A month is a long time in football, even in June when
there’s usually nothing happening. Except at Leeds United, when it’s never safe
to turn your phone off and go to sleep at 11pm in case we sack someone, hire
someone or redefine legal precedent in some bizarre way. One month ago we were
all in a pretty dark place; asking ourselves why Garry Monk didn’t want us
anymore and feeling pretty vulnerable and apprehensive about what the future
held. Since then we have learnt a lot, and most of it good.
It’s safe to say that Thomas Christiansen could have walked
into the Peacock a month ago and ordered a pint of Yorkshire Blonde and nobody
would have batted an eyelid. Even now most people would maybe afford him only a
second glance as he sat down with his family for Steak Night, and dismiss him
as somebody who had sold them a fitted kitchen package from B&Q a couple of
years ago. He has a face we recognise, but is not yet someone we can
immediately identify.
That’s the beauty of arriving on the scene in the close
season I guess, and I expect it is also just the way he likes it. Leeds
United’s new head coach, Thomas Christiansen doesn’t strike me as someone who
is going to steal the limelight and hang around waiting for attention, he’s
happy to be quietly going about his business and getting to know his squad on
the training pitch. But when the season starts, he is certainly someone we are
going to see a lot of. It’s the nature of being a high profile part of Leeds
United and let’s just hope he has done his homework and knows that to expect
from the media’s glare. The frenzy of activity upon his unveiling will be
nothing compared to the attention before, during and after every Leeds United
game, such is the hunger for every last detail, and if Leeds United start doing
well……………
It was hard not to feel a little bemused by Christiansen’s
unveiling. Literally nobody can claim to have been aware of him and his track
record. We all had to undertake a swift Google search upon hearing the news. But
his pedigree is decent and he is a credible appointment, if a little leftfield,
but certainly with no Championship coaching experience, he will need a lot of
things on his side. What is encouraging is that Christiansen will have an
insatiable hunger for the job. He is well thought of and highly respected in
football and this is his first big job. At 44 years old, he has something to
prove, a challenge to face and a name to make for himself. When you consider
some of the other names that were linked with the job: Alan Pardew, Nigel
Pearson, Juande Ramos, even Claudio Ranieri, while they have a lot more
coaching experience, you sensed being appointed as Leeds manager would have
been ‘just another job’ to them. There is a huge merry-go-round of managers who
simply skip from job to job and never stay long enough to make an impression;
just pick up a sizeable pay cheque based on past reputation. With Christiansen,
we almost have a blank sheet of paper and he can write his own history.
So far squad recruitment has been encouraging and the
calibre of players Leeds are being linked with is a notch up from previously,
but there are still big holes in our squad and a lot of hard work is required
behind the scenes if we are to approach the first game of the season with
confidence. And that first game is
creeping ever nearer. Fixtures release day is always an exciting one at the
Peacock as we await news on when we can expect the first mass influx of Leeds
fans through the doors since last May. There is a friendly fixture v Oxford United
at Elland Road on July 29th of course, but that will be like a day
in Kindergarten compared to the cacophonous sensory overload that is a proper
full-on Leeds United matchday. That day will be Saturday August 12th
when Preston North End are our visitors, while the following Tuesday (August 15th)
we welcome Fulham to Elland Road. Before you know it we will be right back in
the groove, with a sea of happy faces, a landscape filled with yellow, white
and blue, live music pumping out of our beer garden and happy revellers dancing
off to the ground with a happy expectation of three points for the Whites.
Of course we couldn’t let this blog post pass without
mentioning the other seismic announcement coming out of Leeds United in the
last few days. This was something that went far beyond hiring another manager,
or buying a player, or releasing another new all-white home kit that was
ever-so-slightly different to the previous one. This was something that brought
the very fabric of the club back under its own control, something that put the
heart and soul back into Leeds United, and something that all three previous
owners had promised to do but not got anywhere nearer than simply making empty
promises in the media. This was something that made Leeds United whole again; after
13 years in the hands of an anonymous owner, Elland Road was back under the
ownership of Leeds United.
It was an emotional day for all sorts of reasons. This news
was about more than just bricks and mortar; it was righting some wrongs and making
our house our home again. It was a bold move of Andrea Radrizzani to announce
his intention to buy back the stadium so early in his tenure. We have been
burned before in exactly the same way and his reign was open to irreversible
ridicule if he fell short of his promise, which he will have known, and this is
why I was quite confident he would come up with the goods.
Whatever happens now, Radrizzani has delivered something
significant that no other recent owner could do, and it has instantly made the
club stronger, both financially and structurally. It has also bought him some
time and some patience from Leeds fans who can maybe see the bigger picture,
and sense where the club is now heading. It’s true that nobody wanted Garry
Monk to leave after the progress seen last season, and we were dealt a blow.
But events since then have been a fantastic response and now Leeds United are
looking lean and mean; fighting fit and fighting back. So let’s keep building
in July and by the time August comes into view we expect to see Leeds United
very much in the same state as our pub; ready to explode into action.
