'We fancy ourselves against a lot of Premier League teams' - but Leeds United captain Liam Cooper admits unfamiliar scenario is likely

For two seasons under Marcelo Bielsa, Cooper has known only the upper echelons of a table and unless Leeds can pull of a footballing miracle, they will have to grow accustomed to existing a lot lower down the Premier League than the top-two berth they made their own in the Championship.

Promotion seals a return to the top flight for Cooper, where it all began almost 11 years ago for him, as an 18-year-old defender.

His first taste of Premier League action, in his first start, came at Anfield where Hull City were handed a 6-1 beating.

Fernando Torres scored three, Ryan Babel two and Steven Gerrard one, as the Reds ran riot.

Cooper didn’t play for Hull again that season until he came off the bench against Arsenal in a 2-1 defeat in March.

Two months later Hull were relegated and Cooper has spent over a decade fighting his way back up.

Now, club captain of his boyhood club and 28 years of age, Cooper is old enough and wise enough not to make any bold predictions about Leeds’ first season back in the Premier League for 16 years.

But he’s not suggesting the Whites will be happy just to make up the numbers, either, especially having grown used to the feeling of winning.

“From a team that finished 13th the season before [Bielsa] came in to being in the top two for almost two years is some going in the Championship, it’s a tough league,” he said on the Scottish Football Podcast.

“We’re looking forward to what the future holds.

“I think we’ll keep hold of a lot of our core players and add a few to that and see what happens.

“We’ll approach it how we do every game, we go to win, our identity and philosophy will never change.

“You could maybe see next year some big results against us but I think we fancy ourselves against a lot of teams in the Premier League.”

The short amount of time between the end of a glorious Championship campaign and the start of a new adventure in the top flight is enough to make a player’s head spin, even one as experienced as Cooper’s.

He and several of his fellow first-team players jetted off to Ibiza as soon as the season and the club’s awards night were completed, for a well-deserved break and some celebrations of the history they achieved.

A club record points haul, the Championship trophy and a place in the Premier League would normally have been cause for weeks of partying.

But it is only a matter of days until they return to training - Leeds are back at Thorp Arch on August 13 - with the Premier League starting again on September 12.

And Cooper is relishing the prospect of playing games again so quickly – particularly if it means more time in action and less time in training.

“I think we’re all coming to terms with the new normal, it’s going to be a crazy ramp up of fixtures,” he said.

“We’re excited. We love playing football games, every footballer will tell you they much prefer playing games, the more games the better and less training.”