Don’t you know, pump it up etc.
In the light of UEFA‘s statement today, whereby the European Championships have been postponed for a year with the express intent of allowing domestic league programmes to be completed after the COVID-19 delay, there now opens up a window of opportunity for clubs challenging for league success to achieve that goal. UEFA appears to be aiming for a completion of league programmes by the end of June – which may still be slightly optimistic – but at least some prospect of getting the thing done now seems realistic.
It all gets much more interesting and even more encouraging for Leeds United fans when you consider the nature of the club’s league performance in two seasons under Marcelo Bielsa. On both occasions, the team has leapt out of the traps fresh and vigorous, sweeping aside most opposition and roaring straight to the top of the table. Relatively less effective periods have come later in the long and gruelling campaigns – what is sometimes known as Bielsa Burnout due to the notoriously demanding training sessions he requires of his team. The current hiatus in competitive matches due to this pesky virus (and please don’t think I’m making light of it, but this is above all else a football blog and I do believe Corona is covered adequately elsewhere) is giving the Leeds players, and their counterparts at rival clubs, of course, some time to recharge the batteries and regain some of that early season oomph. Meanwhile, the players who were not at peak fitness can make progress towards that happy state of affairs, and even the likes of Adam Forshaw, who underwent surgery that was expected to end his campaign, might now harbour slim hopes of being actively involved.
So, even though all of the Championship rival clubs are in the same boat in terms of an unexpected late season delay, the outcome for Leeds United may be disproportionately favourable, given their recent history of fast starts under Bielsa. With what is, in effect, a nine game mini-season ahead of them, fully rested and with an extra pre-season under their belts, and with squad members previously not up to scratch now hitting the required standards, things should be looking very good for Leeds. Add in the fact that they would be starting this 27 point mini-season with a seven point cushion over Fulham in third place, with all their rivals having a much more difficult (on paper) set of fixtures, and it’s difficult to see much if any cause for pessimism.
For once, it may well be that Leeds United will harvest triumph out of the ashes of a national disaster, and this humble blogger is confident that – come the end of this season, whenever that might be – there will be yellow, blue and white ribbons on that famous old Football League Trophy (yeah, the one we should have been allowed to keep for good in 1992). It’s going to happen, ladies and gentlemen – so, however bleak you may feel right now, be of good cheer. United are going back to the Big Time.
Marching On Together
Life, Leeds United, the Universe & Everything 
Can’t see how the EFL can stop us now. Self isolation rules, just like my time in Aden 1959-61, supported from afar in thos days
MOT
Gordon
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Yes any other team than Leeds Utd winning the last football league trophy in 1992 would have been able to keep the trophy. NOT Leeds Utd. The EFL have degraded the trophy by using it for the second division. How will the powers that be now stop Leeds achieving promotion now? Now that the Euro’s have been put back a year.
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Very positive scenario Rob if it is allowed to materialise. Sadly, the most experienced Health advisors are still playing a guessing game when it comes to predicting when Coronavirus will be under sufficient control to allow life to return to normal. Indeed, the latest guess in world governmental circles is that it will be 18 months before it is under control & preventable by way of vaccine
If true that doesn’t bode well for the next season let alone the completion of this season Rob
If it transpires that it is not possible to complete the remaining fixtures of this season then I propose the following solution as the fairest way of determining promotions/relegations
Most teams in the different leagues have 8, 9 or 10 games remaining so rather than just “null & voiding” the season as per Karen Brady’s outrageous proposal, (which would make a mockery of the millions of pounds that Championship clubs had invested to fulfil their ambition for promotion to the promised land & the considerable financial outlay of thousands of ardent fans to support their club all season), surely it would be much fairer to award every team the same amount of points & GD from their previous 8, 9 or 10 games.
This would reflect their form over the last 20-25% of the season & confirm whether they were genuinely capable of challenging for promotion or avoid relegation
Watford beat the runaway Premiership leaders 3-0 but Watford’s form over their last 8 or 9 matches does not suggest that they will avoid relegation nor indeed does Karen Brady’s WHU so no surprise she proposes to null & void West Ham’s nightmare season.
Hopefully, common sense will prevail Rob & we are crowned Champions
MOT
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Fingers crossed, Mr Cheque!
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The last thing humanity needs is a vaccine for a virus that has a mortality rate less than normal flu. The people of china are actually removing their masks and celebrating the decline of this virus as I type this on my phone. This is all about the vaccines and when you get your vaccination along with the mercury everyone will be injected with a nano chip. On this nano chip will be all your details,bank,job,credit scores etc. As expects the handling of cash will be blamed for transmitting viruses so that will be the excuse needed for the world to go cashless. Its worth looking at an interview the film producer Aaron Russo did when he mentions a conversation with Nicholas Rockefeller. Get used to all this as they’re about to clamp down on crowds,travelling,freedom and the internet. This is all a false flag and like all the false flags we’ve had in the UK civil liberties disappear in their wake. Believe me, football is going to be the last thing on anyone’s mind soon. Get ready for martial law and forced vaccinations. I hope I’m wrong but I’m probably not.
