“The squad was too good to be in League One but we were there for a reason.”
Casper Ankergren arrived at Elland Road during Leeds’s darkest hour. Years of financial mismanagement had culminated in relegation to League One – an unthinkable fall from grace for a club steeped in tradition and which, just seven years before, had reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League.
Leeds had swapped footballing cathedrals such as the Camp Nou and Santiago Bernabeu for the less serene environs of Gillingham’s Priestfield Stadium and Crewe Alexandra’s Gresty Road.
