Leeds United and the summer of uncertainty as Premier League football beckons - Daniel Chapman

The English summer should be a long, hazy time of overheated speculation and underheated friendly football, with the occasional international tournament thrown in to save us from pretending to be interested in cricket.

Not this summer. After all the years Leeds United wasted by not winning promotion to the Premier League, they had to go and do it in this one.

We do have an international tournament of sorts, in Lisbon, where various Premier League rivals have kept Leeds fans amused by losing.

It was funny when the Old Trafford Clowns lost because it’s them; and when Frank Lampard’s Chelsea lost, because it’s him; and when Manchester City lost because we’re in their world now, and they’re in ours.

If Pep Guardiola can panic like that against Lyon, imagine his sweaty fretting next season against Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds.

Bielsa’s Leeds are the metronomic background noise keeping time to the end of the European season’s conclusion, the tick-tock of their bleep tests filling the ears of the beaten players, reminding them that pre-season starts ‘yesterday’.

The Champions League losers have a haunted look, as if TV executives are following their every move, tapping their wristwatches and frowning. ‘That’s full-time,’ they say, ‘Isn’t it about time you chaps played some more football for us?’.

They’ve not much choice. In retrospect, the long indoor months of the enforced football shutdown have been recast as an extended holiday so, if the players want a break now, they’ve had it.

Ahead of them is the league season, new European campaigns that have already started before the semi-finals of the old ones, then Euro 2020, clinging stubbornly to its old name next summer.

Start a new season after that, then look out for the surprise scheduling of the Qatar World Cup one of these winters, pushing the league into summer again.

Mateusz Klich might be looking forward to all that, but I don’t know who else.

This shortened summer is a problem for Leeds, off the pitch at least. It can’t be stressed enough that 16 years is a long, long time for a club to be away from the Premier League.

Leeds United have a lot of catching up to do, and not a lot of time to do it. And not much certainty, either.

Fans might or might not be allowed into stadiums from October, they might or might not be allowed to buy food and drink, capacity might increase over the season or be reduced again to cardboard cut-outs if we’re locked back down.

Games might or might not be sold as internet streams, the season might or might not be halted again, broadcasters might or might not demand more rebates.

The hypotheticals are tough enough for established Premier League clubs but, for Leeds United coming back after 16 years with a Main Stand out of the 1950s, they have to plan for every eventuality and for none.

Leeds have to become a Premier League club as quickly as they possibly can, while knowing they might be relegated out of it by this time next year.

The ultra-high definition floodlights peeking over the West Stand roof will look very forlorn if Don Goodman comes back to film EFL coverage on a potato. The path through the confusion, though, is simple and pure.

The one clarity that remains is sporting: don’t get relegated. Stadium rebuilds and kit sponsorships have their place, but the Peacocks’ future depends on what happens on the pitch, as it should.

It was gratifying, then, to read that Brighton plan to assess Ben White’s future when they return for pre-season.

That was an eye-opener for Leeds fans, already watching footage of the squad sweating through their new training gear, imagining Joe Gelhardt looking aghast at his new nutrition plan.

Other clubs aren’t even training yet? Get ready for Klich, everybody, the 2021 Premier League Player of the Year.

Other clubs presumably have their head coaches on contracts but, if that coach isn’t Marcelo Bielsa, I don’t know why they bother.

Speaking to my pals on The Square Ball Podcast last week, Angus Kinnear suggested Bielsa hasn’t finalised his contract with Leeds yet, because he’s concentrating on training the team.

Signatures can wait but the Premier League fixture list will not and, even if he has to work day and night for free, Bielsa is going to make sure Pascal Struijk is ready.

He hasn’t got anybody else, but that’s another story for the next few weeks.

Promotion isn’t like other victories because it’s not the end of a story. By winning the Championship, Leeds won a seat at the Premier League roulette wheel.

Now they need Bielsa to spin, spin and spin again, making his - and our - own luck.