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Wrong? Hell fire Mick, you’re the site’s honorary conspiracy theorist 😎👍
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Leeds Mick is talking the truth. Do some research folks.
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For Leeds it’s win/win: we play (remaining games) we win; the season ends as it is, we win. However, the prospect of Leeds winning, and thus leaving the EFL’s corrupt clutches by moving to the Prem, will invite the EFL to use every dirty trick in Shaun Harvey’s humongous butt (sorry, ‘book’) to ensure Leeds goes nowhere.
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Naughty! 😀
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This has to be the solution Rob. I want this club of mine to gain promotion in true fashion be it behind closed doors if necessary. Anything other than that is not acceptable. The last thing we want is the haters to ram it down our throats that we got there by default. Bielsa will be part of this club in the Premiere League and so will the likes of Phillips who will achieve super stardom with the club he grew up with and loves. I could not bare the thought of everything we have done over these last two seasons being destroyed. If we can build a team playing outstanding and exiting football like this season on a relatively cheap budget just think what we could do with the rewards of promotion. Only Bielsa can give us this and I really do believe that the vast majority of decent fans in this country want us back where we belong, in the Premiere where I just know we will not only fill stadiums but put the fear of hell into the opposition. It’s NOT over yet
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Even though I am MOT from the other side of the Atlantic, I consider myself a pretty knowledgeable Whites fan. Been reading Life, Leeds for a long time, Rob. So, I am at a loss after I read the part about we should have been allowed to keep the cup for good in 1992. Little embarrassed (but I’ll get over it), I know we won the last D1 championship, but I forgot why they should have been allowed to keep the cup? What was meant by that?
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There’s precedent for the last winners of various trophies to keep said trophies in perpetuity, or at least to play off for permanent ownership. Leeds were even involved in one such play-off, as the last winners of the old Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1971. We played off against the first winners, Barcelona – and lost 1-2. The annoying part about the last League Championship trophy is that, when it looked certain that man u were going to win it, there was lots of talk about how they’d retain the trophy, as it was the last old-style League Championship. But when we won it instead, it all went quiet on that front – and yes, I’m bitter about that.
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I prefer they play the games but keep in mind it’s 12 games they have to cram in before 30th June, not 9. Play off still need to be played in that period I would imagine. Hopefully only 9 games for us mind.
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Hopefully the extra three games will be other people’s problem and we can just look on smiling smugly 🤞
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All that stuff I mentioned above is what they’ve got planned but I’m now pretty confident that the “black hats” are getting rounded up now,hence the lock down in Italy and the imminent lockdown of London.
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Black hats? 🤔
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I said it once before, Leeds seem to do it by the hundred.
They won the FA cup in it’s centenary year, they got the club up and running again 100 years ago, it was a Leeds lad that scored the winning match goal in the centenary match last October. So why not go for the biggie and get back to the top in the centenary year as well.
We have to have something to aim at and live for. Keep safe everyone. MOT
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Hear, hear…
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hi rob
great piece & whose ‘ to say that whilst i wear my LUFC face mask (smiley badge i thought appropriate!) with pride if & when the season concludes ?wouldn’t it be just fitting if the last game was on the 17th October , the day we were formed to celebrate promotion!…. could just happen you know although my sources in the land of ‘wurzel gummidge’ AKA Boris Johnson say its probably done for?
(his mad gesticulations & frowning pauses are all choreographed by the way folks!)
reply for the numpty Gavin who commented on ‘losing loved one’s’ & ‘ a poxy cold’… yes i do have experience of losing a loved one as you were so ‘concerned gav’ , my mother in winter 2010 whilst spending 6 hours 57 minutes on a trolley (hospital gurney to you fella!) with other ‘sick’ elderly peeps all backed up up whilst my dad pleaded for assistance to no avail!
there’s always reasons & timings while catastrophes come around folks, this time its called tempering commercial capitalism gone mad or COVID -19 (Capitalism On Ventilators & In Distress – DEC 19)
please try & spot the NHS badge on the current health minister (Hancocks’) left lapel when addressing /speaking to the lap dog/lemming media!
it’s quite amusing really?
make sure you’ve got your 53 loo rolls tho’ wont you (you all know who you are!) while those on the health front line & the elderly/unwell go without eh!
“pond life”….. tho’ thankfully mostly indoors at the mo’ & a pleasure to drive now on empty roads thank you! “glub glub”!
MOT
KEEP FIGHTING (not in sainsbury tho if you can help it!! jeeez!)
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