2009–10 Leeds United F.C. season

Leeds United

2009–10 season
Chairman	Ken Bates
Manager	Simon Grayson
Stadium	Elland Road
League One	2nd (promoted)
FA Cup	Fourth round
League Cup	Third round
League Trophy	Area finals
Top goalscorer	League: Jermaine Beckford (25) All: Jermaine Beckford (31)
Highest home attendance	38,234 vs Bristol Rovers (8 May 2010, League One)
Lowest home attendance	8,429 vs Darlington (6 October 2009, League Trophy)
Average home league attendance	23,115
Home colours Away colours
← 2008–09 2010–11 →

The 2009–10 season was Leeds United's third consecutive season in the third tier of English football, which saw them finish second, winning promotion to the Championship.

Simon Grayson became the first manager in four years to complete a full season as Leeds boss and celebrated it by winning the club's first promotion in twenty years. For the third season in a row, Jermaine Beckford was the club's top goalscorer with 31 goals in all competitions; Beckford was again named the League One Player of the Year, however lost out on the club's Player of the Year to Patrick Kisnorbo.

This is a list of the significant events to occur at the club during the 2008–09 season, presented in chronological order (starting from 15 May 2009 and ending on the final day of the club's final match in the 2009–10 season). This list does not include transfers or new contracts, which are listed in the transfers section below, or match results, which are in the matches section.

• 15 May: The eight new academy scholars for the 2009–10 season are revealed to be: James Baxendale, Jonathan Birbeck, James Booker, Alex Cairns, Joe McCann, Sanchez Payne, Lewis Turner and Nathan Turner.^[1]
• 26 May: The club's top goalscorer in the 2008–09 season, Jermaine Beckford, rejects a three-year contract offer from the club. As a result, the club put the player on the transfer list.^[2]

• 17 June: The League One fixtures for the 2009–10 season are released with Leeds' first match against Exeter City at Elland Road.^[3] The final game of the season will be against Bristol Rovers at home.

• 2 July: The players return to Thorp Arch for pre-season training.^[4]
• 8 July: The club state that they will be investigating the circumstances surrounding academy product Luke Garbutt's move to Everton.^[5]
• 9 July: The club announce that they have rejected bids from two Premier League clubs for starlet Fabian Delph. They also reveal that they have rejected unacceptable bids for Jermaine Beckford.^[6]
• 17 July: Jermaine Beckford is taken off the transfer list.^[7]
• 24 July: The squad numbers for the new season are announced. Richard Naylor is given the number 6 shirt replacing Ľubomír Michalík who moves to number 17. Paul Huntington swaps to number 24 with Patrick Kisnorbo taking his number 3 shirt. Meanwhile, new recruits Jason Crowe and Shane Higgs take the number 2 and 12 jerseys respectively.^[8]
• 31 July: Richard Naylor is appointed the new club captain.^[9]

• 4 August: Chairman, Ken Bates revealed that the club had agreed a fee with Manchester City for Fabian Delph; however City needed to have the bid approved by their owners in the Gulf and required a week to do so.^[10] As a result, Leeds rejected City's bid and accepted another bid from Aston Villa.^[11] Delph later agreed terms with Villa and was transferred for a fee worth up to £8 million.^[12]
• 6 August: Jonny Howson is announced as the new club vice-captain.^[13]

• 5 September: The 2–0 home win against Stockport County sees the club record their best ever start to a season with eight successive victories; the previous best start to a season was in 1973 – the season in which Don Revie won his second First Division title as manager of Leeds. Another club record is beaten with the victory the club's fourteenth successive home league win.^[14]
• 17 September: Leeds City Council offer to re-purchase the club's training ground, Thorp Arch, which was sold by the club to businessman Jacob Adler in 2004. The deal would see the Council renting Thorp Arch to the club with an option for the club to purchase the facility at the end of the lease.^[15][16]

• 16 October: The club announce that they chose not to exercise the option of re-purchasing Thorp Arch from Barnaway Ltd. before the 23:59 deadline on 15 October.^[17]

• 16 December: The club's stadium, Elland Road is chosen as one of the fourteen venues for the 2018 World Cup should England be successful in being chosen as the host country.^[18]

