A current Liverpool star and a future Man United man – Leeds’ line-up in their last Premier League game in 2004
Leeds United have been waiting 16 long years to return to the Premier League.
But it’s all over now and in their first game back they will play title holders Liverpool on Saturday evening – live on talkSPORT at 5:30pm.
Leeds were relegated at the end of the 2003/04 seasonIn the 2003/04 season, the club were continuing to struggle financially and saw their debts spiral to around £100million.
Harry Kewell was sold to Liverpool and Olivier Dacourt left for Roma, for £5m and £3.5m respectively.
The previous season saw them narrowly avoid the drop down to the second tier and their decline seemed inevitable.
Manager Peter Reid was sacked after taking just eight points from the first 12 games of the season with Eddie Gray brought in as a replacement.
Results did improve and by the end of 2003 Leeds had climbed out of the bottom three.
Stuart Dallas loves working under Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds
James Milner was a teenager in the Leeds side in 2004
A dismal run of seven straight defeats saw them cut adrift at the bottom of the table.
Gray was soon replaced by Kevin Blackwell who could not keep them in the Premier League and they were relegated along with Wolves and Leicester.
Their last top flight game came at Stamford Bridge on May 15, 2004 against Chelsea, who finished second behind the Arsenal Invincibles.
The game was so long ago that just one of the starting line-up is still playing regularly – and he was just a teenager at the time.
How Leeds looked against Chelsea in 2004
How Leeds lined-up the last time they played a Premier League game
The final game of the season saw a few changes to the regular side with Scott Carson, who was 18 at the time, replacing Paul Robinson, who was destined to join Tottenham.
Youngster Frazer Richardson lined-up alongside the experienced Lucas Radabe, Michael Duberry and Ian Harte.
In midfield, the teenage James Milner played on the left with Leeds legend Gary Kelly on the right wing.
The five-man midfield was made up of Salomon Olembe, Jason Wilcox and Dominic Matteo.
Alan Smith played as the lone striker with Mark Viduka, the top scorer that season, suspended following a red card against Bolton.
Leeds were beaten 1-0 by Chelsea in their last Premier League game
Leeds actually did pretty well to only lose 1-0 in the game with Jesper Gronkjaer scoring after 20 minutes.
Chelsea were camped in their opponents half for most of the match as Leeds were relegated with a whimper.
It’s hard to fathom how a team like Leeds went from Champions League semi-finalists to relegated three seasons later.
They ended up in League One and fought back to win the Championship under Marcelo Bielsa in the summer.
Their first game back in the Premier League is against Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday – with commentary live on talkSPORT at 5.30pm.
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