Now for reality as Leeds United try to make yo-yoing a no-no back in the Premier League
There is only one problem with big celebrations – big hangovers.
Last night Leeds United had a Championship title to concentrate on at home to Bristol City, their place in the 2025-26 Premier League booked.
That is something a club of Leeds' stature and history should always strive for when outside England's elite, as they have been for two years.
But is it all it is cracked up to be?
Marcelo Bielsa’s Premier League new boys romped to ninth in their first season; Howard Wilkinson's team needed just two years to jump from Division Two to Division One champions in the 1990s. In their first two top-flight seasons in the 1960s, Don Revie's side were runners-up twice, reaching an FA Cup final and winning the Fairs Cup.
It feels like another world.
"Southampton and Leicester were amazing teams last year in this league – they can't win a game," reflected West Bromwich Albion’s manager in their noughties yo-yo years. "Is that going to be Leeds next year? It'd be sad almost.
"You want to get to the Premier League, that's what your job is.
"But there's always in the back of your mind of what do you do in the summer? Do you spend £200m to give yourself half a chance or go with this team and probably get relegated by February?"
When Ipswich Town's demise was confirmed on Saturday it was the earliest all three Premier League teams had been relegated, and the second year running all the promoted sides went straight back down.
Ten promoted clubs have only lasted one season since 2020.
Between them, Ipswich, Leicester City and Southampton have just 50 point so far this term. The all-time low is 66 – last season.
Ex-Hull City manager Marco Silva took Fulham up as 2022 champions – ending four years of hokey-cokeying with Daniel Farke's Norwich City – and has kept them up since. Remarkably, considering the subsequent carnage, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest are also not only still in the top-flight too but like the Cottagers, in contention for Europe.
"(Look at) Leeds, the great fanbase they have and their history as a football club too, but the gap is getting bigger," warned Silva last week.
"Three seasons ago with us and the two other clubs that were promoted is not something that happens often, that the three are still playing in the Premier League, in the top half of the table and all that stuff.
"It shows it's very difficult to achieve it."
You do not have to be an expert in football finance to work out why, but Kieran Maguire is. Rather than doing what it says on the tin, financial fair play – and parachute payments making it easier for relegated clubs such as Leeds in 2023 to return quickly – make competition less fair.
"We're creating a trampoline environment which isn't good for the product," the senior teacher in accounting and finance at the University of Liverpool told The Yorkshire Post recently. "The clubs who have been in the Premier League can lose £105m over three years. Ipswich, Luton or (Nottingham) Forest when they came up could only lose £61m."
It is about money, but not just money. If so, Manchester United would not be a laughing stock.
“Everything has to be spot on in the decision-making to achieve (survival) and to make sure you stay for good," warns Leeds manager Farke, whose Norwich accrued just 21 Premier League points in 2019-20. “You have to be ambitious, you need a proper budget or there's no chance.
"We have to invest in the training ground, the staff, most importantly the playing squad. We want to invest in the stadium (new artist's impressions were released on Monday).
“We have already planned a bit the pre-season fixtures, training camp. All this has to be spot on to give yourself a chance.
"You need a strong start to take the enthusiasm of promotion with you.
"It's important we have new signings relatively early, not the end of August."
And you have to get the football right. Farke's Championship strategy is based on seeing lots of the ball – more than anyone else in this season's division – and using it to wear opponents down.
"If you play Liverpool, Man City, Arsenal you can't expect to dominate 90 per cent of possession and make them just defend," he admits.
"Once you analyse which teams were successful in terms of surviving, the sides promoted because of attacking football were quite often struggling at Premier League level because you can't be that dominant and you are not used to defending.
"Teams promoted because of defending are a bit more likely to stay.
"But you still have to play proper football and be yourself. Physicality, defending, counter-attacks, set-pieces are very important to survive but I think all the teams relegated right now were also aware of it."
The Premier League needs Leeds – or Burnley, or whoever wins the play-offs – to stay up next season for its own credibility. A pity then, it is them doing most to stop it.