We are only a couple of days away from Leeds’ opening fixture against Bolton. A mixture of optimism and expectation has filled the whole Leeds fan base as we hope to improve on last year’s 7th place finish.

Andrea Radrizzani and his team have moved the club forward into a position where we, as fans, now feel the club is on the verge on success.

This week Mr. Radrizzani stepped forward and into the football limelight, and spoke about the club and his vision for it. We all have our personal expectations for the club: some of these are led by blinded support for Leeds, and the rest is built on our understanding of the difficulty of a Championship season.

Andrea is a businessman, but he is also a football fan and understands the importance of the club to us all and knows that transparency can breed good things. He will be very aware of both expectation that is led by passion and expectations restrained by realism.

In the interviews, he spoke about his short-term and long-term goals for the club and was able to manage the expectations of the whole Leeds fan base by outlining his own vision.

He outlined the playoffs as the prime target for the 2017/18 season. I often find the playoffs a strange expectation because, if you aim for the playoffs, you are essentially aiming for promotion. However, Andrea’s target offered us more than a gung-ho “all or nothing” playoff season. He offered a team built on sustained success, improving year-on-year to achieve a long-term future in England’s top division. He welcomed the idea of promotion but stated that progression was the long term plan.

He spoke about a model similar to that of Brighton, which is something we have all been crying out for over the last few years: a progressive club who is always looking to better itself is all a fan can really ask for.

Real sustained change at the club could make all the difference.

The timing of the interviews are a telling factor in how Mr. Radrizzani handles his business too. We have not really seen much of the Italian owner over the last few months and, just as the start of the season is upon us, he appears and adds that extra sense of togetherness and brings the club to everyone's mind. He mentioned the poor start we had last year and even went as far to mention the difference in points between us and Fulham in 6th from the end of last season. I interpreted the comments as Mr. Radrizzani adding his own motivation to the upcoming proceedings.

This could be an important prompt before the new season. The players will now look back and think dropped points against Birmingham and a below par performance against Huddersfield in August 2016 ultimately cost them the chance of promotion. This will spur them on to start with a fierce impetus and not allow early mistakes to cost us late on.

Overall, last season’s performances on the pitch have awoken a real belief that Leeds can get back to where it should be. We all know the size of the club and, for the first time in a long time, we know that the club has a sustainable and real plan to take the club to the Premier League, whether it be this season or the next.

Throughout my life following the club, I have never really trusted those in the boardroom at Elland Road.

I am sure I am not alone in that, but this time, I honestly believe in the current ownership. What a great way to start the 2017/18 season. MOT.