Leeds United aiming to part of Premier League next year when they make the trip to Australia

Glorious European nights where Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka bamboozled the likes of Barcelona are a fading memory. But make no mistake, Leeds United remains a big club, with a loyal and resilient fanbase.

Kemar Roofe has been knocking in plenty of goals for Leeds.

Leeds United celebrate their centenary next year and hopes are rising that the trip Down Under next July will be the prelude to their return to the bright lights of the Premier League.

The Yorkshire side have been top flight absentees for almost 15 years and glorious European nights where Harry Kewell and Mark Viduka bamboozled Champions League heavyweights such as Barcelona and AC Milan are a fading memory.

But make no mistake, this remains a big club, no a huge club, and Australia will be greeted by as loyal, as vocal and resilient a fanbase as has ever set foot on these shores.

Kemar Roofe has been knocking in plenty of goals for Leeds.

Leeds are stirring once again under the stewardship of Marcelo Bielsa and this weekend’s 2-0 win over Bristol City was played out in front of a full house at Elland Road in front of supporters who sense the dark years of despair could finally be ending.

The team are third in the Championship and playing an exciting brand of football.

Exciting Spaniards Pablo Hernandez and Samu Saiz provide the attacking and playmarking spark, Swedish defender Pontus Jansson is a cult figure and a rock at the back while Kemar Roofe is a menace in the final third.

Leeds, a dominant force of English football under Don Revie during the late 1960s and early seventies, claimed almost every trophy there was to win. But following a catastrophic financial meltdown in 2002, a failure to secure Champions League football triggered a firesale of players and the good times were over.

Leeds crashed into the third tier of English football and took three years to haul themselves back to the Championship.

A succession of ownership disasters hardly helped in the desperate desire to restore the good times but now this slumbering giant is stirring, finally.

As Elland Road is full once more, so too away games sell out and United took almost 8000 fans to a match at Blackburn recently.

Mark Viduka and Harry Kewell were part of the Leeds heyday in the late 1990s, early 2000s.

And the stadiums will rock to the sound of fans who crank up the volume. No polite clapping, no ghastly plastic clapper things. Just pure vocal passion, with plenty of humour to boot.

Perth and Sydney can expect a huge influx of Leeds fans, from the UK, Australia, indeed all over the world. The club’s anthem is called Marching On Together and there is finally a belief that owner, club, players and fans are doing just that.

Oh, and nobody hates Manchester United more than these guys, so expect some fireworks.

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