Inside Leeds United’s Tumultuous 2000s: How Mismanagement Sank a Premier League Giant
Leeds United will start the 2026/27 season on the up following last year’s successful return to the Premier League.
The club failed to establish themselves back in the top flight following their previous promotion in 2020, as their return from a 16-year Premier League exile ended after just three seasons, but supporters will now be hoping that they are back among the big boys of English football for the long haul.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, Leeds were often one of the Premier League’s most exciting sides, their high-water mark being the run to the Champions League semi-finals in 2001, before the house of cards built by Peter Ridsdale came crashing down.
Lucas Radebe on Leeds’ 2004 relegation
Just three years on from their defeat to Valencia in the last-four of Europe’s biggest club competition, Leeds found themselves relegated following a turgid campaign which saw a squad, still packed with stars, fail to beat the drop.
Leeds United legend Lucas Radebe was at the club throughout this rise and fall, with injuries meaning the South African was only able to feature 14 times in the 2003/04 campaign, a season which still weighs heavy on him.
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