Will Leeds ever be back in the Premier League?

Over the last three seasons I have seen a lot of Leeds United matches. Once I have watched a Leeds match whether they have won, drawn or lost I keep asking myself will they ever be back in the Premier league?

My grandparents are Leeds fans and so if you like, Leeds is my second team behind Liverpool. I remember that horrible day at the end of the 2003-04 season when reality hit all Leeds fans that they were no longer a Premiership club.

Since then there have been a mixture of emotions for Leeds fans in a push to be back in the big time. The 3-0 loss to Watford in 2005-06 play off final and the 10 point deduction the following year for entering administration put Leeds in to the third tier of English Football were low points for the club.

However getting promotion on the last day of the 2009-10 season back into the Championship was a massive high point in the club’s recent history. I was at Elland Road that day and it meant so much to all of the fans and players to be back on the up.

By March last year I was sure that Leeds would be back in the Premiership this year as they were playing fantastic football and they were well into the play offs. However as with Leeds United of late, a shocking dip in form at the end of the season cost them big time and they narrowly missed out on the play offs.

This year it looks like the same old story, as with the previous two seasons Leeds have let silly results cost them for example losing 6-4 at home to Preston last year didn’t help and the 5-0 loss at home to Blackpool this year has put a dent into the Whites form book.

A side from looking at results I also can’t make my mind up whether the current squad is anywhere good enough to survive in the big time. There are a handful of current players that would possibly succeed in the Premiership; Luciano Becchio, Ross McCormack, Robert Snodgrass, Adam Clayton and Jonny Howson are probably the five players I would say could play in the Premiership.

The rest of the squad, are no way near good enough. It didn’t help by the fact that Leeds sold their best player, Max Gradel in the summer and haven’t replaced him with someone equally as good.

If Leeds are to get promoted Ken Bates will have to dig into his pocket and dig deep to ensure Grayson has the funds to assemble a squad that is good enough to compete and stay in the division where a team as big as Leeds deserve to be.

Daniel Clark @ClarkyD92