Mighty Leeds Weblog

By Phil Hay There’s a compilation to be made — and presumably one exists somewhere — of Leeds United’s play-off ghosts; a video nasty for brave souls only. Start with Peter Shirtliff in 1987, negating the most delicious goal John Sheridan ever scored. Move onto Kevin Blackwell’s team in 2006, dying with fright as fireworks blew up behind them; shortly before they did likewise. James Hayter, Jimmy Abdou, Liam Cooper and Kiko Casilla crossing wires, sending the Ming Vase of Marcelo Bielsa’s football across black ice. Those are the bits you see. Sometimes the worst of it is what happens when the cameras aren’t looking. Few events in Leeds’ history better demonstrate the emptiness of play-off defeat than Angus Kinnear, their CEO, hauling tickets for the 2019 Championship final out of his boot and into the car of a waiting Derby County official, an hour or so after Derby turned the semi-final between the clubs into The Wild Bunch. Kinnear had possession of the tickets because Leeds

It's a brutal fact but still a fact that automatic promotion from the Championship is earned over 10 gruelling months and can be lost in a matter of minutes. It's equally brutal to say, of a team with 90 points, that 20 minutes of uncharacteristically woeful football might just have lost it for Leeds United. By Graham Smyth You don't hit the 90 point mark in a league this treacherous by playing as badly all over the pitch as Leeds did for large parts of their penultimate game of the season at QPR. You don't concede fewer goals than almost everyone else in the division by gifting the time and space that QPR had en route to a 2-0 22 minute lead, or the set-piece freedom that made it a 4-0 rout later on. You don't score 80 goals by misplacing passes or replacing dynamic movement with the kind of static inertia we saw at Loftus Road. And you don't finish in the top two by crumbling at this point in the season. Daniel Farke's fire was raging at full-time, h

Daniel Farke blamed Leeds United's failure to do the basics right in the first 20 minutes in a humbling 4-0 defeat at QPR but he isn't giving up on the automatic play-off race yet. By Graham Smyth Farke watched his Leeds side put in their worst performance of the season at the worst possible time. Sloppy play on and off the ball cost them dearly as QPR raced to a 2-0 lead before the midway point of the first half. Nothing Farke did to try and change the course of the game worked and two goals in the final 17 minutes confirmed the chastening defeat. A half empty away end demanded answers from Farke and the players as they approached at full-time. The result gives Ipswich Town the chance to leapfrog the Whites with a win tomorrow against Hull City and then they have a game in hand against Coventry City on Tuesday night, while leaders Leicester cannot now be caught by Leeds. "First of all I think it's important to say congratulations to QPR for a well deserved win

On the night they were supposed to ramp up the pressure on Ipswich Town, Leeds United handed them a huge advantage. By Stuart Rayner A 4-0 win which keeps Queens Park Rangers in next season's Championship secured Leicester City's promotion but the most significant thing for a Leeds perspective is that it hands the Tractor Boys all the initiative in what has been a wonderfully tight Championship promotion race. They have two games – at Hull City on Saturday and Coventry City on Tuesday – to build a lead ahead of the final matches of the season. Only one point behind at the moment, they could even render Southampton's trip to Elland Road a dead rubber. Leeds have shown a strong jaw in this promotion race but since March's international break they have been nothing like their old selves, giving QPR players too much room for all four goals they scored. "We want five!" sang the gleeful Rs fans, scarcely able to believe their eyes. Momentum is all-import

Leeds United’s heaviest defeat of the season arrived at the worst possible time. By Lee Sobot Leeds United’s quest for automatic promotion has been dealt a hammer blow, an awful 4-0 defeat at Queens Park Rangers handing a place in the Premier League to Leicester City and a golden opportunity for Ipswich Town to join them. Daniel Farke's Whites could have moved four points clear of Ipswich in the Championship's second automatic promotion place with a victory at Friday night’s hosts yet have now given Ipswich the chance to seal promotion before Leeds even play again. Friday night's reverse has left Leeds just one point ahead of Ipswich but having played two games more, Ipswich now able to pull an unassailable five points clear of United if winning Saturday night's clash at Hill City and Tuesday evening's visit to Coventry City. Leaders Leicester, meanwhile, have now sealed promotion whilst victory for QPR also ensured they are safe from the drop. QPR began

