My Leeds United - Comedian Micky P Kerr on the pain, glory and baffling Elland Road boardroom decisions

Micky P. Kerr is a comedian, a ‘tortured songsmith’ and a Leeds United supporting football obsessive.

“Leeds United can hurt.

I apologise for the oxymoron but that’s the biggest understatement I’ve ever written. When I was in my final year of primary school Leeds were crowned champions, the best team in England and Wales (and Scotland) and I grew up with a winning mentality.

My team were title contenders, winners.

Unfortunately, I was too young to appreciate that feeling and challenging for the Premier League is a little unrealistic right now (said every Leicester fan in 2014).

Losing to Villa in 1995 was the next sniff we had but in the late 90s it was glory again.

What a team. What beautiful football. What an incredible time it was, beating the best in Europe, never mind England. The whole city was buzzing and we called each other’s phones in heavenly disbelief with every passing victory. Elland Road was as vibrant as any football stadium in the world; you walked there with a spring in your step.

Then everything changed.

Relegation is very painful but not as painful as a play-off final defeat. That 3-0 loss to Watford was a huge turning point in our modern history and we were sent spiralling to the third tier.

The coach back from Cardiff was seven hours long and I’ll never forget the heartache.

Losing to Doncaster just felt ridiculous and by then I was becoming immune to the misery, it was just so ridiculous. Minus 15? Doncaster? Third tier?

I attended Elland Road quite regularly when we were in League One and I’m glad I did because you can appreciate the good times even more. There was a fan camaraderie, we were all going through it together, it was gallows humour but the support was still there for a mighty club in dire-straits.

Then Grayson dragged us back into the Championship, within touching distance of the PL (promised land). Cheers Simon. Just as we were starting to build again the circus that is Leeds United came back to town and we were sacking three managers a week – I’ve always loved Leeds with all my heart but at times it’s felt like an abusive relationship; the baffling boardroom decisions, the laughter of rival fans.

In 2018, I went on a TV talent show and the camera showed me doing a Leeds salute to the crowd (in Salford) and my twitter feed went mental. I couldn’t believe the stir it caused, it felt like every Leeds fan in the world was getting in touch.

The whole club got behind me and the feeling was overwhelming, it felt like I was part of a family. I got to the final and did the worst performance ever seen on TV – I still got 70,000 votes – they were all Leeds fans.

What other club would get so behind a random bloke on a TV talent show? We’ve been so starved off success this last 15 years but football isn’t really about winning; it’s about so much more than that.

TV and radio pundits like to talk about ‘success’ and they measure it in trophies but that is merely a fallacy. Success is really about how you support your club and how your club supports you.

Later that summer an Argentinian god came to manage us and the rest, as they say, is history.

You can take our freedom but you’ll never take our football – even if you postpone it for an indefinite period of time.