OPINION
If you’re a Leeds United fan, the likelihood is that the last thing you want to think about is how close your team came to a long-awaited Premier League return this season.
For most of the campaign it looked as if Marcelo Bielsa’s team had promotion in the bag, and even after their Easter capitulation, you would have been forgiven for thinking that they had everything under control in the play-offs, right up until the moment that the wheels began to come off in spectacular fashion against Derby County.
From that point onwards, it has been a mixture of devastating disappointment, nervous waits over Bielsa’s future, and the occasional flash of cautious optimism as the Yorkshire giants begin to face up to the reality of another season in the Championship.
A fresh report on plans for Elland Road make it very clear as to where the club’s future ambitions lie, however.
According to Leeds Live, the club have had plans green-lit by the city council to install two 44-metre high masts behind the West Stand to house new floodlights.
In the initial proposal for the lights, there were mentions of them being part of an effort to meet Premier League regulations, but even though the club have fallen short of that target this year, it is understood that they have been given a three year period by authorities to install the masts anyway.
It might be a small thing in the grand scheme of things, but the message is clear; the aim is still very much to return to the top flight, and the sooner that is done, the better.