A look at the stats from the Leeds United star's breakthrough season After winning Young Player of the Year at club and league level in recent weeks, Opta statistician and Leeds United fan Jonny Cooper takes a look at some of the numbers behind Archie Gray's breakthrough season and how it compares to others who have worn the Leeds United shirt at an early age. When Archie Gray made his Leeds United debut in August against Cardiff, he wasn’t just following in the footsteps of a long line of academy graduates to play for the Leeds first team – much more than that, he was the fourth member of his own family to pull on the white shirt, continuing an association with the club that stems back to New Year’s Day in 1966 when his great uncle Eddie made his debut for the club. Following Eddie was his brother and Archie’s grandfather Frank in 1973 and then Frank’s son and Archie’s father Andy in 1995. Andy’s final game – in his second spell – was 47 years to the day after Eddie’s firs

By Nancy Froston and Phil Hay The golden rule for guaranteeing the maverick, game-changing performances that Leeds United have seen from Crysencio Summerville this season is simple: “Don’t kill him with a plan.” Summerville is an unscripted genius with the ball at his feet. In 44 games and on the way to 20 goals, the freshly crowned Championship Player of the Season has dribbled, dummied and delivered performances worthy of making him the star of Daniel Farke’s side. The scariest thing for opponents? He still has more to learn. The 22-year-old Dutchman cannot be bound by defensive blocks or dispirited by cynical fouls and has the potential to be world-class. Summerville’s story is one of belief that started in the youth teams of RVV Noorderkwartier and has taken him from the south of Rotterdam to the raucous surrounds of Elland Road. Certain conditions are needed to create a player like Summerville. An absence of pressure, a focus on finding joy in the sport and coaches smart e

In this extract from Admiral: 50 Years of the Replica Shirt, contributor Rob Bagchi tells of Don Revie’s Leeds United revamp – with a little help from the away kit. By Rob Bagchi As spring crawled towards summer in 1973, Leeds United were finished. At Second Division Sunderland's homecoming after beating Don Revie's side in the FA Cup final, six of their supporters carried a coffin on to the Roker Park pitch with 'Leeds died 1973' crowingly daubed on the side. The remains of Europe's most consistently strong side over the past nine years were laid to rest in the centre-circle. A few days later Leeds were swizzed out of the Cup Winners' Cup by a refereeing performance of such baroque partiality in the final against AC Milan that it seemed to symbolise the nadir of all the lousy luck they had endured over the preceding decade. At the start of the following season, Revie had rallied his players to summon their defiance. "You lads are good enough to ram

By Greg O'Keeffe So an era of unprecedented Premier League changes could be about to move into new territory — from points deductions to spending constrictions. The asterisks which dot this season’s table in relation to punishments for clubs who have breached the top flight’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) may soon be followed by question marks on balance sheets across the division. Should a majority of its clubs vote through the proposed hard spending cap for the 2025-26 season, it would not only aid the competitive nature of what is the world’s strongest domestic league, but also enforce a subtle shift in the perceived power base of English football. The cap idea is based on the concept of “anchoring”, designed to limit the amount of money any club can invest in their squad by tying it to a multiple of what the division’s lowest earners get from the league’s centralised broadcast and commercial deals. It would go a step further than the UEFA-mirroring new squad-c

