[2] Hopes of improving on Leeds' play-off near-miss the previous season took an early blow when manager Garry Monk left to take over at newly-relegated Middlesbrough, 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.

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.

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, manager of Yorkshire rivals Barnsley.

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.