Leeds United hero reveals Thomas Frank regret and Elland Road chiefs' 'should have' moment

Dallas, who was forced to retire through injury earlier this year, played 75 games for the Bees before making the move to join Leeds in August 2015. In February 2020 Dallas was preparing to return to Griffin Park for a crunch Championship promotion game that was played amid some mind games from Frank. In his pre-game press conference Frank said it was his side and not the Whites, who had lost four of five going into the game, who had all the momentum. "I am 100 per cent sure that they fear us going into this game but that is not to say that we are just going to win it," he said. "I promise you one thing, we will be absolutely at it and ready to attack."

Behind the scenes at Leeds, Frank's opposite number Marcelo Bielsa was putting thoughts in the minds of the Leeds players too.

Speaking to ex-keeper Ben Foster on an episode of Fozcast Dallas recalled: "You get to the Christmas period, the congested fixtures and you always f*** it up. We almost f***** it up. We got to a point where we had Nottingham Forest away and Brentford away. We got beat by Nottingham Forest away then went to Brentford who, by the way, were on it, steamrolling everybody and right up our backsides.

"I remember Thomas Frank saying Leeds won't fancy coming to our place. I had played there at the old stadium, knew how horrible it could be for teams. He was doing right, just putting the pressure on us. I had a little nibble back at him whenever we ended up getting promotion, I probably regret that if I'm honest.

"We went there that night and ended up drawing but before that Bielsa had a meeting and it was incredible, honestly incredible. If we could have played that game there and then we would have. It made the hairs stand on my arms and everything, just how he made us feel. Everything he showed us. That was the turning point."

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Bielsa transcended a language barrier at Leeds to convince Dallas and his fellow Leeds players of his methods and a risk-embracing style of football that could not only get results but thrill the fans. A big part of the side's mentality going into the Brentford game, which ended 1-1 and was promptly followed by a five-game winning streak, came from what Bielsa said in that meeting.

"We'd blown teams away at the early part of the season then went through this stage dropping points and there was pressure on us from our own fans, the outside and he just calmed us all down and showed us why we'd got to that position, we were good players," said Dallas. "He just had a way of making you believe. When you see you're getting results, becoming a better person individually and a better player you start to believe. He made us believe. It was like someone had turned a switch."

Leeds went on to win promotion and the Championship title, which was celebrated during the Covid pandemic without the traditional open bus parade. Dallas and his team-mates were at least able to toast their achievement at Elland Road where the former Northern Ireland international was filmed singing 'Mind the gap Thomas Frank' in that aforementioned moment he now regrets.

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The following season Leeds set about the Premier League and put together another incredible run of results that led to a top-10 finish, which Dallas believes should have been a platform to progress. Instead Leeds signed only two new senior players in Junior Firpo and Daniel James, sacked Bielsa during a poor run of form, barely avoided relegation once and then after significant managerial upheaval succumbed to the drop at the end of their third top-flight campaign.

"We started winning games and put a run together and we were hard to beat and we ended up finishing ninth which was unbelievable," said Dallas. "But the club then should have built on that going forward and then, I don't know, you don't and you end up in the Championship again."