• 3 January: Leeds United make FA Cup history by becoming the first team outside the Premier League to eliminate Manchester United in Alex Ferguson's managerial career. In doing so, Leeds ended a 29-year streak without a win at Old Trafford.^[19][20]
• 6 January: The club confirm that Jermaine Beckford handed in a transfer request on 30 December and that the request was accepted.^[21]
• 17 January: Jermaine Beckford withdraws his transfer request, committing himself to the club until the end of his contract at the end of the current season.^[22]

• 9 February: Three Leeds players are punched by opposition fans after the club lose to Carlisle United on penalties in the Football League Trophy area final second leg.^[23][24]

• 13 March: The club's youth team finish the Emirates Airlines Dubai Sevens tournament as runners-up having beaten Arsenal, Blackburn Rovers and Celtic in previous rounds. The team lost 2–0 to Olympiacos in the final.^[25]

• 3 April: Striker Trésor Kandol is fined by the club after being sent off for violent conduct just twenty seconds after coming on the field of play as a substitute in the 1–0 defeat to Norwich City.^[26] The red card is the second Kandol has received this season having been sent-off after the final whistle for violent conduct earlier on in the season.^[27]
• 17 April: The club qualify for the League One 2009–10 play-offs after 7th place Colchester United lose to Hartlepool United.^[28] Even if Colchester win all of their three remaining games and Leeds lose all of theirs, Colchester would still be three points adrift of Leeds in the final league table.^[29]

• 8 May: The club come second in the league and thus finally secure automatic promotion to The Championship after a nailbiting season finale against Bristol Rovers.^[30][31] With Max Gradel sent off^[32] in the first half and the club conceding a goal early in the second half, the Leeds fans feared that they would have to settle for a play-off place; but Jonathan Howson and Jermaine Beckford each scored within four minutes to make the score 2–1 to Leeds and secure their promotion.^[33]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Promotion, qualification or relegation
1	Norwich City (C, P)	46	29	8	9	89	47	+42	95	Promotion to Football League Championship
2	Leeds United (P)	46	25	11	10	77	44	+33	86
3	Millwall (O, P)	46	24	13	9	76	44	+32	85	Qualification for League One play-offs
4	Charlton Athletic	46	23	15	8	71	48	+23	84
5	Swindon Town	46	22	16	8	73	57	+16	82

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
46	25	11	10	77	44	+33	86	14	6	3	41	19	+22	11	5	7	36	25	+11

N	Pos.	Nat.	Name	Age	Since	App	Goals	Ends	Transfer fee	Notes
1	GK		Casper Ankergren	30	2007	143	0	2010	£200k	[36]
2	DF		Jason Crowe	31	2009	27	2	2011	Free	[37]
3	DF		Patrick Kisnorbo	29	2009	35	1	2011	Free	[38]
4	MF		Michael Doyle	28	2009	52	0	2010	Loan	[39]
5	DF		Rui Marques	32	2005	100	4	2010	Free	[40]
6	DF		Richard Naylor (captain)	33	2009	61	3	2011	Free	[41]
7	FW		Paul Dickov	37	2010	4	0	2010	Free	[42]
8	MF		Neil Kilkenny	24	2008	105	9	2011	£150k	[43]
9	FW		Jermaine Beckford	26	2006	152	85	2010	£ 45k	[44]
10	FW		Luciano Becchio	26	2008	103	36	2011	£300k	[45]
11	DF		Alan Sheehan	23	2008	24	2	2011	Undisclosed	[46]
12	GK		Shane Higgs	32	2009	22	0	2011	Free	[47]
13	FW		Mike Grella	23	2009	40	5	2012	Free	[48]
14	MF		Jonathan Howson (VC)	21	2006	153	17	2011	Youth system	[49]
15	FW		Gary McSheffrey	27	2010	11	1	2010	Loan	[50]
16	MF		Bradley Johnson	23	2008	91	11	2011	£250k	[51]
17	DF		Ľubomír Michalík1	26	2007	76	2	2011	£200k	[52]
18	MF		Andy Robinson	30	2008	50	7	2011	Free	[53]
19	DF		Ben Parker	22	2007	50	1	2012	Youth system	[54]
20	FW		Trésor Kandol	28	2006	79	16	2011	£200k	[55]
21	DF		Shane Lowry	20	2010	12	0	2010	Loan	[56]
22	MF		Andrew Hughes	32	2007	126	1	2010	£300k	[57]
23	FW		Robert Snodgrass	22	2008	108	21	2013	£ 35k	[58]
24	MF		Sanchez Watt	19	2010	6	0	2010	Loan	[59]
25	GK		Alan Martin	21	2007	0	0	2011	Undisclosed	[60]
26	DF		Leigh Bromby	29	2009	37	1	2013	£250k	[61]
27	FW		Davide Somma	25	2009	1	0	2011	Free	[62]
28	MF		Max Gradel1	22	2009	35	6	2012	£250k	[63]
29	FW		Tom Elliott	20	2007	4	0	2011	Youth system	[64]
30	MF		Will Hatfield	18	2009	0	0	2010	Youth system	[65]
32	DF		Aidan White	18	2008	23	0	2012	Youth system	[66]
33	DF		Neill Collins	26	2010	9	0	2010	Loan	[67]
34	GK		Ryan Jones	18	2008	0	0	n/a2	Youth system	[68]

