Leeds United star Tyler Roberts has claimed that the club are still focused on being able to clinch promotion and lift the Championship title by playing out the rest of their league games.
A recent lockdown has halted Leeds’ charge towards the Premier League after they moved seven points clear of third-placed Fulham with a 2-0 win over Huddersfield Town on the 7th March.
A stunner from Luke Ayling and Patrick Bamford’s tap-in sealed a much-needed win to seal five straight wins with as many clean sheets and there was an aura around Elland Road that they would only push further towards clinching top flight status in the coming games.
With the rest of the scheduled fixtures postponed to a later date that is yet to be confirmed, Leeds, and other clubs, have been left in the dark up to this point about how the league will be settled. There have been discussions around how the league will resume as well as how it would be hypothetically settled if the season cannot resume within a reasonable timeframe, with the vast majority of eventualities ending in Marcelo Bielsa’s men lifting the league title and plying their trade in the Premier League next season.
While this would be beneficial for Leeds at face value, there seems to be the overriding opinion that being able to earn promotion through playing would be the best way to go.
Tyler Roberts spoke to the club’s official website about the prospect of sealing promotion back to the top flight after 16 years in waiting, claiming that everyone at the club would be keen on playing out the remaining games. He stated: “Yeah, the last week has been the most mentally challenging. Just thinking that Saturday we could have been at Elland Road, the sun was shining, we could have been lifting the trophy in front of fans. It’s been hard not to think about it because we all did believe that we would be promoted and could be champions.
“Even if we do get promoted by PPG or as it stands, it’s still going to be a massive thing for the club. I’m sure when everything is safe to do so, then we’ll all be able to celebrate together, everyone in Leeds.
“It will take away from the feeling of being at Elland Road, the last day, the fans watching us play and get promoted at the same time, you wouldn’t be able to beat that.”
“If we get promoted it’s a massive achievement for everyone, no matter how it happens now. I think I can speak for the rest of the boys, but we want to finish the rest of the season. We want to play those 9 games, show that we are the team that really deserves it, put last season’s 9 games right, and that we have the bottle to do it.
“To be fair, I’m not sure about the rest of the lads, but for me I was following it a lot from the start, then as it got more towards the middle of where we are now, it’s just confusing. One person will say this, another will say that, and they’ll contradict each other. I know there’s a big meeting on Sunday, so that’s all I’m focused on.”
The Elland Road faithful have been waiting for retribution ever since that fateful day at the Reebok Stadium back in 2004, and Roberts believes being part of the squad to finally deliver that moment of promotion would be truly special. He added: “To do it would be a crazy, indescribable feeling, you might see me with a few tears. More special because we’ve kept the same team as last season, so a lot of the hurt and pain we went through together, we’ve been able to take it, bounce back together, not made loads of changes and just got stronger.
“They’re a great bunch of lads, I can’t fault any one of them, we’ve all gone through the tough times, we’ve all worked extremely hard, and there’s no one who has slacked off or moaned.
“For the fans as well, they went through the same pain as we did last season, but they’ve stayed with us, they’re the most passionate fans I’ve come across, so it would be great to do it for them.”