Jon Howe: The cycle of life

Jon Howe: The cycle of life

Weekly column.

In his latest column for leedsunited.com, lifelong supporter Jon Howe reflects on a memorable season, which will see the Whites return to the Premier League for the first time in 16 years.

Howe is the author of two books on the club, 2015 hit ‘The Only Place For Us: An A-Z History of Elland Road’ and ‘All White: Leeds United’s 100 Greatest Players’ in 2012.

Jon Howe

It is often said that football works in cycles. In essence, every dog has its day and every club is on a cycle working towards achievement and a period of success. You just don’t know how long the cycle is and whereabouts on it you are, until you achieve success. For some clubs it might be a small cycle lasting two or three years, and success is easily repeatable, for others it is a huge, never-ending cycle. For Leeds United it has been a 16-year cycle, and when you’ve been staring at something from a distance for 16 years, it is strange to admit that you don’t know how to feel when you finally have it in your hands.

Elation, exhaustion, relief; it’s all there. But this is a little bit like having your dream car sat on the driveway, but all you want to do is stare at it and sit in it. What do we do now, faced with a strange void of post-climactic emptiness? Well we take the car for a spin and enjoy it, don’t we?

But first I think we need a break from this. We’ve gone from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs in just 12 months, and in between there was plenty of worry and uncertainty. Mental fatigue effects supporters too, and a draining experience takes its toll. And that’s because football matters.

We’ve lived and breathed this season for a full 12 months, not to mention the warped and pockmarked history of what came before it, and now we need some distance to truly reflect and appreciate it. And now, maybe, we can also appreciate ‘last’ season a little more and enjoy the early development of our love affair with Marcelo Bielsa, and those epic goals and last minute winners, in a new light?

These players have now created history, and something that will define the rest of their lives, and our lives. They have now risen above the status of mere mortals. It’s not like they didn’t know this would happen, and that creates a pressure all of its own. Because this is a reminder of what Leeds United once was, and what it has achieved, and now it has woken from a coma to embrace being a statement part of civic life and civic pride, to bring in sporting, commercial and development opportunities that the club and the city deserves. Big players, big plans, big occasions. And that’s why this promotion ‘had’ to be achieved. It had to happen to enable people to think about Leeds United differently; to change everyone’s mind-set – fans, players, managers, opposition, media, civic leaders, commercial organisations – and to move on from a flawed, rudderless and sub-standard identity.

And Leeds United have got here through responding to leadership. If you are needing leadership but you don’t get it, you need to either take control yourself or look elsewhere. For many people in this country that’s not possible, but for Leeds United fans, we are fortunate to have had an abundance of leadership in our lives, just when we needed it. On and off the pitch, Leeds United have kept their counsel and responded impeccably to the challenges. Looking back through history it is criminal that you would try to achieve success in any other way, and be content with non-league standards, rancorous belligerence and short-term thinking. Because look what you can actually achieve with Leeds United?

In Marcelo Bielsa we have a leader who has delivered everything he promised. But then did he really promise us anything? He came with a reputation; and with a cloak of mystique, complexity and intrigue, but there were no brash statements, no platitudes and no empty pledges. Immediately, everything had meaning and everything meant business, but with a quiet humility and a tender compassion which was a perfect contradiction to the dynamic, flamboyant, ruthless and unforgiving football his team displayed.

Never let it be forgotten that this Leeds United rose up from the canvass with a herculean effort and finally delivered. From a point 12 months ago when it felt this goal could never be achieved – if 2018/19 wasn’t a promotion season then what on earth did one look like? – here we are having done it, and done it with style, charm and plenty of room to spare.

It feels like this promotion is closure of some sort, and certainly closure that we needed. Now fans can close the book on being the laughing stock of British football; ‘doing a Leeds’ now means something else. We have a release from the purgatory of jokes about chasing spurious dreams, Goldfish, Histon, winding-up orders, watermelons and ‘manager eaters’. And bottlers. Leeds United is no longer an idle plaything; the village idiot wheeled out and secured in stocks to throw tomatoes at. Leeds United has substance, leadership and pride. Leeds United has success.   

So closure is completing the cycle. And now we’re on a different cycle and it’s up to us how slow and how long we take to complete it. Maybe we’ll never complete it? Because, for now, we have no plans to go anywhere. Other clubs have had their day in the sun, they might be back one day, who knows when? For now it’s our time.

It is our time to remind the world what Leeds United is. We’ve known it all along, but it can be futile trying to prove that to anyone else in the tribal playground of football; to our detractors, to our enemies and to those who used us as a plaything and a figure for their own amusement. Now it’s undeniable, and perhaps that’s the best bit?

These players have achieved and they have made history, but history is only part of the story. It has been a story of fear, anguish, resilience, absurdity and defiance. It is a story that has aged us, hurt us and defined us. And it might feel like this is the end of the story, but really it’s just the beginning.       

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