Appearances (starts and substitute appearances) and goals include those in The Championship (and playoffs), League One (and playoffs), FA Cup, League Cup and Football League Trophy.
¹Player first came to the club on loan and was transferred the following year.
²Player joined the club in 2008 as a scholar. He is presently a 2nd year scholar and is not currently signed to the club on professional terms.
Squad includes players registered with the club on the last day of the season (8 May 2010) only.

				Total				League One		FA Cup		FL Cup		Football League Trophy
N	Pos.	Name	Nat.	GS	App	Gls	Min	App	Gls	App	Gls	App	Gls	App	Gls	Notes
1	GK	Ankergren		36	38		3461	28		6				4
2	RB	Crowe		25	27	2	2099	17		4		3		3	2
3	CB	Kisnorbo		33	34	1	3021	28	1	3		2		1
4	CM	Doyle		49	50		4436	40		6		3		1
5	CB	Rui Marques		6	6		567	5				1
6	CB	Naylor		35	36	2	3275	28	2	3				5
7	CM	Prutton		3	9		329	6						3
7	FW	Dickov		1	7		124	4						3
8	CM	Kilkenny		32	47	4	3241	34	2	5		3		5	2
9	FW	Beckford		46	50	31	4274	40	25	6	5	2		2	1
10	FW	Becchio		37	46	17	3189	36	15	5	2	3		2
11	LB	Sheehan
12	GK	Higgs		22	22		1909	19				3
13	FW	Grella		9	27	5	917	16	1	4	3	3		4	1
14	CM	Howson		49	56	4	4566	45	3	6	1	3		2		Also played RM
15	FW	Vokes		9	10	1	714	8	1					2
15	LW	McSheffrey		9	10	1	845	9	1					1
16	LM	Johnson		34	46	7	3217	35	7	4		3		4		Also played CM
17	CB	Michalík		16	23	1	1704	13	1	4		2		4
18	LW	Robinson		1	9	1	244	6				1		2	1	Also played RW
19	LB	Parker		2	4		152	4
20	FW	Kandol		2	13	4	261	10	2	1	1			2	1
21	FW	Showunmi		1	12	1	256	7				3	1	2
21	LB	Lowry		11	11		1025	10						1
22	LB	Hughes		49	50		4309	38		5		3		4		Also played RB
23	RW	Snodgrass		53	56	9	4517	43	6	6		3	2	4	1	Also played LW
24	CB	Huntington		1	1		90					1
24	LW	Watt		1	7		121	6						1
25	GK	A. Martin
26	RB	Bromby		38	39	1	3416	32	1	5				2		Also played CB
27	FW	Somma			1		20							1
28	RW	Gradel		13	34	6	1522	31	6					3		Also played FW
29	FW	Elliott
30	GK	Fielding
30	LB	Capaldi		4	5		424	3		2
30	CM	Will Hatfield
31	CB	Webb
32	LB	White		7	14		679	8		4				2		Also played LM
33	CM	Josh Falkingham
33	CB	Collins		9	9		810	9
34	GK	Ryan Jones
35	RW	Ephraim		2	4	1	183	3						1	1
36	GK	D. Martin		1	1		90							1