By Matt Slater The Premier League is heading towards another contentious vote on Monday with a majority of clubs keen to add a hard spending cap to the new “squad cost” rules that are being introduced for the 2025-26 season. Based on the concept of “anchoring”, the de facto salary cap would limit the amount of money any club can invest in their squads by tying it to a multiple of what the lowest earners get from the league’s centralised broadcast and commercial deals. Earlier this month, the clubs unanimously backed a proposal to progress talks on the squad cost regime, with a view to finalising the new rules at June’s annual general meeting. Since then, the league has sent out proposals on anchoring and scheduled a meeting on the matter for Thursday. The plan is then to ask the clubs to back the idea in principle at another meeting of the league’s shareholders — the 20 clubs and the Football Association — on Monday. When the idea was first suggested last year, the top-to-bot

Leeds United manager Daniel Farke hosts his pre-match press conference this afternoon ahead of the Whites’ trip to face Queens Park Rangers tomorrow night. By Joe Donnohue Leeds’ penultimate fixture of the regular Championship season takes place tomorrow night with United knowing a win puts increased pressure on Kieran McKenna’s third place Ipswich Town to keep pace with league leaders Leicester City and Farke’s men. The Whites were back to winning ways on Monday night, defeating Middlesbrough at the Riverside Stadium, but victory came at a cost with Dan James ruled out for the trip to Loftus Road with a costal cartilage injury and torn oblique abdominal muscle. James’ international teammate Joe Rodon also took a knock to his calf in the 4-3 win against Boro and an update on his condition is expected to be provided by Farke during today’s press conference. Farke on players' ability in crunch times I was convinced of the character a few days after I arrived and then when

Daniel Farke's young Leeds United team is treading new and perilous territory and maybe that's not such a bad thing. By Graham Smyth This is all a bit exciting, isn't it? Two games to go, automatic promotion still possible. It's exciting in the same way that a monstrous rollercoaster is exciting when you finally get to the head of the queue. You know you want the experience, you know you should enjoy it but you know there's a reason for your fear. It's that excitement that turns the stomach just a little. And though the proximity to promotion is not unfamiliar to Leeds fans, it most certainly is for the vast majority of the players they'll follow to London on Friday night. There are remnants of the Marcelo Bielsa 2020 Championship-winning side in the squad Farke has available to him. Patrick Bamford, Illan Meslier, Liam Cooper and Jamie Shackleton were all there and played parts of varying significance in that triumph, one that looked quite different t

Leeds United are expected to have a slight psychological advantage over promotion rivals Ipswich Town heading into the final week of the season, but only if they win on Friday night at Queens Park Rangers. By Joe Donnohue Drawing on wisdom and research into penalty shootouts, Leeds could certainly benefit from the EFL's scheduling of theirs and Ipswich's remaining fixtures as it looks increasingly likely to be between those two sides for who takes second place and automatic promotion to the Premier League. It follows Leicester City's eventual five-goal drubbing of fourth place Southampton on Tuesday evening, 24 hours on from Leeds' own return to winning ways with a 4-3 triumph at the Riverside Stadium. The Foxes moved onto 94 points, four clear of second place Leeds and no matter what will enter the final weekend of the campaign ahead of Daniel Farke's men. There is no such guarantee with Ipswich though, as the Suffolk club play twice before the lunchtime kick

BY DECLAN HARTE Leeds United are planning to expand their home stadium to a capacity of 50,000 Leeds United have held talks with relevant stakeholders in the city as the club continues to take steps towards expanding Elland Road. According to iNews, the Whites are working on plans to expand their home stadium to 50,000. The Championship side is currently battling for promotion to the Premier League under Daniel Farke, but their place in the top flight for next year is far from guaranteed. Elland Road has proven an iconic home for the club, with a capacity of 37,890. But 49ers Enterprises, who took over full control of Leeds last summer, are hoping to expand the size of the stadium in the near future. Leeds are beginning plans for the upcoming summer, but are unable to do anything concrete until their league status is secure. Farke’s side currently occupies a place inside the automatic promotion places, but Ipswich Town are only a point behind in third and have a game in