Symbol lies: Leeds United's salute crest, 2018-2018
This design was supposed to be unique, breaking from the past yet rooted in the fan culture that makes Leeds United special. But by removing every trace of previous crests, they removed any connection between this crest and Leeds United Football Club as we have known it.
The 'salute crest', 2018-2018, unless it rises on the third day, did at least achieve one of its objectives, by catapulting Leeds United back into the big time: back where we belong.
Success at the top level isn't only measured on the pitch anymore. Meme vs meme is what it’s all about these days, one social media account manager mugging off another in the guises of football clubs, with ever more elaborate and intertextually related new signing reveal videos and goal celebration gifs. (Or corner celebrations, if you're Huddersfield Town.) How long, I wonder, before the first big-name big-money transfer between Premier League Twitter accounts? "We've signed a precocious talent," their new club will announce, "Who can do incredible things in Hootsuite."
Leeds United, of course, like the great Revie and Wilkinson teams of old, didn’t just step timidly into this top flight fray. They mixed it for a while with the rival clubs, of course, and then the betting brands, while the sports media websites fought frantically for variations on that one Gaviscon joke, and nobody bothered searching Shutterstock to see if that stock image screenshot was legit (it wasn't). But by 4pm Leeds were letting the also-rans fight it out against each other, moving onwards and upwards to bigger adversaries. Zenit St Petersburg. Zamalek SC of Egypt. The History Channel. A petition large enough to make a totalitarian dictator blink. The Premier League conquered, Leeds were taking on the world. Hello, hello, United are back.
This is modern football, pushing itself towards ever more banterous precipices, and Leeds, stuck for so long in the long ago, rushed headlong over the cliff like Wile E. Coyote chasing Manchester City’s Road Runner, scrambling their feet uselessly in mid-air before hurrying back to the safety of the Second Division. "Meep meep!" trilled City, which roughly translated means, "You might have seen what we’ve done, but until you understand how we’ve done it and why, you’d better stay on solid ground, Leeds."
Which was where most of Leeds United’s fans wished they’d stayed in the first place. Or at least, if they were going to go darting out into the future — "The next one hundred years," said the press release — the people in charge of the club could give them a bit more notice than, well, none.