R	Player	Position	League One	FA Cup	League Cup	Football League Trophy	Total
1	Snodgrass	RW	10	4	1	0	15
2	Gradel	RW	5	0	0	1	6
	Howson	CM	4	1	0	1	6
	Beckford	FW	4	0	0	2	6
5	Johnson	LM	4	0	0	1	5
6	Becchio	FW	4	0	0	0	4
	Kilkenny	CM	3	0	0	1	4
8	McSheffrey	LW	1	0	0	2	3
9	Doyle	CM	2	0	0	0	2
	Kisnorbo	CB	2	0	0	0	2
	Bromby	RB	1	1	0	0	2
	Kandol	FW	1	1	0	0	2
	Hughes	RB	1	0	0	1	2
14	Crowe	RB	1	0	0	0	1
	Parker	LB	1	0	0	0	1
	Prutton	CM	1	0	0	0	1
	Robinson	LW	1	0	0	0	1
	Rui Marques	CB	1	0	0	0	1
	Watt	LW	1	0	0	0	1
	Vokes	FW	1	0	0	0	1
	White	DF	0	1	0	0	1
	Grella	FW	0	0	1	0	1
	Ephraim	MF	0	0	0	1	1

Last updated:10 May 2010
Source: ^[71]

N	Pos.	Nat.	Name				Notes
16	MF		Johnson	12
4	MF		Doyle	10
23	MF		Snodgrass	9
26	DF		Bromby	8
6	DF		Naylor	8
28	MF		Gradel	5		1
9	FW		Beckford	6
2	DF		Crowe	6
10	FW		Becchio	5
8	MF		Kilkenny	5
3	DF		Kisnorbo	5
14	MF		Howson	5
21	DF		Lowry	4
33	DF		Collins	3
22	DF		Hughes	3
20	FW		Kandol			1
1	GK		Ankergren	2
30	DF		Capaldi	2
17	DF		Michalík	2
21	FW		Showunmi	1

Last updated: 10 May 2010
Source: ^[71]
Only competitive matches
= Number of bookings; = Number of sending offs after a second yellow card; = Number of sending offs by a direct red card.

No.	P	Name	No. Matches Banned	Reason for Suspension	Notes
4	MF	Doyle	1	Five yellow cards
20	FW	Kandol	3	Violent conduct	Incident happened on the field of play after the final whistle of a match. Suspension handed after match.
23	MF	Snodgrass	1	Five yellow cards
26	DF	Bromby	1	Five yellow cards
20	FW	Kandol	4	Red card (violent conduct)
16	MF	Johnson	2	Ten yellow cards
28	MF	Gradel	3	Red card (violent conduct)	Suspension to start at the beginning of the 2010–11 season.
4	MF	Doyle	2	Ten yellow cards	Suspension to start at the beginning of the 2010–11 season.

No.	Pos.	Nat.	Name	Age	EU	Moving from	Type	Transfer window	Ends	Transfer fee	Source
2	DF		Crowe	30	EU	Northampton Town	Free Agent	Summer	2011	Free	[37]
12	GK		Higgs	32	EU	Cheltenham Town	Transferred	Summer	2010	Free	[72]
3	DF		Kisnorbo	28	Non-EU	Leicester City	Free Agent	Summer	2011	Free	[38]
26	DF		Bromby	29	EU	Sheffield United	Transferred	Summer	2013	£250k1	[61]
27	FW		Somma	24	Non-EU	San Jose Earthquakes	Transferred	Summer	20102	Free	[73]
28	MF		Gradel	22	Non-EU	Leicester City	Transferred	Winter	2012	£250k	[63]
7	FW		Dickov	37	EU	Leicester City	Free Agent	Winter	2010	Free	[42]

¹Transfer fee was officially undisclosed, however it was reported by The Times that the fee was £250,000.^[74]
2The club has the option of extending the player's contact by an additional year.^[73]

