Can Leeds stay In the Premier League (If they go up this season)

There was a time, not too long ago, that I seriously thought that if Leeds achieved promotion from The Sky Bet Championship, they would struggle to sustain even a one season stay in the Premier League.

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Article by Gwyn Hughes

At the time, which was about when Brian McDermott was manager, the club was unstable on all fronts, and under such weak foundations I believed that they would struggle to compete. The only way for a permanent stay in the top league was to build slowly and establish firm foundations first, in the Championship, rather in the way Middlesborough or Bournemouth did it. Both of those teams took a few years but finally made it after coming consistently close in previous campaigns. Bournemouth especially have firmly established themselves in the top league.

Now, with the way things have developed at Leeds this season, I have completely changed my mind.

Fast forward to the Leeds United of 2016-17!

Leeds have become a juggernaut of a club in 2017 and is capable of going up and staying in the Premier League because everything seems to be in place already. Such is the progress Garry Monk and his staff have made in half a season! Momentum was established on the pitch after the away win at Norwich in November and it has snowballed for all to see today. I’m convinced that this progress also convinced our new investor to join the club last week.

Andrea Radrizzani is now our new co-owner. By acquiring 50% of Leeds United he has given an already impressive situation a welcome shot in the arm. He took his time. The process took well over 6 months for it to happen. He probably needed it to be sure he was doing the right thing!

With him on board Leeds can become a Premier League club again.

Even better, he will make it possible for Leeds to now compete with other clubs in the transfer market. He is reportedly a very wealthy man having recently sold a majority of shares in his media rights company.

Having money to spend is uncharted waters for Leeds. This hasn’t happened for a very long time, holding the club back big time. Being an impoverished club kept it in the nether regions of the football league for what seems forever.

Back in McDermott’s time, there was obviously no significant money available to buy the quality needed to win promotion, but the ownership was too chaotic and quite frankly leaderless anyway. If by some miracle we had got promotion, relegation would have surely followed, and I would have hated it for Leeds to become a yo-yo club.

Good owners make good decisions and have a secure plan to succeed. That has to be in place before any thoughts of progress whether in the Championship or in the Premier League. Leeds under Massimo Cellino and the previous hapless owners we’ve had have not struck me as being competent and serious enough to make it happen.

Also I don’t think that we had managers that fulfilled the qualities that they undoubtedly had. Brian McDermott had achieved promotion from The Championship with Reading, so the pedigree was there. Simon Grayson could have got promotion if only the club had given him money. We had some decent players under him but we needed more depth in the squad. It was really disappointing to have nothing to shout about in the second half of previous seasons. Leeds usually fell away as genuine promotion hopefuls on a regular basis. Even the decent team Simon Grayson had in 2011-12 petered out not long after the January sales finished.

This season we are in the mix for promotion!

But clubs don’t get promoted with just good managers, even those with decent CV’s. After having an owner who has basically been fumbling in the dark for three years with our great club, the team of this season has had the fans experiencing excitement that is comparable to the levels not witnessed since the golden days of Sgt. Wilko.

It has the same feeling.

A corner has been turned this season. All the cogs for success are definitely in place. We have unearthed a gem of a manager in Garry Monk. How we got him is uncertain still, but I’m pretty sure Swansea are regretting getting rid of him judging the difficulties they’ve had in replacing him. He wasn’t even Cellino’s first or second choice, but we are all mighty glad we have him in charge.

He has succeeded in creating a symbiotic relationship between the players and the fans, something I have not witnessed since those great days under Howard Wilkinson. There are at least 10,000 extra fans turning up at Elland Road these days which is phenomenal achievement in such a short time frame.

One would think that the extra revenue in gate receipts alone would easily cover the transfer fee for our successful centre back pairing of Pontus Jansson and Kyle Bartley. It’s brilliant to see Elland Road packed again.

Monk has acquired the right players and has visibly improved the youngsters of the team. Ronaldo Viera, Kalvin Phillips and the bought Kemar Roofe have all improved since they got in the team and are now 1st team regulars. He is a Premier League manager and most of the team that get picked every week are of Premier League standard, in my opinion.

Monk has shown already that he is quality. His decision making and tactical nous has been outstanding, changing games in our favour whenever things don’t go according to plan, as in the recent games against Rotherham and Cambridge.

Radrizzani will surely buy the club outright by the start of next season, but for now I hope that he gives Monk the funds to cement this team as one of the best in the Championship, an accolade that they quite frankly already deserve. No matter how good we are at the moment, we must make quality additions in this transfer window.

In a short time, Cellino’s influence will finally float away into the ether. He saved the club there is no doubt about. However, since he became owner, he has either been banned or been under investigation, and that does not promote a healthy and stable environment. Radrizzani must be the one to take the club forward and restore Leeds United to its rightful position in the Premier League again.

We hope so.

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