Today, January 24th 2023, marks the five year anniversary of an attempted change of the beloved Leeds United badge. While Leeds fans have had to become accustomed to a lot of change, this was one that nobody expected or wanted – and thankfully never experienced.
📆 ON THIS DAY: In 2018, Leeds United unveiled their new badge..
What a day that was 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/pijo472JAi
— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) January 24, 2023
Close your eyes and imagine a world pre-Bielsa’s Leeds tenure: We’re sat god-knows-where in the Championship table, we’ve just tried to offload Mateusz Klich because of a misplaced a pass in a League Cup game, Thomas Christiansen is about to be sacked, and Samuel Saiz is enduring a six-game suspension for spitting at an opposition player in an embarrassing loss to Newport County in the FA Cup.
Chilling to think about, right?
Imagine all of that is going on at your club, and then the new ownership tries to change the beloved badge to the monstrosity in the above graphic.
We’ve come a long, long way.
Thankfully, Radrizzani and co. backed down on the decision to change the badge, and we were able to put it all behind us as one of the regular mis-haps on the Leeds United calendar.
In a way its hard to believe that five years have passed so quickly. Since that day, the club has had its best times in 20 years, and arguably some of its best days ever (especially if you’re not quite old enough to remember the good old days).
Personally, the badge is a bittersweet one for me. Bitter in the sense that its the worst thing I’ve ever seen, but sweet in the sense that its still ironically the picture for two of my group chats – so I appreciate the mileage out of it.
What did you make of the failed Leeds badge change? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and on Twitter at @VitalLeeds!