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Ahead of our return to the Sky Bet Championship, learn more about all 23 of our opponents

2024-07-03T08:00:00.000Z

IN FOCUS: LEEDS UNITED

Ahead of our return to the Sky Bet Championship, learn more about all 23 of our opponents

2024-07-03T08:00:00.000Z

Ahead of our return to the Sky Bet Championship, learn more about all 23 of our opponents

After its predecessor Leeds City was disbanded, Leeds United Football Club was formed in 1919.

The Whites were elected to the Football League a year later and their first major trophy came in 1967/68, when they beat Arsenal to win the League Cup.

That sparked a period of success in the 1970s, in which the Elland Road club won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup final, the FA Cup and Division 1, in addition to narrowly missing out in a European Cup final.

After a UEFA Champions League semi-final in 2001, Leeds went through a period of turbulence that eventually saw them drop to League One after going into voluntary administration.

They fought back, however, and were promoted back to the Premier League after a 16-year absence in 2020.

Leeds enjoyed three seasons in the top flight before being relegated at the end of 2022/23, and will be keen to regain their position with a positive campaign.

They come close to that aim last time around but, after beating Norwich City in the semi-finals, were beaten by an Adam Armstrong Southampton goal to nil in the 2023/24 Championship play-off final.

Stadium: Elland Road (37,890) – Beeston, Leeds, LS11 0ES

Nickname(s): The Whites

Manager: Daniel Farke

2023/24 finishing position: 3rd in Sky Bet Championship

2023/24 top scorer (all competitions): Crysencio Summerville (21)

Played for both:

Aaron Lennon – An accomplished winger, Lennon came through the youth system at Leeds United where he was initially spotted as an eight-year-old. At 16 years and 129 days he became the youngest player to appear in the Premier League in August 2003, coming off the bench against Tottenham Hotspur. 10 months later he was on the move and joined Spurs permanently, with the North London club becoming his home for the next 10 years. During that time he made more than 250 top-flight appearances and earned all of his 21 senior England caps. He switched the capital for Merseyside in 2015, spending three years with Everton before joining Burnley for the first time in January 2018. Working under Sean Dyche, his debut came immediately but he departed for Turkish side Kayserispor by the summer of 2020. After a year on the continent, he returned to Lancashire and made 28 Premier League appearances in 2021/22 before being released.

Sam Vokes – After breaking through at AFC Bournemouth, Vokes joined Wolverhampton Wanderers in May 2008 and spent the last three months of 2009 on loan at Leeds United. He later had a similar spell a at Burnley, scoring twice in nine appearances. That earned him a permanent move to Lancashire and the striker spent seven successful years in Claret, scoring 21 goals en route to promotion in 2013/14 and netting the Club’s first European goal in more than half a century in 2018. The striker left for Stoke City, where he failed to find his goalscoring form, in 2019 and subsequently joined Wycombe Wanderers where he remains to this day.

Robbie Blake – Burnley icon Blake had two spells at the Club, first joining in 2002 and netting 42 Championship goals, including a cracking free-kick from range against Preston North End, before leaving in 2005. His career started with Darlington in 1994 and the winger’s first taste of league football came with Bradford City, for whom he played 153 league matches in a five-year spell. After leaving Burnley the first time, he played for Birmingham City and Leeds United before returning to Lancashire in 2007. Blake was part of the team that came agonisingly close to a place in the League Cup final in 2009 and famously netted the Club’s first ever Premier League goal months later, arrowing a powerful volley into the top-right corner.