Football terminology can sometimes be entirely incomprehensible to those that don’t know exactly what the various phrases are in reference to.
It is not uncommon for a commentator or a pundit working on a match to utter something that doesn’t seem to make any sense, simply moving on from it rather than look to explain it to those listening in.
One such phrase might well be ‘doing a Leeds’, which has entered the footballing vernacular but isn’t always something that is clear to the listener what it is that the speaker is trying to say. It is also even more confusing to South Korean listeners…
It’s a Reference to Financial Mismanagement
It wouldn’t be entirely unreasonable to swap the phrase ‘doing a Leeds’ for ‘chasing the dream’, given the fact that that is essentially what it is a reference to. Towards the end of the 1990s, Leeds United had a number of decent players on the books. Having been a successful team in the past and also claiming the last First Division title before it was rebranded to become the Premier League, Leeds spent most of the decade as a steady but unspectacular club. At the conclusion of the 1999-2000 season, though, they finished third, earning a place in the Champions League.
Ahead of the adventure in Europe, the club spent big money signing names such as Mark Viduka, Dominic Matteo and Olivier Dacourt. Rio Ferdinand was signed for £18 million, which was a record fee for a British player at the time. The gamble seemed to pay off at first, making it to the semi-final of the competition. Sadly, they failed to qualify for the Champions League in 2002-2003, suddenly needing to sell their players at cheap prices because they were on such big contracts. In 2004, they were relegated out of the Premier League, soon rumbling down the divisions in the years that followed.
Why South Koreans May Not Understand
If you were to watch a South Korean YouTube channel or look at an Instagram page run by someone from the country, it is likely that you wouldn’t have to wait for too long before you came across the phrase ‘Leeds Days’. That is because that saying has become commonplace in South Korea and is used to reference someone’s heyday.
There is even a TV show in the country called Leeds Era Once Again. It all came from the player Alan Smith, who was great at Leeds United but struggled to make the same kind of impression when he moved to Manchester United.
“Those were his Leeds days.”@CDEccleshare tells @FootballCliches and @D_C_W about how ‘Leeds Days’ has amazingly become a common South Korean phrase thanks to Park Ji-Sung and Alan Smith…
— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) July 27, 2022
At the time that he played for the Red Devils, the South Korean player Park Ji-sung was also there, which caused an interest in the club from that part of the world. Coincidentally, online football discussions were also beginning in South Korea, with Alan Smith’s performances often discussed.
When they were, users would talk about him in his ‘Leeds days’, which was when he was much more combative. Those using the phrase often have no idea who Alan Smith is, nor any real sense of his partnership with Viduka, but it is nice for Leeds supporters that the club’s name just doesn’t refer to a spectacular collapse.