The 2016/17 season seems a long time ago after an eventful few weeks at Elland Road - Andrea Radrizzani completed his takeover of the club and we finally waved goodbye to Massimo Cellino. The next day, it was announced that Leeds had tied down Ronaldo Vieira to a long term deal. Everything seemed to be going in the right direction at the club… but this is Leeds United and something was bound to put our feet back on the ground

That’s exactly what happened when Garry Monk decided his tenure as Leeds Head Coach had come to an end and he resigned from the club.

The resignation of Monk was a bitter pill to swallow, but we must not forget what the team achieved last season and how we got within touching distance of reaching the playoffs - something that was nothing more than a pipe dream prior to the start of the season.

In a three-part series, I am going to look at the Monk era, the highs and the lows from a season which filled us all with the utmost pride for the players and the management staff who made us all believe our club could be great again.

In part one, I look back at a difficult start in August, the steady change throughout September and the rise in momentum as we ended October on the cusp of a playoff position.

However, first, I would like to discuss the decision to appoint Garry Monk as Head Coach.

It’s always a peculiar time leading up to a new season at Leeds, and last season was no different. As the Leeds job looked a hazardous proposition, I doubted that any manager with a decent pedigree would risk their managerial reputation on a job they would most likely lose by November.

Karl Robinson and Darrel Clarke both chose to stay with lower league clubs rather than manage Leeds United. That just shows where Leeds were 12 months ago. I just kept thinking ‘which Sunday-league manager is Cellino going to give the job to this time?’

Then, something unbelievable happened: Garry Monk was announced as manager and the Monk era had begun. Given what Monk had achieved at Swansea, the signing of Monk bucked the trend and finally showed ambition from the ownership as Mr. Cellino pulled it out of the bag in signing Monk.

My optimism had returned as we looked forward to a season under a young, top-quality Head Coach steering the ship at Elland Road.

August

The optimism gained from the signing of Garry Monk soon turned to pessimism as Leeds started the season in dismal form. The players struggled to find their rhythm and something was clearly missing from within the team. The ideas Monk was trying implement were on show in parts, but the team lacked the mental and physical fitness to really put them into practice

Results throughout the month were deceiving - we were outplayed and beaten against QPR and Nottingham Forest and were lucky to nick a point at the death against a very good Fulham side, as we did with Sheffield Wednesday comfortably away from home. We were the better side for only 45 minutes against Birmingham at Elland Road.

September

Due to the international break, we had to wait until the 10th of September against West Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town for the first match of the month. The performance and the lack of desire shown that day was the lowest point of the season for me: we were awful throughout the game and looked like a team that were destined for a relegation battle.

Garry Monk was interviewed after the game and looked like a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. Things looked bleak at Leeds, and rumours of his sacking would not cease.

However, a Tuesday evening game against a fellow struggling team, Blackburn Rovers, changed everything and was the catalyst for the memorable season that followed. The match was actually a poor affair, as one would expect from teams struggling at the bottom of the table, and as the game looked like it was heading for a draw, two things happened:

First, Rob Green made two superb saves to deny Blackburn the lead, and then, Leeds won a free-kick in a decent position.

I remember sitting there just praying for goal… and the ball was whipped beautifully by Alex Mowatt… and there was Kyle Bartley unmarked… who guided his header past the Blackburn keeper and the Leeds season and the Monk era had finally begun.

We started to see a gradual improvement as the month continued. One of the fixtures was Ipswich at home, we only won the game 1–0 but the level of commitment and how we dominated the game throughout showed that the Monk philosophy was starting to embed into the squad.

We finished the month with a defeat away to Bristol, who at the time were flying under Lee Johnson. The game was a tight affair throughout and either team could have taken the points.

Overall, September was a defining month for the club. For the first time, we saw what the side was made of and it gave us hope that maybe this could be the start of something special. The optimism which had dissipated in August had returned, somewhat, as we entered October.

October

Leeds continued to grow and develop throughout October as we climbed up the table and were within touching distance of the playoffs by the end of the month.

We started the month with another controlling home victory, this time against Barnsley. We won the game 2–1 with another Kyle Bartley goal and a lovely finish from Pablo Hernandez ensuring we took the points and put the Championship on alert.

(poetry in motion)

The next two games were disappointing, as we lost to Derby and drew against Wigan - a game we should have won and I felt that, alongside other fixtures throughout the season, ultimately cost us our playoff chance.

We weren’t at our best that night, but we were the better side by far. We had chances to kill the game but we didn’t and were punished, and Wigan scored to take a point back to Lancashire.

We did win our next two league games to finish the month on a high. In these games the lads showed their ability to dig in and grind out victories when not at 100%.

Although we finished the month on a high, with two league wins against Wolves and Burton, we didn’t play great in either game. Instead, we dug in and got the points.

However, it was the EFL cup game against Norwich that really showed the heart and togetherness within the Leeds side.

My personal opinion of the EFL Cup prior to that game was low. I felt it distracted teams from the most important thing, the league…

But I was wrong.

On a Tuesday night at the end of October, for the first time, I experienced the euphoria of cup football. For the first time in a long time, the players, fans and management were Marching on Together.

The team battled hard for 120 minutes and emerged victorious on penalties to book their place in the 5th round of the EFL Cup, but it was what we saw in those players that was the real thing to celebrate.

For me, these first few months of the season were Leeds’ preseason: when the lads got match fit and understood what Monk required from them, they started to show their true quality.

At the end of October, we all knew this team could achieve big things. October had re-lit a fire within us all that had burnt out some time ago.