Mighty Leeds Weblog

SUPER LEEDS Written by: Rob Conlon The nature of supporting Leeds United encourages us to find bad omens. Earning eight points from our opening five games in 2022/23 gave us a 96% chance of avoiding relegation, we were told, which only left us worrying about the remaining 4%. When it comes to being drawn against lower division Cardiff in the FA Cup, you don’t need to be a mathematician to understand the bad juju: we hate going to Cardiff, particularly in the FA Cup. It’s justified pessimism, based on over half a century’s worth of gloom. Between 1956 and 1958, Leeds were drawn away at Cardiff for three consecutive years in the FA Cup third round, losing each tie 2-1. Fast forward to 2002, United were top of the Premier League when they were drawn away at the third-tier side at the same stage of the competition. Naturally, we lost 2-1 again in a game stirred into a violent hysteria by Cardiff’s own chairman Sam Hammam. Our entire club subsequently fell apart. But it doesn’t alwa...

BEEN HERE BEFORE Written by: Rob Conlon If there’s one person who can keep a healthy perspective on Leeds United’s 2021/22 season, it’s Eddie Gray. The weekend marked two anniversaries with very different vibes for Gray at Leeds. He was among the heroes of 1972 parading the pitch pre-match, celebrating fifty years since the club’s only FA Cup win, now immortalised by plaques outside the East Stand designed by Paul Trevillion (and, cough cough, a special issue of The Square Ball). But Sunday’s draw was played forty years on from a fixture involving eerily familiar circumstances: Brighton visiting Elland Road, the penultimate game of the season, Leeds facing the all too real prospect of relegation. Gray was wearing the number 7 shirt that day against Brighton in 1982, 34 years old, the glory years he spent under Don Revie consigned to a different era. Just like on Sunday, Brighton were winning 1-0 at half-time, and going into the final ten minutes Leeds were looking doomed. Allan...

The fortunes of the city of leeds have risen and fallen over four decades when its football club has been led by some of the best-known characters in sport. Paul Robinson looks back on a tale of twists and turns. The past is the past – that’s the slogan adopted by Leeds United’s recently-installed owners as they try to make a break with the difficult times the club has endured in the last few years. But it’s not just United who appear upwardly-mobile again, their home city is also back flexing its muscles after a tricky period ushered in by the credit crunch. The £350m Trinity Leeds shopping centre opened its doors in March, with the £60m First Direct Arena following suit last month. This isn’t the first occasion, however, that the fortunes of club and city have, for whatever reason, mirrored one other. The reigns of Manny Cussins, Leslie Silver, Peter Ridsdale and Ken Bates as United chairman all allow, in their various ups and downs, parallels to be drawn with what was happening...