The 2017–18 season was

Leeds United Leeds United Football Club is a professional football club based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The team compete in the Premier League, the top tier of the English football league system. Leeds United have won the League Championship th ...

's eighth consecutive season in the

Championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this sys ...

Season summary

Hopes of improving on Leeds' play-off near-miss the previous season took an early blow when manager

Garry Monk Garry Alan Monk (born 6 March 1979) is an English football manager and former professional player who was most recently the head coach of club Cambridge United. Monk, a centre back, began his playing career with Torquay United before joining ...

left to take over at newly-relegated

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ), colloquially known as Boro, is a port town in the Borough of Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, England. Lying to the south of the River Tees, Middlesbrough forms part of the Teesside Built up area, built-up area and the Tees Va ...

, leaving new owner Andrea Radrizzani to appoint Thomas Christiansen as his successor. Their promotion aspirations took another blow when Chris Wood, their top scorer in both of the previous two seasons, refused to sign a new contract and then, a few weeks into the campaign, announced that he would not play for the club again, ultimately resulting in his sale to Premier League

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

. This, and the injury crisis hanging over from the previous season, forced Christiansen to make a large amount of new signings over the summer, leaving concerns as to whether or not the team could gel quickly enough. Despite all this, the club had what, in the early stages at least, was an even better campaign than the previous one, with the club topping the Championship for the early months of the season. A slump in form in October was turned around in the following months, and Leeds entered the new year looking in a strong position to challenge for promotion. However, a failure to win any games in January (including a humiliating FA Cup exit to League Two side Newport County), combined with rumours of unrest in the dressing room, saw Christiansen sacked at the start of February, and replaced by

Paul Heckingbottom Paul Heckingbottom (born 17 July 1977) is an English football coach and former player who is the manager of EFL Championship club Preston North End. After retiring as a player, Heckingbottom trained as a coach. He obtained a position with Barn ...

, manager of Yorkshire rivals

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. It is the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. The town's population was 71,422 in 2021, while the wider boroug ...

. If anything, however, the loss of form that had started under Christiansen accelerated under Heckingbottom, and Leeds only won four more games all season, two of them coming in the last three matches alone, leaving Leeds with the unenviable record of having earned fewer points than any team except for bottom-placed

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

after Christmas. Many fans were left disillusioned by this turn of events, convinced that the previous season had been a false dawn, and that Leeds were back to the pattern of mid-table mediocrity with occasional struggles against relegation that had mostly marked the 2010s.

First-team squad

Squad information

Appearances (starts and substitute appearances) and goals include those in the Championship (and

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

), League One (and

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual Single-elimination tournament, knockout association football, football competition in domestic Football in England, English football. First played during ...

, League Cup and

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, officially known as the Vertu Trophy for sponsorship reasons, is an annual English football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL League Two and U-21 teams from the Premier Le ...

Transfers

Transfers in

Transfers out

Loans in

Loans out

Pre-season

Leeds United had announced six pre-season friendlies against Harrogate Town,

Guiseley Guiseley ( ) is an area in the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated south of Otley and Menston and is now a north-west ...

North Ferriby United North Ferriby United Association Football Club was a semi-professional football club in North Ferriby, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. At the time of their demise they were members of the Northern Premier League and played at Grange Lane. F ...

Borussia Mönchengladbach Borussia Verein für Leibesübungen 1900 e.V. Mönchengladbach, better known as Borussia Mönchengladbach () and colloquially known as just Gladbach, is a professional Association football, football club based in Mönchengladbach, North Rhine-W ...

Oxford United Oxford United Football Club () is a professional association football, football club based in Oxford, England. The club compete in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football league system, English football. Founded as Headingto ...

and

Eibar Eibar (, ) is a city and municipality within the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Euskadi. It is the capital of the '' eskualde / comarca'' of Debabarrena. Eibar has 27,138 inhabitants ( Eustat, 2018). Its chief industry is ...

. Another friendly was scheduled against

Ingolstadt Ingolstadt (; Austro-Bavarian language, Austro-Bavarian: ) is an Independent city#Germany, independent city on the Danube, in Upper Bavaria, with 142,308 inhabitants (as of 31 December 2023). Around half a million people live in the metropolitan ...

, which was cancelled by local government officials in Kufstein, Austria. Instead, the club arranged a behind-closed-doors friendly in Italy with

Bursaspor Bursaspor Kulübü Derneği, commonly known as Bursaspor, is a Turkey, Turkish professional sports club based in the city of Bursa. Founded in 1963, the club is best known for its football team, which has a rich history in Football in Turkey, Turk ...

. The Turkish team divulged details and a video of the match to the public.

Post-season

On 24 April, Leeds United announced a post-season tour of Myanmar.

Competitions

Championship

League table

Result summary

Results by matchday

Matches

On 21 June, the

fixtures were released.

FA Cup

Leeds United were drawn away to Newport County in the third round.

EFL Cup

Leeds United were drawn at home against Port Vale in the first round, at home against Newport County in the second round, away to

in the third round and away to

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

in the fourth round.

Statistics

Appearances

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2017-18 Leeds United F.C. season

Leeds United F.C. seasons

Foot The foot (: feet) is an anatomical structure found in many vertebrates. It is the terminal portion of a limb which bears weight and allows locomotion. In many animals with feet, the foot is an organ at the terminal part of the leg made up o ...