Spoiler alert
Daniel Farke's Leeds exist in an anxious atmosphere of TripAdvisoring the heck out of a pub before crossing the threshold but a football team can not, no matter how predictable it might seem, guarantee anyone a good time.
Tag
Essays
A collection of 120 posts
What's the use of a referee?
Referees are oddly positioned in football because refereeing matters a great deal to them, requiring great effort for much less reward than the players screaming at them, and what they do doesn't seem to matter as much to anybody else.
Directions of deference
Brenden Aaronson, Thomas Tuchel, Bielsa against Suarez, Leeds against Sheffield United, surveys, bathroom facilities and cheap fans melting in the sun.
A good cigar
A lot of this is just wanting to cut and paste favourite players into highlights of history. Like Mateusz Klich who, ideally, would like to cut and paste United's 2020 promotion into another era altogether.
Some football, before it's all forgotten
Fans will always be reassessing and reshuffling their chosen memories for as long as there is more football, and I guess more podcasts. In the meantime, Joel Piroe scored a great header.
What is Daniel Farke up against this season?
A lot has to be right about your team for winning 2-0 to feel like a letdown. Like it or not, fairly or not, 2024/25 is demanding more of Leeds United.
The inflection point
The single-minded objective is to get promoted. That sounds good. But that single-mindedness increases the pressure, turning this season into an inflection point, or as we used to call it, shit or bust.
Is football enough fun to last?
Despite Angus Kinnear's assurances that everything is fine, he couldn't offer any optimism as a result, because football doesn't work that way anymore.
Football is from the players
I would have welcomed Sol Bamba as the chairman of Leeds United, and not just because he was a lovely guy with a solid baseline of decency. But because he was a player, a footballer.
If the Champo is worth winning
Outsiders might ask what the fun would be having a Premier League ready squad in the Championship and winning it by Easter while breaking records on easy mode. Leeds fans would answer that you shouldn't knock it until you've tried it.