds and unity, is compelling. “The club had the best times in their whole history when it was united,” Farke says. “It’s what our name says. It’s crucial. Will it be possible to establish ourselves back in the top flight and then hopefully one day also speak about the top half of the table or even about Europe and back to the glory old years of three decades ago? We are united. Everyone is on the same page.”
Like Brentford, Farke’s side remain unbeaten, and the city is humming, crammed with revellers who are here for the Leeds Festival and those who are smitten with their club all over again.
In a text message — surprisingly coherent given the circumstances — Mel says he is heading back to the Old Peacock for another “couple,” to toast Farke and a decent draw and not f***ng up. “I can feel it,” he says. “We’re going to have a good season.” Maybe it is the drink talking, but Leeds mean business.
