ALAW: Belief is coursing through the veins of Leeds United’s players

Marcelo Bielsa has brought belief back to the entire city. PICTURE: Simon Hulme

After all the fanfare of promotion, the joy of winning the league, the sheer relief of returning to football’s top division for the first time in sixteen largely dismal years, the uninitiated could be forgiven for expecting that Leeds United’s initial Premier League matches might fail to live up to the hype.

Opening fixtures are notoriously tricky to judge after all, and early matchups against last year’s runaway champions, followed by the potential banana-skin of a fellow newly promoted side didn’t appear, on paper at least, to offer the most promising of returns. And yet, this is Leeds United, where expectations were long ago replaced by something far more potent; belief.

From that first thunderous win against Stoke back in 2018, Bielsaball has seemed certain to propel Leeds United back to the promised land. In contrast, the Elland Road faithful has spent most of the last decade and a half watching ruefully on as the likes of Blackpool, Hull, Wigan and other pretenders all took their shot at the big time. Leeds, meanwhile, dabbled with financial collapse, points deductions, further relegations and most damning of all, the appointment of David Hockaday as manager. At times, even the hardiest of fans must have felt their faith waver a little. Then along came El Loco. Belief now courses through the veins of Leeds’ players; it drips from the empty Elland Road stands; it echoes around the streets and houses of West Yorkshire and beyond. The Whites’ faithful having been living this ‘new normal’ far longer than most, and relishing every uncharted second.

Central to this belief system is Marcelo Bielsa himself; mercurial, meticulous, messianic and according to some, mad, if his nickname is to be believed. For the past two years he has perched calmly on an upturned bucket whilst the world and all who inhabit it revolves around him, the picture of steadfast calm. If that’s madness, perhaps we could all use a little.

Then again, maybe ‘belief’ is a more accurate term - for what else but belief could persuade a manager of international renown, having recently settled down to enjoy semi-retirement in his native Argentina, to suddenly up sticks and move almost 7,000 miles from Rosario to Wetherby on little more than a promise? Marcelo believed in those that convinced him to take the job, he believed in the players that he inherited and most importantly of all he believed, perhaps even

knew, that he could steer the club back to where it wanted to be.

And in return, that belief has been repaid tenfold, spreading beyond the club, its players and fans. Those so quick to write us off in the past are now celebrating our renaissance; media outlets clamouring for content, old rivalries once again stirring and football agent’s chequebooks twitching.

Via lengthy detours in The Championship, a short stopover in League One and thanks to the winds of change blowing in from across the Atlantic, Leeds United are once more back on the map.

And so, to the opening fixtures. The haters said we’d been gone too long; that the game had changed too much in our absence and we were just a shadow of our teams of old. But it’s funny what a bit of belief can do; two games, three points, four penalties and 14 goals later, Leeds United are Marcelo Bielsa are already picking up new disciples. ¡Viva la revolución!