A lesson for all of Leeds United from their serious comedian Gjanni Alioski

Staggered kick-offs can do wonders for tension and excitement, or ‘football’ as I like to call it, when news comes in whispers and rumours. Memories of April 13 last year still give me chills I like. Millwall waited as long as they could, equalising with Sheffield United in the 95th minute of their game. By then there were enough people waiting for the tea-time kick-off inside Elland Road for a tangible change of atmosphere. I was on the press gantry for that one, where the dodgy wi-fi froze laptop screens and latest-score apps, all that always-on technology no more reliable in the moment than a misprinted score in an evening paper. Had they? Hadn’t they? They had. And if Leeds could, they would open up a three-point gap to third place. It was enough to make you gasp, while all I was looking at was an empty patch of pre-match grass: football’s strange power makes that enough. Leeds could and did, Jackie Harrison finishing Pablo Hernandez’s low cross to beat Sheffield Wednesday. That night everything was on. This past weekend felt momentous in the same way. Brentford are making everybody sweat at the top of the Championship, but their win over West Bromwich Albion drizzled the scent of opportunity through Elland Road’s air. I assume so, anyway, as I wasn’t there to smell it, and neither were you. The anxiety of football’s ghostly restart has focused on the games when promotions and titles will be confirmed, but concentrating on a single moment at the end is an unfair reduction of a successful season. Promotion, if it happens, will be built on all the games and all the goals since August, and relying on the future to provide an historic moment is planning for letdown. When Leeds won the First Division in 1992, they were so far from the action that Howard Wilkinson was eating Sunday lunch and Gordon Strachan was swimming in a local pool. It wasn’t how anybody would have planned it, but it was still the league title. The real action was a week earlier: Manchester United lost to Nottingham Forest before Chris Fairclough shattered Elland Road’s tension beneath uproar, heading the first goal of a 2-0 win over Coventry City. By the time I could take part in our last promotion, in 1990, I already had a Pro Set card showing Vinnie Jones in Sheffield United’s stripes. I was young and living far away, two conditions coverage of the Second Division couldn’t breach. I had to wait and wait until a copy of the seminal ‘Race For The Title’ video gave me a window on events. Its emphasis is not on the final day’s heat ’n’ beer haze at Bournemouth, where Lee Chapman’s goal settled the season. The focus of the drama is Easter, when our closest title rivals, those Blades, were beaten 4-0; and on Barnsley, our nemesis, inflicting the only defeat at Elland Road. Then it’s Strachan’s late strike beating Leicester and the delirious celebrations of a goal that, despite Vinnie hearing otherwise and getting up hopes on the PA, won nothing. That goal is celebrated more than Chapman’s at Bournemouth, as is Gary Speed’s solo against Sheffield. Hype always drives your attention to the ending, but your soul doesn’t forget what took you there. When we look back at 2019/20, hopefully not with regret, this weekend’s match against Fulham might be the one, or perhaps Tuesday night’s under the floodlights against Luton – as long it’s not this season’s Barnsley ’90. While the stress is on not being there for the final moment, don’t forget where you are along the way. Gjanni Alioski understands this. While it was generous of Aleksandar Mitrovic to think he had to punch Ben White awake on Saturday, Alioski was instantly adjusted to the cardboard atmosphere. Like the best comedians, he takes fun very seriously. Whether his audience is a terrace of people or the stern printed face of a human sized labrador, his commitment to showbiz doesn’t waver. It’s a good example to follow when tuning in for our theatre with the Hatters, the curtain going up during the second half of Fulham’s game at QPR and the last moments of Brentford’s visit to Reading. There’s nothing worth waiting until tomorrow for because Leeds United’s season is happening today. Gjanni Alioski is there, wherever he is. Go with him, wherever you are.

A lesson for all of Leeds United from their serious comedian Gjanni Alioski - Daniel Chapman