Leeds' top flight return a welcome blast of nostalgia

The streets of Ballsbridge sounded like the set of Emmerdale last Saturday afternoon.

In a sign that the Premier League was about to roar into gear again, Ireland's capital was thronged with Leeds United supporters, in town to watch their Aviva Stadium friendly against AC Milan('s reserve team).

The immediate thought was to call up Dermot Keely for an irate comment but then it became apparent that the great majority of white-clad supporters crowding the pavement outside Searson's and the Waterloo had strong Yorkshire accents.

Coming from a country that gave us the saying "they don't travel for semi-finals", it was a reminder of the incredible strength and devotion of football fan culture in England, that Leeds could bring over with them 40,000 or so supporters for a pre-season friendly.

Partly this was down to Leeds fans not being treated to many foreign trips these days and thus taking any chance they can get. And partly it was down to the attraction of a weekend drinking trip in Dublin.

It was this latter point that was once central to the appeal of the infamous 'Dublin Dons' project back in the 1990s. Wimbledon fans' group leader Marc Jones told this writer years ago that one of the chief attractions from the perspective of Premier League chairmen was imagining "how much fun it would be to go to Dublin as an away fan."

Nevertheless, there was a healthy contingent of Irish Leeds fans in attendance, some of whom were upset that the event didn't receive more airplay in the national media podcast circuit. ('If it was the Pittsburgh Steelers, ye'd be all over it', etc, etc...)

We don't have any CSO data to hand but it's clear that approximately 85% of Leeds United supporters in this country are of an age where they can remember things like Bloody Sunday and De Valera's funeral. I myself attended primary school in an era where everyone's Dad (including my own) seemed to be a Leeds fan, for obvious reasons.

Anton Stach celebrates scoring for Leeds against Milan

The Leeds team of the late-60s/early-70s made a cultural impact far beyond their trophy haul of two league titles and an FA Cup in those years. The legacy of Irish football's pater familias, John Giles, and his glorious time at the club obviously plays a major part here. Crucially, their greatest era also coincided with a time when television properly arrived in Ireland.

Gilesy's prominence in the Irish football conversation until very recently has meant that kids born a generation later had an unusual familiarity with the Leeds team of that era - from Sniffer Clarke's arrogance, to Bremner and Giles' telepathic understanding, to Eddie Gray's fragile bones, to Jack Charlton being better on the ball than people gave him credit for.

So prevalent are Leeds in the Irish football fan's imagination that it's easy to forget that they were a very nouveau riche entity in the early 1970s. As a city, Leeds was traditionally a rugby stronghold, albeit of the league variety. Not dissimilar to Wigan.

It was Don Revie who essentially built Leeds United as we know them today, even changing their strip. Prior to the '60s, Leeds wore the same blue and yellow colours as their far more successful rugby league club. It was under their energetic, hands-on gaffer that Leeds switched to all-white, in emulation of the Puskas/Di Stefano Real Madrid side who were dominating Europe at the time.

The sizable Irish contingent who had their heads turned by Revie's boys have been through the mill since. The club spent the majority of the 1980s in the second tier before an unlikely renaissance at the beginning of the 1990s.

Under the defiantly unglamourous stewardship of Howard Wilkinson, they were the strangely fitting winners of the final league title of the Saint & Greavsie era in 1991-92. Even as they were hauling in Man United - who dissolved like Greg Norman on a Masters Sunday that year - Jimmy Greaves was indulging in gallows humour about the imminent cancellation of his beloved football magazine show amid Sky's takeover of the sport. Is the old First Division trophy still in the cabinet at Elland Road?

The win that ultimately sealed the league at Bramall Lane was a 'Crap 90s Football' extravaganza. Wilkinson belonged to the 'might be knob-end int' 91st minute that wins it' school of management and didn't care for aesthetics either way.

This was an opportunistic, bolt-from-the-blue triumph which they didn't come close to backing up - Leeds finished 17th in the inaugural Premier League season the following year. Needless to say it didn't bequeath the same legacy in terms of a support base in this country, as did the Revie/Giles team.

Johnny Giles in action for Leeds

For the remainder of the decade, Man United would avenge the humiliation of the '92 run-in, and then some. Leeds were left to reflect that they'd let Eric Cantona and Denis Irwin go for a virtual pittance.

The next boom-time for the club was in the Peter Ridsdale/David O'Leary era, although this would have tragic consequences. One hopes they enjoyed the run to the Champions League semi-final given how expensive it proved.

During O'Leary's time as manager, the club became the default home of Irish internationals. Kerr's Kids became O'Leary's Babies.

That Ipswich Town fulfils the same role currently is a sign of how things have trended. The way things are going, there'll soon be more Irish punters in the NFL than regular starters in the Premier League.

Leeds wandered in darkness for most of the 2000s, dipping into the third tier for a couple of years at the end of the decade. The era wasn't without its great days, notably the FA Cup third round win over Manchester United in early January 2010.

It was the arrival of the cult favourite and manager's manager Marcelo Bielsa in 2018 that propelled the club back to prominence. The Argentinian dispatched spies to rival training grounds and compiled Genesis-style reports on the favoured tactics of every opposition team. He brought them back to the promised land of the Premier League after a 16-year wait in 2020.

This time, they've returned to the top flight under the management of German Daniel Farke, who was previously manager of Norwich City in an era when they yo-yoed between the divisions more than the Roscommon footballers.

This hardly bodes well, given the increasing difficulty that promoted clubs have had in establishing themselves in the Premier League.

Leeds were associated with expansive and attractive football in their Championship winning campaign last season but in his summer recruitment drive, Farke has leaned into the Sgt Wilko template and prioritised physicality.

His recent work in the transfer market calls to mind the characterisation of Martin O'Neill's selection criteria as Ireland manager - "OK, who's big and has loads of tattoos?"

The average height of their summer signings is over 6ft 2in. Rangy midfielder Anton Stach - who pinged in their goal in Dublin - has arrived from Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga, while centre-back Jaka Bijol has come from Udinese. This week they added erstwhile Everton big-man-up-top Dominic Calvert-Lewin into the strapping mix.

The top clubs, meanwhile, have been spending like an Irish woman in Manhattan in the dying days of Bertie Ahern's premiership. Whether this will shake the air of apathy around the Premier League that took hold last season remains to be seen.

Manchester United fans, most of whom signed up for something other than this, are fairly disillusioned with the whole thing.

Liverpool fans naturally don't ache with the same fervour as they did at the turn of the decade. How could they, after strolling to possibly the most boring league title in the history of organised ball sports last season?

Arsenal fans have to some extent filled the hype vacuum, especially now they've gone and signed a centre-forward. The fact that their attackers were all crocked in the same season Man City imploded was a bitter pill.

Despite the improved display last season, there is still a sense that Chelsea fans haven't warmed to the kooky machinations of their unacceptably American owner Todd Boehly.

But Ireland's sizable community of Leeds United fans - whether sizing up early retirement or indeed already retired - are just gratified to see their team back on the big stage.

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