Elland Road finally has a team in its image — Square Ball 18/9/26

My sort of Leeds

Written by Calum Archibald

All of the teams that ever achieved anything in Leeds have one thing in common — they’re crafted in the image of the city.

For too long, Leeds has been a city on the periphery of the big conversations, which has been borne out in the serious underachiever tag that we have to live with.

If you look at similarly sized one-club cities around Europe, you’re comparing Leeds United with Napoli, Ajax and Marseille, three sides with formidable records and trophy cabinets in their respective countries, as well as clear identifiable club cultures they lean heavily into.

At its core, Leeds is a city with a chip on its shoulder. The mill town, the market town, the rugby league town. The biggest city in the biggest county, the spiritual home of ‘ow much. A city of grit, hard work and pride in itself.

That’s the thing that struck me more than anything as Leeds tore through Newcastle with three goals in fourteen first-half minutes: Elland Road finally has a Premier League side befitting of its own image.

Ups and Downs

You don’t need me to remind you of the neck-breaking ups and downs this football club has endured in its 107-year history. Nor of the journey we’ve been on since 2002.

Needless to say, we’ve spent much of that time searching for our soul and finding our place in an ever-changing modern football landscape. We’ve all joked about Elland Road being the stadium that time forgot, with lingering remnants of Euro 96 still hanging about place, while ramshackle asbestos-ridden rooftops, designs and abject facilities went from being ‘ours’ to being a bit embarrassing in recent years.

That’s all changing, but I can only hope the promises from the ownership about retaining the authentic feel and atmosphere of Elland Road during these redevelopments rings true because it’s our ace in the hole.

‘Elland Road under the lights’ has become the new buzz phrase to whip up an atmosphere and dish out some bloody noses. Ask any Leeds fan what they want to see on the pitch and it’s that.

Sure, beautiful football is wonderful and we’ve been treated to plenty of that in the last few years (plus some less than stellar stuff for a couple of seasons), but high-octane, blood and thunder football is what Elland Road really craves.

The thing that brings me joy the most with this Leeds side is how determined they are to lean on those gritty, ugly things that can fall by the wayside in your quest for perfection. Long throws, second balls, tracking back, settling into a defensive formation out of position and holding it, pressing intently from minute one.

Leeds never let Newcastle settle and while the opening goal had more than touch of fortune about it, the second and third arrived because Leeds didn’t let up. You’ll never hear a bigger roar at Elland Road than a quick second goal following a first, whether it’s Anton Stach slotting in to come back from two down against Liverpool last year or Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s header bouncing off Jayden Bogle’s head into the back of the net on Monday night.

The Rapid Cultural Reset

It’s no great secret that in the summer of 2023, Leeds United were in a right old state.

Relegation brought loan clauses and back-weighted transfer fee payments into sharp focus, meaning that the situation inherited by the new ownership was much more severe than it appeared at face value.

While in 2004 it was “just me and Gary Kelly”, as Kevin Blackwell often liked to remind us, 2023 felt like it was just Angus Kinnear and a squad of players all doing their damnedest to get the hell out of there.

Drafting Daniel Farke and Ethan Ampadu in proved to be the best decision the club could possibly have made, crafting the beginnings of a leadership partnership that has brought Leeds to the point where the only way you can possibly look is up.

If you think back to the side that played those early weeks in 2023, once the window had shut, it feels a million miles away from the side that we saw against Newcastle.

In fact, of the starting XI against Newcastle, only Ampadu was starting games then and, on his 26th birthday, he once again captained Leeds as he slowly becomes yet another in a long succession of leaders and culture setters in the history of this club.

Normally they’re diminutive Scotsmen, but we’ll allow Ampadu his Welshness and his height. That long throw might just be the most dangerous in the league, too, having began as a bit of an aimless launch.

This is a Leeds United side that embodies everything I identify with the city of Leeds, the crowd, the history of the club. They’re greater than the sum of their parts, harnessing the chaotic energy of the fanbase and the stadium, feeding off each other and delivering high-octane bursts of adrenaline in lethal doses.

For opposition this season, the battle isn’t just tactical, it’s emotional and it’s physical. Can you outthink, outfight and outperform this Leeds side?

The season is only four games old and we’ve already hit the ‘Moylan point’ that means we absolutely, definitely cannot get relegated from here. He said so.

But in all seriousness, it’s the sort of start that immediately relieves the pressure of games to come, giving Farke and this Leeds side the time and space to slowly build towards a successful season.

It could end in a lot of different ways, but all I know is I’m going to enjoy the hell out of watching this team all season. This is my sort of Leeds.