No.	P	Name	Country	Age	Loan club	Started	Ended	Start source	End source
4	MF	Michael Doyle		28	Coventry City	6 Aug	8 May	[39]	[75]
30	GK	Frank Fielding		21	Blackburn Rovers	29 Sep	26 Oct	[76]	[77]
15	FW	Sam Vokes		20	Wolverhampton Wanderers	19 Oct	1 Jan	[78]	[79]
28	MF	Max Gradel		22	Leicester City	19 Oct	19 Jan	[78]	[80]
35	MF	Hogan Ephraim		21	Queens Park Rangers	26 Nov	1 Jan	[81]	[82]
36	GK	David Martin		24	Liverpool	26 Nov	10 Feb	[83]	[84]
30	DF	Tony Capaldi		28	Cardiff City	26 Nov	4 Jan	[85]	[86]
15	FW	Gary McSheffrey		27	Birmingham City	29 Jan	8 May	[50]	[75]
21	DF	Shane Lowry		20	Aston Villa	29 Jan	8 May	[56]	[75]
33	DF	Neill Collins		26	Preston North End	23 Mar	8 May	[67]	[75]
25	MF	Sanchez Watt		19	Arsenal	25 Mar	8 May	[87]	[75]

No.	P	Name	Country	Age	Loan club	Started	Ended	Start source	End source
24	GK	A. Martin		20	Accrington Stanley	30 Jul	26 Oct	[88]	[89]
—	DF	Tom Lees		19	Accrington Stanley	1 Sep	8 May	[90]	[91]
11	DF	Sheehan		23	Oldham Athletic	2 Sep	2 Nov	[92]	[93]
24	DF	Huntington		22	Stockport County	10 Sep	12 Nov	[94]	[95]
29	FW	Elliott		19	Bury	16 Sep	8 May	[96]	[97]
—	MF	Ollie Hotchkiss		20	Mansfield Town	16 Oct	13 Jan	[98]	[99]
—	DF	Andrew Milne		19	Darlington	26 Nov	14 Dec	[100]	[101]
11	DF	Sheehan		38	Swindon Town	26 Nov		[102]
27	FW	Somma		24	Chesterfield	26 Nov	5 Jan	[103]	[103]
7	MF	Prutton		28	Colchester United	26 Jan	1 Feb	[104]	[105]
27	FW	Somma		25	Lincoln City	27 Feb	8 May	[106]	[107]
18	MF	Robinson		30	Tranmere Rovers	25 Mar	8 May	[108]	[109]
—	DF	Liam Darville		34	Rotherham United	25 Mar		[110]

N	P	Name	Country	Age	Type	Moving to	Transfer window	Transfer fee	Apps	Goals	Source
4	MF	Jonathan Douglas		27	Out of Contract	Swindon Town	Summer	n/a	166	11	[111]
12	GK	David Lucas		31	Out of Contract	Swindon Town	Summer	n/a	23	0	[111]
2	DF	Frazer Richardson		26	Out of Contract	Charlton Athletic	Summer	n/a	173	5	[37]
24	MF	Peter Sweeney		24	Released	Grimsby Town	Summer	n/a	9	0	[112]
—	DF	Luke Garbutt		16	Transferred	Everton	Summer	£1.55m1	0	0	[113]
15	MF	Fabian Delph		19	Transferred	Aston Villa	Summer	£8m2	54	6	[12]
—	DF	Louis Hutton		14	Transferred	Manchester City	Summer	£ 400k3	0	0	[114]
—	DF	George Swann		14	Transferred	Manchester City	Summer	£ 400k3	0	0	[114]
31	MF	Jonathan Webb		20	Out of Contract		Winter	n/a	1	0	[99]
33	MF	Josh Falkingham		19	Out of Contract	St Johnstone	Winter	n/a	0	0	[99]
—	MF	Ollie Hotchkiss		20	Released	Mansfield Town	Winter	n/a	0	0	[99]
21	FW	Enoch Showunmi		27	Released	Falkirk	Winter	n/a	28	6	[115]
7	MF	David Prutton		28	Released	Colchester United	Winter	n/a	78	4	[105]
24	DF	Paul Huntington		22	Released	Stockport County	Winter	n/a	32	2	[116]

