Luke Ayling reveals Championship sadness and hope for a different kind of Leeds United promotion

The experienced full-back is into his 14th season as a professional footballer having started out at Arsenal and dropping down the leagues, before working his way back up to the top flight with a Leeds badge on his chest.

Speaking to the YEP at the club’s 2023/24 media day, Ayling freely admitted the squad’s target for the coming season is promotion, something he and a handful of others in the group achieved three years ago.

This time around, though, Ayling is keen to do it in front of supporters, admitting the 2020 Championship title win was tinged with sadness due to the fact the team could not celebrate promotion with fans in stadiums.

"It was real hard,” the right-back said, describing last season’s relegation on the final day. “It wasn’t just last year, I think it was a build-up of 18 months but to finally put it behind us, as a club we’ve got to look forward, we can’t keep looking back.

"It’s [The Championship] a great challenge for us, I’ve been promoted here before, I was very sad the fans weren’t here to see it. We worked so hard to get this club promoted.

"As soon as that last game was done, I took a bit of time to get over it, but then all my focus was to make sure that come the end of the season, we can be out there with the fans.

"It was still a great achievement and we still had a great time, but there was always that one thing missing and that was the fans inside Elland Road then afterwards the bus tour and all this kind of stuff,” Ayling added.

Leeds supporters congregated at Elland Road on the night they were crowned champions back in July 2020, but compared to promoted clubs in recent seasons, the Whites’ celebrations were somewhat subdued and understandably so due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic at the time.

United are still active in the transfer market and will be keen to supplement Daniel Farke’s squad with players capable of helping return the club to the top tier of English football once again.