We take a look back at the 100-year history of Leeds United ahead of their return to Australia to take on the Wanderers at Bankwest Stadium on Saturday 20 July.
We take a look back at the 100-year history of Leeds United ahead of their return to Australia to take on the Wanderers at Bankwest Stadium on Saturday 20 July.
You can get your tickets to the match here.
Leeds United are a club with a much-celebrated history in English football. The three-time English Champions were formed in 1919 and will celebrate their 100th birthday come this October.
The West Yorkshire club have played at the famous Elland Road Stadium since their inception and the venue was originally called “The Old Peacock Ground” thanks to a pub across the road. Coincidentally, the club was called “The Peacocks” in their formative years.
Now more commonly known as “The Whites”, Leeds have spent the majority of their existence in the top tier of English football. However, since 2004, the club has been swinging between the English Championship and League One.
Leeds narrowly missed out on promotion back to the Premier League this year after losing to Derby County in the playoff Semi-Final.
The Whites were in the top two for most of the season before a loss of form saw them miss out on automatic promotion.
Things were looking up for Leeds who after winning the first leg of the Playoff Semi Final 1-0 against Derby, then went down 4-2 in a dramatic return leg to break the hearts of their loyal fans.
The glory days of the club were undoubtedly between the 1960s and mid-70s under the management of club legend Don Revie.
Leeds implemented a strong youth program through Review, who developed a team that would go down as one of the greatest teams in English football.
The likes of club record holder John Charlton (762 games) as well as Billy Bremmer, Paul Reanay, Norman Hunter, Paul Madeley, and Peter Lormier were all part of Revie’s dynasty.
With Revie in charge, Leeds won the first four major trophies in their history.
The 1968 League Cup was the first with Terence Cooper scoring the only goal in a 1-0 triumph over Arsenal at Wembley.
Revie then took Leeds to their maiden First Division title the following year when they won the league by six points over Liverpool and it was a similar story in 1974 when Leeds pipped the Anfield side by five points to win their second English crown in Revie’s final season at the club.
The 1972 FA Cup Final was also a carbon copy of the 1968 League Cup final with Leeds again beating Arsenal 1-0 with Allan Clarke netting the winner this time around.
This was the only FA Cup trophy held at Elland Road and Leeds went on to make the 1973 European Cup Winners Cup Final, only to go down 1-0 to AC Milan in Greece.
After Revie’s departure, Brian Clough came in and left after six weeks. Jimmy Armfield then took over at the helm and with Revie’s aging but legendary team took Leeds to the 1975 European Champions Cup Final where they went down 4-0 to Bayern Munich in Paris.
During the late 70s and early 80s, the club found themselves sliding down the ladder and were eventually relegated to the second division in 1982.
However, under the leadership of Howard Wilkinson, Leeds were back in the top tier for the 1990/91 season.
The club’s most recent English top tier was in 1992 when they won the last ever English League First Division crown, finishing four points ahead of Manchester United.
French legend and future Manchester United star, Eric Cantona was part of the Championship winning side and the following season saw Leeds take part in the inaugural Premier League competition.
The late 90s was a period of great hope for The Whites. The club regularly finished in the top five of the Premier League but they unfortunately never quite got to the pinnacle.
This was also the same time two famous Australians made Elland Road their home – Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell.
With Viduka and Kewell working in tandem, Leeds made the UEFA Cup Semi-Final in 2000 and the UEFA Champions League Semi Final in 2001.
However, the club’s big spending found themselves in a bit of a financial freefall with the lack of trophy success costing them greatly. All of this culminated in 2004 with Leeds relegated to the second tier.
Since then it has been a turbulent ride for the Leeds faithful but under the current ownership of Andrea Radrizzani and Argentine Manager Marcelo Bielsa at the helm, The Whites are starting to bring back the glory days to the club.
Skipper Liam Cooper, Pontus Jansson, and Kemar Roofe will all play a key role in the 2019/20 campaign as Leeds aim to get back to a place that they belong to.
It all starts for Leeds with a pre-season trip down under and a visit to Wanderland to take on the mighty Red & Black.
