When Leeds United take on Derby County at Elland Road on Friday night, the focus, for once, will not be on the ghosts of Don Revie and Brian Clough, those two sons of Middlesbrough locked in eternal rancour. Nor will the well-worn footage of Norman Hunter looming out of the Baseball Ground mud and murk to trade haymakers and uppercuts with Francis Lee merit another airing to define the two rivals by their glorious and sometimes ignoble past.

Leeds, still two points clear at the top of the Championship despite back-to-back defeats, are a club that have been liberated from nostalgic infatuations and ceaseless turmoil since relegation from the Premier League in 2004 by material progress towards promotion under Marcelo Bielsa.

Derby, in sixth, are a far more mature and cohesive side now than the one Leeds trounced 4-1 at Pride Park in the second match of the season. “I’m really looking forward to it,” says Eddie Gray, Leeds’ most graceful player who also served his beloved club in two spells as manager. “It’s a big, big game. There’s a lot of optimism in the city and we have a great opportunity to go up.”

It’s another sell-out at Elland Road where signs of transformation and renewal are evident since Andrea Radrizzani became the majority shareholder in 2017. It has never been a pretty ground, stop-start development caused by decades of boom and bust and the consequent confusion of styles have robbed it of elegance. Nevertheless, its stark asymmetry, one enormous stand dwarfing the other three, is always arresting.