The second series of Amazon's Take Us Home: Leeds United documentary is almost here, with Whites fans looking forward to a much happier ending this time.
The cameras were back at Elland Road for Marcelo Bielsa's sophomore campaign last season and were able to capture one of the most memorable years in the club's history, as the club finally won promotion back to the Premier League, via a global pandemic.
A new two-part series is released on Thursday and will give supporters another chance to bask in their title-winning campaign.
Here are six things from over the past 12 months we’d love to see in series two.
Orta at work in the transfer market
Angus Kinnear’s immortal “not around with the play-offs” line served as the cliffhanger to the first series of the documentary, teasing what was to come in 2019/20.
One of the highlights of Take Us Home’s original run was seeing exactly how the Daniel James transfer saga played out in those final few hours of the mid-season window.
There was nothing quite as fraught and dramatic in the 2019 summer transfer window, as Victor Orta and co helped mould a promotion-winning squad, but similar insight into how the club scouted Ben White, signed Helder Costa and convinced Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah to join on loan amid strong competition from Bristol City will make interesting viewing.
That 5-4 win at Birmingham
No matches in the 2019/20 campaign were as memorable or downright bonkers as the 5-4 victory away at St. Andrews shortly after Christmas.
Pep Clotet couldn’t help but praise his opposite number after the madcap nine-goal thriller in which both sides scored three goals apiece in a breathless final half-hour, with Luke Ayling helping to seal all three points for Leeds in injury-time with a cross deflected in off Blues defender Wes Harding.
One to relive.
How the players reacted to the Nottingham Forest defeat
It was etched all over Ayling’s face , how hard the 2-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest hit the Leeds squad back in February.
Bielsa’s Whites had seen their comfortable lead at the top of the table completely ebb away, having failed to win eight of their last 10 outings in the Championship.
That was undisputedly the low-point, a perfect second act in the narrative arc of United’s promotion-winning season.
While it’s unlikely any insider footage exists of Bielsa’s now-mythical post-match ‘rousing speech’ that helped kickstart the upturn in form - with 12 wins from the last 15 games - it would be fascinating to see up close quite how despondent the players got at that point as a counterpoint to the sheer jubilation that would follow.
Lockdown
Leeds were just clicking into first gear with five straight wins when the unprecedented suspension of English football hit in March as the whole country went into lockdown.
Given the circumstances, we wouldn’t expect any of the filming crew to have captured anything during those many weeks of downtime. But it would be extremely interesting to see behind-the-scenes as the players returned to Thorp Arch in May ahead of that season-defining final stretch, and the psychological impact of such a long time away.
The aftermath of Pablo Hernandez’s goal at Swansea
The goal that sparked thousands of delirious socially-distanced celebrations in living rooms across the city and from United fans around the world. Pablo Hernandez’s late winner away to Swansea, of course.
It was the moment, with Brentford then still relentlessly in hot pursuit, where it seemed as though Leeds had finally broken the back of it and surely, surely sealed their Premier League return.
We got to live the Spaniard’s instantly iconic celebration, whipping off his top, in real-time. It would be great to drink it in further and see how the players reacted post-match and on the journey home. They must have known how close they’d gotten.
That unforgettable promotion week
Thanks to social media, we’ve already seen lots of clips of the players on the night promotion was finally sealed and the ensuing chaos in the following days as a hungover United somehow beat Derby County 3-1 before enjoying a victory lap in some style with a 4-0 thrashing of Charlton Athletic on the final night.
As Bielsa embraced Patrick Bamford and Hernandez up in the Elland Road stands, we could see the documentary crew in the background getting footage.
There’s no such thing as oversaturation when it comes to a week of celebrations fans have been waiting a decade and a half for.
