Leeds United return to Brentford hoping the next party can be more positive

If you did not know the context, you would have thought the Brazilian winger had just won the Premier League, World Cup or maybe even the FA Vase, not finished 17th in a division his team were ninth in the previous season.

There were no such celebrations from the teams in 14th or 15th, even seventh, but the euphoria which spilled onto the Goodison Park pitch when Everton booked their place in the division for another year was yet more extravagant - well, they did hit the dizzy heights of 16th.

That might cause snobbish sneering from some looking down from loftier heights, but unless you have lived through the trauma of a Premier League relegation battle, it is hard to fully appreciate the relief at coming out the right side. And Leeds skated pretty close to the ice last season.

"Yeah," chuckles Jesse Marsch when asked how important it is that Leeds are not put through that again this season ahead of his team's first return to the ground on Saturday. "That was a good memory but we don't want that memory again!"

When he says it was a good memory, he means it. Americans do not do irony, remember.

"Not being relegated felt the same as winning the league," insists Marsch, who before pitching up in West Yorkshire had experienced the latter but never the former.

"Maybe (Manchester City manager) Pep Guardiola doesn't really even appreciate what relegation really is because he's never been forced into it. I never really appreciated what it meant until I was in that situation. There's an awful, awful part of it but there's a beautiful part of it."

Relegation from Division One to Two used to be a bitter disappointment, not much more. With every season, dropping from the Premier League into the Championship becomes more of a footballing disaster.

Parachute payments certainly soften the landing - more than they ought to - but relegations from the top-flight change careers, and not just on-field ones.

Raphinha could be confident May's 2-1 win was his final Leeds game, and a move to Barcelona was duly pushed through. Kalvin Phillips went too, to work with Guardiola.

But relegation would have meant a swathe of departures - some by choice, others not - from the squad.

The players, though, are the people to be least sorry for.

Staff at Elland Road and Thorp Arch - paid far less, often there far longer and in many cases deeply in love with the club - would have lost their jobs too. The mood in the city would have noticeably changed.

The last time Leeds dropped out of the division it took them 16 years, administration, another relegation and a lot of misery before scrambling back up. Admittedly, that was pre-parachutes, but others have found to their cost they can only do so much to save you.

So yes, finishing 17th was worth celebrating.

"We had a little party back at our hotel," recalls Marsch. "It was sort of like winning a trophy.

"That was the last time I spoke face to face with Kalvin and Raphinha because the season's done, people go on vacation, things happen..."

Brentford may or may not be about to find out, as Sheffield United did 12 months before Leeds, that the second Premier League season can be harder than the first. But the third is no piece of cake either.

Leeds staying up meant Burnley going down after a six-year stretch including a European campaign. The previous year Bournemouth dropped out after five seasons.

Cementing yourself in the top-flight is tough, and tougher still without a billionaire bankrolling you but that is the challenge facing Leeds now.Marsch is confident things are heading in the right direction, though, and with good reason. Even after a shambolic deadline day saw them spectacularly miss out on the senior centre-forward they wanted all summer, it has been a good window for the Whites - stocking up on depth, quality and a fundamental understanding of and ability to play the Marsch way in every other position (except left-back). The results showed in the opening weeks of the season and the stutter has been no more than two games.

"I know we're on the right track but in this league you can't take one second for granted," warns Marsch, not for the first time. "I love that I have to be my best every day and we have to be. This is the only way to really maximise our potential.

“We've had a good start although I think there were more points there for us than we've gathered. We have to be focused now in every moment of every match on being at our best and making sure we pick up as many points as possible so that come May we're not in that situation.

"We worked really hard to be the best versions of ourselves in those moments to try to find a way to thrive, not just survive.

"I'm proud of the fact we did thrive and survive and I think it's made us stronger and created more belief in how we move forward."Hopefully the next party might be for something a little more positive