How Leeds United's long-awaited Premier League return provided a moment of joy in a year to forget

The past 12 months have provided little to remember - but Leeds United ending 16 years of hurt has been one of them.
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After 16 years away from the bright lights of the Premier League Leeds United's long-awaited return was finally secured in the summer.

For Whites fans across the globe the experience of the last 12 months in 2020 has encapsulated many of the ups and downs suffered amid the club's plight in the lower tiers of English football.

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Leeds started the year desperate for promotion in January, thought it was all over by February and just wanted football back in any form as March turned into April.

Leeds United celebrate promotion at Elland Road by lifting the Championship trophy. Pic: Tony JohnsonLeeds United celebrate promotion at Elland Road by lifting the Championship trophy. Pic: Tony Johnson
Leeds United celebrate promotion at Elland Road by lifting the Championship trophy. Pic: Tony Johnson

By July, though, the long road back to the top was complete as a prolonged promotion race ended years of Football League hurt with the Whites claiming the Championship title by a 10-point margin.

United's financial crash around the turn of the century led to one of the biggest falls that British football has ever seen.

With Leeds rubbing shoulders with Europe's elite in the Champions League to being dumped out of the FA Cup by non-league side Histon as a League One outfit in a matter of years.

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Supporters in West Yorkshire stuck with their side through thick and thin during some dark days both on and off the pitch, and have finally been rewarded for their patience.

As 2020 would have it, those who the achievement mattered to most were held at arm's length due to the ongoing pandemic.

Though after everything that has transpired at Elland Road in the last 16 years, promotion would've been welcomed however it came about.

"I wouldn't be able to put it down to one low point," Michael Normanton from The Square Ball told the Yorkshire Evening Post.

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"I think to choose one you'd need to have an actual turning point where things got better from then on. I think the most depressing bit was that malaise of the Championship where we had the [Massimo] Cellino years.

"We'd gone through [Ken] Bates and it felt like as soon as we got rid of Bates it would be fine and then it just felt like we were going to be stuck in the Championship forever with no intention of ever trying to get out of it.

"We didn't know where the bottom was for a lot of those years. The Garry Monk season was probably when expectation started to change."

Still, though, there was no major outpouring as fans were forced to celebrate in their homes and connect through social media for a moment they waited so patiently for.

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"Leeds as a fan base can be as divided as you like at times but these are moments where we should've been together," Graham Hyde of the Leeds United Supporters Trust said.

"It's a real shame that we've not been able to have that collective outpouring. It does feel a bit 'Leeds' that it could only happen to us that we'd get that promotion moment in that way.

"I think the great thing is that because the team is playing the way they are, we can have every hope that next season we will be able to retain that Premier League status.

"We'll be able to go back safely and experience it all and come out of the other side of a horrific year."

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If Garry Monk's singular season in LS11 began the turning of the tide in 2016-17, then Elland Road was hit by a tsunami of optimism when world-renowned head coach Marcelo Bielsa put pen to paper in 2018.

As always with Leeds, there was heartbreak along the way but the rough times make the good ones better and the Argentine delivered on his promise of returning the club to where many believe it rightfully belongs at the second time of asking.

"It was a bit of a let down because I think we'd all imagined we'd be at Elland Road spilling out onto the pitch and going out afterwards into Leeds," Michael said.

"I feel like there was still the joy of getting up in the way we did and with the manager that we've got and the style we play.

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"In a way it kind of saved this year for Leeds fans with everything that has gone on.

"I think in a way it has actually highlighted that the daft bits of life are actually the fun bits that we're not allowed to do anymore.

"We can't go anywhere, see anyone or speak to people - it feels like coming together is a big part of what makes life worth living and that's been taken away.

"I'm sure promotion hasn't saved the year because it has been pretty dreadful but I think Leeds as a whole has probably benefited from the promotion in a way which is hard to quantify at the moment because of how much it lifted everyone."

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United have taken the top flight by storm so far this term, with Bielsa's men leaving many onlookers in awe at their commitment to their attacking style of play.

Elland Road is yet to take in a Premier League match with its stands occupied, but with promotion pressure having been lifted fans have been able to watch through television screens relatively desperation free in recent months.

The shackles, so to speak, are off. Leeds United are back.

"Not having that pressure to win every game is a relief," Michael added.

"For two years we've been going into every weekend checking not only your own results but everyone else's.

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"It was just constantly trying to do equations in your head of what needed to happen but now we're just looking at the Leeds games knowing that as long as we can creep towards 40 points it will be fine."

Murals have appeared across the city in ode to those that helped the club back to the Premier League, even those who have no interest in football have been hit by a wave of pride in the club and city again.

A far cry from years gone by where the two were very separate entities.

"It's been sort of brewing," Graham said of the city's new acceptance of United.

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"Leeds is a city that celebrates success really, really well. When the football team started playing well, we got Bielsa bringing almost a new moral code by which we should work and live by.

"People connected with that. Things like the art work are about reuniting the city and the football club by making sure it becomes intertwined between art, culture and football."

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