EU = if holds or not a European Union passport; Country: when 2 flags, 1st flag = country that plays for internationally, 2nd flag = country of birth; N = number on jersey; P = Position (for position name, pause mouse pointer on abbreviation); Name = Name on jersey (for more extensive name, pause mouse pointer on name); Age = age on the day of the signing; Moving from = only indicate the club the player was playing before start playing for this club in this season, for the type of the moving see Status column; Moving to = only indicates the club the player is going to play next, for the type of the moving see Status column; Ends = when the player's current contract ends; n/a = Not applicable.
¹The Professional Football Compensation Committee decided that Everton should pay Leeds an initial compensation fee of £600,000 followed by £200,000 upon Garbutt's first full international appearance and £150,000 after the player has made 5, 10, 20, 30 and 40 appearances (thus totalling £750,000 from this final clause). It was also ruled that Leeds should receive 20% of any profit that Everton makes from future sale of the player.^[117]
2Transfer fee was officially undisclosed, however it was reported by The Guardian that the fee was approximately an upfront £6 million with an additional £2 million in variables.^[118]
3The total compensation fee for the two academy players was reported to be £800,000.^[119]

N	Pos.	Nat.	Name	Age	Status	Contract length	Expiry date	Source
31	DF		Webb	19	Signed	6 months	Nov 2009	[120]
33	MF		Falkingham	18	Signed	6 months	Nov 2009	[120]
4	MF		Douglas	27	Rejected	Unknown	n/a	[111]
9	FW		Beckford	25	Rejected	3 years	n/a	[121]
19	DF		Parker	22	Signed	3 years	July 2012	[122]
23	MF		Snodgrass	21	Signed	4 years	August 2013	[123]
13	FW		Grella	22	Signed	3 years	August 2012	[124]
12	GK		Higgs	32	Signed	1 year	July 2011	[47]
—	DF		Lees	19	Signed	2 years	February 2012	[125]
27	FW		Somma	25	Signed	1 year	April 2011	[126]

The results of the 2009–10 Leeds United A.F.C. Player of the Year Awards were announced at a dinner on 8 May 2010 at Elland Road.^[127]

• Player of the Year: Patrick Kisnorbo
• Young Player of the Year: Aidan White
• Players' Player of the Year: Patrick Kisnorbo
• Goal of the Season: Jermaine Beckford (vs Manchester United, 3 January)
• Best Contribution to Community: Leigh Bromby, Jonathan Howson and Ben Parker
• Chairman's Special Award: Ben Parker

The following Leeds players have been selected in the official League One team of the week.

• 10 August: Jermaine Beckford, Michael Doyle^[128]
• 17 August: Shane Higgs, Andy Hughes^[129]
• 24 August: Jason Crowe, Bradley Johnson^[130]
• 31 August: Jermaine Beckford, Bradley Johnson^[131]
• 7 September: Jason Crowe^[132]
• 21 September: Jonny Howson, Bradley Johnson^[133]
• 28 September: Patrick Kisnorbo^[134]
• 2 November: Richard Naylor^[135]
• 23 November: Jermaine Beckford, Neil Kilkenny, Robert Snodgrass^[136]
• 7 December: Robert Snodgrass^[137]
• 21 December: Leigh Bromby, Robert Snodgrass^[138]
• 1 February: Jermaine Beckford, Richard Naylor^[139]
• 8 February: Luciano Becchio^[140]
• 6 April: Richard Naylor^[141]
• 26 April: Luciano Becchio^[142]

• PFA Team of the Year (League One): Patrick Kisnorbo, Robert Snodgrass^[143]
• PFA Fans' Player of the Month (League One): Robert Snodgrass (August/September^[144]), Jermaine Beckford (October,^[145] December^[146])
• League One Player of the Year: Jermaine Beckford^[147]
• LMA Performance of the Week Award: vs Manchester United (3 January, 1–0, FA Cup)^[148]
• Johnstone's Paint Trophy Ultimate Finish Award: Neil Kilkenny (vs Accrington Stanley, 15 December)^[149]
• Yorkshire Evening Post Player of the Year (Leeds United): Patrick Kisnorbo^[150]