After just one season away, they’re back in the Premier League, a play-off final victory at Wembley seeing the despair of 12 months ago turn to joy now, optimism fuelled once more that this time it can be different, this time they can remain among the elite and become a sustainable, sustained, top-flight side.
Just one thing to decide: the actual team to which that opening paragraph can be applied. Leeds United or Southampton, either way it still chimes true – two of last year’s fallen trio, one will join another in bouncing straight back up.
Leicester City are already there and, just as last year’s three promoted sides succumbed to an immediate drop, last term’s three relegated names have gone the distance to reclaim their spot among England’s 20 finest. Ipswich Town, of course, are the outlier here. They were in neither the Premier League nor the Championship last year, the story of the Tractor Boys and Kieran McKenna one which is infrequently repeated and impressive in its own right – but also a total one-off in the story of year-to-year promotions and relegations.
The knock-on of that is that only one of Saints or Leeds can earn the right to go straight back up now while the loser will face another arduous second-tier campaign; Leeds ended the regular season in third, one place and three points above their Wembley foes, but Saints triumphed in a final-day meeting between the teams, 2-1 at Elland Road.
Regardless of the eventual winner, the questions will be the same: can they buck this year’s trend and make it more than a single campaign back in the top flight this time, and what is the plan for continual improvement?
Saints, of course, were for a long time Premier League regulars. Between 2012-13 and 2016-17, they were both progressive and impressive but the approach of selling established players and buying for the future didn’t quite work over the longer term. Ralph Hassenhuttl’s setup eventually looked tired and uninspired, unable to hold back the inevitable. Five successive seasons finishing in the bottom half came before they ultimately went down.
Much has changed with Russell Martin in the dugout, not least of all the formation, but many of the same components of the relegated side are still there, in particular, the likes of Adam Amstrong, Che Adams, Joe Aribo – contributors in the final third this term but nowhere near often enough in the top flight.
It isn’t a stretch to suggest they’d need improvements if they are to do what Luton, Burnley and Sheffield United failed to do this time around and bridge the gap between the tiers to extend their stay beyond 10 months.
Leeds, meanwhile, managed three very different years in the top flight after their long-awaited return: the mesmeric Marcelo Bielsa campaign, the Jesse Marsch rescue act in year two, and the farcical lurching from incompatible to incapable in year three, relegated after four different head coaches had sat in the hot seat.
There’s no question it’ll need to be different to that if they are to survive.
Daniel Farke can point to his history of getting teams up but not necessarily keeping them there. Leeds’ squad, meanwhile, looks attack-minded and youthful enough to progress further but they have a whole host of players set to return from loan if they go up. That won’t be an easy fix, either to blend or to balance the books.
And yet, those what-ifs for both sides lie beyond. All that matters at this stage is the win at Wembley, getting over the line, getting back to the big time.
The outpouring of emotion when the whistle goes and their team are the ones left celebrating will overpower and override any concerns about what may wait in store in the vague weeks and months ahead.
In its own way, and despite it inevitably leading to questions of whether the gap is getting bigger between not just the top two divisions but most of the clubs who bounce between them and the rest of the Championship, it can be argued that a play-off final date now is the reward for the supporters who had to go through such anguish this time a year ago.
One more game, one more chance – one more result for Leeds or Saints fans to spend the summer dreaming.
