How Leeds United's belief and confidence can have such a big impact on them physically next season

A takeover by San Fracisco 49ers Enterprises is in the works, but only the first step. Once that is resolved they needed a new manager or head coach and someone to replace Victor Orta as director of football or head of recruitment.

They will then need to oversee a clearout of big earners who no longer want to be at Elland Road after last season's relegation from the Premier League, and the recruitment of a few battle-hardened Championship players to fill the gaps.

But they need to go into next season with a clear identity and a belief they can get out of the losing habit which stopped them fulfilling their potential in 2022-23.

Because as far as mental performance coach/consultant Mark Bowden is concerned, the psychological hang-ups Leeds suffered last season had a physical effect too.

It came out most publicly at West Ham United in May, where after a defeat which pushed the Whites to the brink of relegation, defender Luke Ayling said: "I think in years gone past, teams feared us when it comes to a running point of view and our fitness and stuff and I just don't feel like it's there this season."

He was probably not the only one in the dressing room thinking it.

Then-manager Sam Allardyce, an ardent believer in sports psychology, put it down to "mental fitness" as much as physical.

Recovering the identity built under Marcelo Bielsa as the hardest-running side or finding another, equally powerful narrative will be essential to the next manager, according to Bowden, who has worked one-to-one with many players in England's top two tiers.

"I certainly haven't got any insight as to whether they were doing anything different on the training ground or whether their fitness was different but if Luke Ayling or anybody else was thinking that way, that does pose a problem," he says.

"There's the mantra, 'If you think you can't, you're right.' It all comes down to how our brains operate.

"If we think, 'Teams used to fear us, now they're not worried about that fitness side,' that does certain things. It doesn't just make us feel a certain way, it starts engaging different parts of the brain, different neurochemicals.

"So if Luke Ayling is thinking, 'I'm not as fit,' it's almost like his identity has gone from being, ‘teams fear me and my team because we're so fit’ to, ‘they don't fear me now and I'm worried about that.’

"It gives control to different parts of the brain such as the amygdala, making you feel more negative and stressed and making it much more difficult to play to your best levels. It also stimulates the hippocampus, which is responsible for memories.

"You might be thinking you had a bad game the last time and putting that down to your fitness.

"Then you can start to rationalise why you're going to have a bad game. In that situation, it's the chemicals released into the brain.

"If you're thinking others players are intimidated because they’re worried about the high levels of intensity we're going to play at, that also releases things like norepinephrine, dopamine – hormones and neurochemicals that give you more drive, more motivation, higher energy and help people to play a lot better.

"It's much more than a thought.

"When Leeds were in a relegation struggle did they think, 'We need to be driven and focused and doing this, this and this' or, 'We're not doing very well, we're not very good'?

"Two teams can be in the same situation but one is looking at it in a way which enhances the brilliant performance-enhancing parts of the brain and releases performance-enhancing chemicals, the other one is stopping that performance."

Next season offers a fresh start after two years fighting top-flight relegation, but clearing any mental hangover will be essential.

"Fitness is always important to sportsmen and women but if that is something they think they have to have to the highest levels, going into pre-season with that not having been taken care of could be an issue," warns Bowden.

"But there's a lot more facets to Leeds United's identity than just their fitness. They can have other beliefs that overcome that concern.

"Leeds will be one of the strongest sides in the Championship and if they go in there with a direction and a belief they will go on to do what they need to do, that's brilliant.

"But they have been used to losing and if they go in with that mindset and they're worried about how they'll respond to the Championship, that can cause a big problem.

"We've often seen teams bouncing between Prem and Champ but we've also seen teams who should have gone back up fighting relegation. It needs to be looked at by not just the next manager but people around him conditioning the players into making sure they're doing the right things and thinking about the right things to put the right parts of the brain in control.

"If not, it can be a bit of a leveller."