Are Leeds United really equipped for promotion this season?

Article by Gwyn Hughes

The simple answer is no, of course. This team is simply not good enough despite the efforts they put in every game. That's the only encouraging development for me this season. The team can hold their own in the Championship and that's thanks to a combination of Brian McDermott's qualities as a manager, and the timely financial inputs from the coffers of GFH Capital, the current owners of the club. As for competing and staying in the Premiership? Forget it! And I think deep down every Leeds fan knows this. The last thing we want is a promotion and then instant relegation, or becoming a struggling team just floating above the drop zone most of the season. No, that's not what I want for Leeds United.

Realistically, what should happen next in the fortunes of our club? It is strongly rumoured that Leeds are on the verge of being taken over again with present Chief Executive David Haigh heading a consortium. And there is money available to spend in the transfer window next month. Hallelujah! It's what the club needs but I strongly feel that the players we get in won't make such of an impact as to propel us up the league and achieve promotion. And it shouldn't. We are not ready to be the big club that we are destined to be once again.

I think we as fans feel it in our water that things are not quite in place yet. The structure of the club, its finances and other necessary corporate systems that need to be firmly established, are progressing nicely. But on the playing field the team are a Jeckyll and Hyde - able to produce impressive results (away wins at Bolton and Ipswich) and disappointing ones, notably at Derby, Millwall and Barnsley. This is not the behaviour of a team that can be in the top 4 of the championship let alone the lower regions of the Premiership. The performance and result at Nottingham Forest recently is testimony to how insipid we can be. We have to be consistently dominant in games especially against the so-called big teams of the Championship. The clubs that have managed to get to the Premiership in recent seasons have acquired the stability necessary to survive there. The likes of Stoke, Swansea, Southampton and Hull have better coping systems than we have at the moment, and all are in fairly good financial health. To compete with the very top is a very long way away I'm afraid. Only a massive injection of cash will make that dream a reality. The Premier league is a vastly different animal to the one we left in 2004. If we went up this year I fear we could be another Bradford, continually trying to stay in the Premiership at all costs, and ultimately forced to drop down the leagues due to financial reasons. No, we don't wish to go down that route again, thank you very much! We need to adopt a similar framework that Swansea adopted. I was going to mention Cardiff City as well but I feel that they are heading for a Blackburn type disaster. David Haigh does not strike me as a Vincent Tan! I have been very impressed with the people running the club at the moment. They seem to share that special bond that we have as true supporters of the club. It is so important to get the foundations in place before we go up. I would not mind if we took another two seasons to reach the Premiership if it means waiting for the right conditions, financial as well as getting the right players. Unless someone comes in with a billion pounds to spare I feel that there will be a long road ahead for Leeds United to get anywhere near the position they occupied in David O'Leary's time.

The plus side, for me, is the emergence of gifted young footballers being invested in the club. There are signs that we have the genesis of Premiership class players at the club already. Just as in the late 80's and throughout the 90's we are producing a useful crop of young talent who will mature into Premiership players bonded with the loyalty to their club that is sorely absent in the game. Luke Murphy will become a good player soon, a sound investment by the manager. Alex Mowatt will become the next Gary Speed in my opinion, and will do great things for Leeds. Sam Byram is another who can give us the type of service Gary Kelly gave us in the 90's. Matt Smith is going to be a great striker for us, similar to what Lee Chapman did all those years ago. He will find his feet (and his head!) soon and become a regular goalscorer. He's shown enough for me that he can be a 20 goals a season striker. And Ross McCormack has shown already how vital he will be when we get to the Premiership.

In the next year or so I can see the likes of Paddy Kenny, Michael Brown, Stephen Warnock, Jason Pearce and Lee Peltier being replaced. They have done a useful job for Leeds but have not the required standards that we will need in the Premiership. To be fair, Kenny has been outstanding this season, but we need a younger 'keeper to succeed in this tough league.

Leeds fans have been patient for the last decade because we have had to be. The climb back to the top has been a painfully steady one, and sometimes it has felt like a sideways one at times, but the solidarity and the loyalty of such devoted fans have been the glue that has kept the club together throughout this dark period. They say that we have to take the rough with the smooth and we have had our fill of the rough times. This season has been one of clear optimism compared to last season, when it all turned sour for Neil Warnock and relegation back to League 1 was at one stage a distinct possibility. But the majority of the fans stayed loyal through the ridicule and humiliation that was heaped on the club. They will play a big part in the revival of our club. They will be needed when we return and if one thing is certain they will always be there for Leeds United.

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