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2016-17: Garry Monk's Seventh Place and the First Green Shoots
After years of frustration, Leeds finally looked like they were moving forwards. Garry Monk's side finished seventh with 75 points, led by Chris Wood's goals and a squad beginning to show real promise.
Overview
After years of frustration and instability, Leeds United finally produced a season that felt like progress. Garry Monk's side finished seventh in the Championship with 75 points, narrowly missing the play-offs.
A season that felt different
Leeds had spent years drifting around the Championship without seriously threatening the top six. That changed in 2016-17.
Monk's side finished seventh with 22 wins, nine draws and 15 defeats. They scored 61 goals, conceded 47 and collected 75 points.
For a club that had spent so long looking backwards, seventh place felt like movement in the right direction.
Chris Wood leads the way
Chris Wood was the standout attacking figure, scoring 30 goals across the season and finishing as Leeds' top scorer. Pablo Hernandez provided eight assists. Leeds also kept 17 clean sheets.
Wood's goals gave Leeds a reliable focal point, while a number of younger players were beginning to establish themselves around the squad.
The push for the play-offs
The season went down to the final day.
Leeds travelled to Wigan knowing that a huge swing in goal difference was required to leapfrog Fulham into sixth place. The game finished 1-1, with Wood scoring his 30th goal of the campaign, and Leeds finished seventh.
It was close enough to make the disappointment real - but different enough from previous seasons to make the campaign feel encouraging.
The pre-season promise by the owner Massimo Cellino, that “Leeds United will refund fans who buy a season ticket for the 2016-17 season by up to 50% of the cost if the club fails to reach the Championship play-offs” became a reality. A highly unusual and rare gimmick that has still not been repeated by any other professional club.
The cups
Leeds also reached the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup, where they lost to Liverpool. In the FA Cup, the run ended in the fourth round inexplicably at Sutton United.
The league, however, was the story.
The first green shoots
There was no promotion and no trophy. But after five seasons in a row of finishing in or around the bottom half of the Championship, there was finally a league position that represented progress. An established goal scorer (Wood), a team capable of competing with the division's stronger sides, and the first real signs in years that Leeds might be heading somewhere. Plus a season’s worth of fans screaming at the pitch, “Square it, Hadi!” to Hadi Sacko.
Seventh was not the destination. But it felt like it was the first sign of a road out.
Why 2016-17 belongs in Leeds United history
History tends to remember promotion seasons. It can forget the campaigns that made them possible.
2016-17 was one of those seasons.
Leeds finished seven places higher than the previous campaign and, crucially, went into the summer with a sense that the club was moving towards something rather than simply enduring another Championship year.