From a vegan club to the Canary Islands, a look at Leeds United’s preseason

Leeds United announced their preseason schedule today, and it looks like overseas fans will have to wait to see the boys in person.

That’s right, no matter how many rumours were posted online about trips to Miami being a “lock” or even rumours about a preseason trip to Portugal and Spain, Leeds United will stay at home, with even two of the “trips” within Yorkshire.

Leeds will be having an entirely UK based preseason, with trips away to Forest Green Rovers, Oxford United, York City and a return to Guiseley, one of last season’s preseason destinations. Leeds will host the Spanish club Las Palmas at Elland Road.

Forest Green Rovers, who Leeds bought 17 year-old Jordan Stevens from back in the January transfer window, is famous for being a vegan football club. The chairman of the club, Dale Vince, is a committed vegan who not only brought his own vegan beliefs to the club’s menus, but also to the food served to the football players. The club banned red meat in 2015 and went completely vegan in 2017. Forest Green, who are located in Nailsworth, Gloucestershire was promoted at the end of last year from the conference to League Two at the end of the 2016-17 season, playing in the Football League for the first time in their history. Last season they finished 21st in the table, guaranteeing them another season of league football.

Leeds will also face Oxford United again in preseason. Last year, Pep Clotet brought Oxford to Elland Road for Leeds’ final preseason match. Leeds won the match 2-0 and Clotet was later sacked as manager at the club. Oxford, after missing out on the 2016-17 playoffs by four points, finished 16th in the League One table last season.

Leeds will make short journeys within Yorkshire to face York City and Guiseley. As we noted when Bailey Peacock-Farrell went on loan to York back in October, York City’s ground, Bootham Crescent, is actually closer to Thorp Arch than Elland Road is to Thorp Arch. Leeds also signed Ryan Edmondson from York City in November. Edmondson made his Leeds debut against Queens Park Rangers in the final match of last season. Leeds played against Guiseley last preseason as well, winning 5-1 in a match played at Nethermoor Park. Guiseley is also a short trip from Leeds and an even shorter trip from Thorp Arch.

And finally, Leeds will host Spanish side UD Las Palmas at Elland Road on 29 July. Las Palmas was just relegated to the Spanish second division after finishing 19th in the La Liga table this past season. Las Palmas has historically been a club in the top division of Spanish football, but since 1990, they’ve spent more seasons in the third division (six) than they’ve spent in La Liga (five). The roster will certainly be in flux after a relegation, so it’s not worth going through to find names that will be recognizable at this point in time. If Cultural Leonesa survive the weekend in La Liga 2, which is not guaranteed right now, then Leeds will preview one of the teams that Leonesa will be facing. Maybe they’ll pass on some notes.

So will you be traveling to support Leeds on their preseason journeys? Disappointed that a rumoured US trip never came about? Let us know in the comments.