Leeds United want to win promotion on the pitch, insists Liam Cooper

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, Leeds have been adamant they wanted their remaining nine matches played, even though their chances of returning to the Premier League for the first time since 2004 would be even greater were they not.

Marcelo Bielsa’s side are top of the Championship, seven points clear of the play-off places. The Football League have made it clear if divisions are not completed, as seems almost certain in League Two and likely in League One, they want the teams in the automatic promotion places after unweighted points-per-game are taken into account to go up.

Although promotion to the Premier League is extremely important to Leeds in both a financial and a sporting sense, that would not sit comfortably with central defender Cooper.

“We are not the type of club who want anything passing to us,” he said. “We want to go and accomplish it ourselves.

“Some may call us mad for that but we want to do it properly and we want to go and finish what we have started. We have come a long way in these last two years and it would be fitting to be able to get that done.”

Because all 24 Championship teams have played 37 matches, applying a points-per-game formula would not alter the standings.

“Being the club that we are, it’s not nice when something gets handed to you like that and that’s not the sort of culture we have at the club,” said Cooper.

“We don’t expect anybody to give us anything and we have really developed that over the last two years for sure.

“I think I speak for the majority of the lads, they want to play and they want to get it done properly. We don’t want a hand-me-down, we don’t want any of that, we want to get it done and that’s the way it’s got to be.”

Cooper and his team-mates returned to training yesterday for the first time since mid-March. They trained in small groups, observing social distancing and strict Football League protocols.

The League shares Leeds’s view that the competition should be completed if safe to do so, but time is running short with obstacles still to be cleared.

League chairman Rick Parry has said matches need to be completed by July 31, and no agreement has yet been reached on when contact training will be resumed or, more importantly, matches.

Hull City have been the most vocal club in calling for the season to be abandoned, and Sheffield Wednesday manager Garry Monk outlined concerns about how much training would be needed before players could be expected to play competitive football.

The plan is for matches to be spread across five weekends and the midweeks inbetween, but the League is also committed to play-offs, squeezing the available time.

Leeds have invested heavily in world-renowned coach Bielsa over the last two seasons and support staff and players to try to win promotion back to the Premier League.

They lost in the 2018-19 play-off semi-finals. 

Editor’s note: First and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you. James Mitchinson, Editor