Jon Howe: It matters where you start from

Jon Howe: It matters where you start from

Weekly column.

In his latest column for leedsunited.com, lifelong supporter Jon Howe looks ahead at the next three fixtures.

Howe is the author of two books on the club, ‘The Only Place For Us: An A-Z History of Elland Road’ - which has been updated as a new version for 2021 - and ‘All White: Leeds United’s 100 Greatest Players’ in 2012.


Jon Howe


The journey upwards towards a professional ceiling for a footballer is a long and arduous one, and has many varied starting points. The core of this Leeds United squad is a great example, taking in such scattered sporting outposts as Hull City, Arsenal’s Academy, Cracovia, Coagh United and Thorp Arch at the outset of careers which, even as recently as five years ago, probably never expected to take the trajectory they have ended up on today. All the time, footballers are aiming for a pinnacle which is constantly changing. What is the limit of their ambitions? It’s hard to say when a footballer’s career path is so fragile and unpredictable and is subject to the volatility of a bouncing ball and 22 disparate individuals. And VAR.

For us mere mortals, it takes an unimaginable amount of dedication and sacrifice to even get to those starting points, never mind where the likes of Liam Cooper, Luke Ayling, Mateusz Klich, Stuart Dallas and Kalvin Phillips are today. But through every bump in the road, footballers have their eye on the big prizes and the big games. There is always something to aim for, and in those early years when they could barely afford a pair of shin pads and a man-bun, sleeve tattoos and resplendent facial hair were a distant pipe dream, any of those five players will have started out fantasising about the kind of challenge Leeds United face in the next three games.

Footballers are wired up differently to the rest of us. That much is certain. Being pitched against Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea in consecutive fixtures – even if you ignore the circumstances presented by the league table – would be a mind-bending prospect for most of us, and enough to cause sleepless nights from the moment the fixtures were released. But footballers relish this challenge and have worked all their lives to test themselves against the best.

I’ve often watched players lining up in the tunnel, laughing and joking before a big game and looking completely relaxed, and thought it must be a wonderful feeling to have that much confidence, and be totally at ease with the fact that you can compete at that level, with that much exposure and that you belong where you are. There is no sign of the tension or anxiety that would grip most people. The only comparison I can make with my own everyday life is that I can competently carry three pints back from the bar without spilling a drop. Every time. That requires a degree of confidence. I tried four pints once, but like Anthony Elding, I knew my limits and had found my level.

So it’s the prospect of these upcoming fixtures that gives me some hope that this group of Leeds United players can rise to a challenge. This is the run of games they would have dreamed of when splashing about in the mudbaths of grassroots football, and given the career transformation they have experienced over the last four years, and the gargantuan effort it took to get here, they are not about to give this up and be told that they don’t belong at this level of the game.

Howard Wilkinson famously looked at upcoming fixtures during our league title-winning season 30 years ago, and grouped them into small segments of games. He then planned for those groups of games specifically. It is fair to say that Leeds fans have taken Wilko’s lead and had a keen eye on these fixtures for months, mentally preparing ourselves and always applying a caveat when assessing how comfortable we felt with our league position. And while we would prefer a more accommodating run of games at this juncture of the season, we have little choice but to flip everything over and welcome the ultimate challenge. This is what the Premier League is all about and this is how we prove our status within it is a worthy one.

And let’s be honest, we have a point to prove against every one of these teams. Manchester City away was a professional humiliation for the players. The televised 4-1 defeat to Arsenal just before Christmas was the only remaining Premier League fixture on a day that found Leeds at their lowest ebb, with a decimated squad and genuine claims as to why the game was going ahead amid a fixture list ravaged by the Omicron COVID wave. We also owe Arsenal big time for the various near-misses and ill fortune in league and cup games stretching back longer than I can bear to calculate. And Chelsea are just Chelsea. But I’m sure, like me, you are still spitting with fury at the softest of last minute penalties we conceded in the 3-2 defeat at Stamford Bridge, which took the shine off Joffy Gelhardt’s equalising goal and a fine backs-to-the-wall performance in the true historic spirit of the fixture.

The performance in the 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace on Monday night lacked a lot of things, but it did have courage, togetherness and organisation, and that bodes well for what we will be facing over the next three games. And there is also the vague possibility that at least Manchester City and Chelsea will be distracted by bigger prizes when our fixtures come round; City by a two-legged Champions League Semi-Final with Real Madrid, and Chelsea by the FA Cup Final three days after our game at Elland Road. Okay, we might still need a flock of flying pigs to encircle the skies above Beeston and provide sufficient distraction to enable a level playing field, but these remain small advantages we can play on.

And when comparing these games to the Palace performance, it is obvious that we need better possession, less panic and a better quality of passing and movement. But this often comes automatically with a better class of opposition. Other teams have found the ability to frustrate the top four clubs this season and even beat them – we did the same 12 months ago - and on our current run, we are perhaps better placed than we have been all season to aggravate, thwart and hinder. I might not be convincing you with my overall argument here, but this bit at least is true.

The starting point for this group of games finds Leeds United in their strongest position; unbeaten in five games and with two consecutive clean sheets. And from a good starting point you never know what you might achieve. Ask anyone in our team if they believe that anything can happen if you apply enough dedication and sacrifice from the very beginning. That’s what got us here, and nobody is going to forget that now.     

X