After two years away from England’s top flight, Leeds United are headed back to the big time.
Brenden Aaronson and his Leeds United teammates celebrated promotion back to the Premier League on Monday following a 6-0 EFL Championship victory over Stoke City. Paired with Burnley’s 2-1 victory over Sheffield United later in the day, Daniel Farke’s men clinched one of the two automatic promotion spots for the 2025-26 season.
Aaronson started and played 86 minutes in Monday’s match, being a part of a lopsided win for the Lilywhites.
Joel Piroe led the way with four goals of his own while Junior Firpo and Wilfried Gnonto added tallies as well.
The result marked Leeds United’s 27th league victory of the season, which are tied for the most in the league (Sheffield United). Aaronson, who spent last season on loan at Bundesliga side Union Berlin, has chipped in nine goals this campaign.
Leeds United are tied with Burnley on 94 points apiece, heading into the final two matches of the season.
I root for BA, and appreciate his tireless work rate, but he is overrated: nine goals, but only one against a top 10 championship team. The most alarming stat is only two assists, which is terrible for a winger/#10 on a team that has scored 89 league goals. He’s not a better player than he was in the last two years, and my hunch is Leeds will look to offload him and upgrade. He’s just not Premier League quality.
see Johnnyrazor’s post with stats about playing time and goal production below as a counterpoint….
I saw the stats – and watched many of his matches – and stand by my post. Unless he improves, he will remain a mid-level Championship player. If Leeds can’t offload him, he will ride the pine and play cup matches.
Just look at other 7s and 11s on teams struggling near the bottom of the Premier league table that won’t be relegated: is BA better than Son?
If you saw my other posts I agree Leeds will sell him if they get a decent offer. He was helpful this season but not their best player. I will also say though there are maybe 3 EPL caliber players (Tanaka, Solomon, and James) on their roster so Leeds can’t replace everybody. He’d be a fine super sub at the end of a close game but they’ll need to add a lot at other positions to use him as a second striker/#10.
We cannot celebrate this promotion just yet, as we need to be sure Aaronson will be part of this team in the Prem moving forward.
Major player shifts happen after promotion / relegation. Remember two years ago, when they were RELEGATED to the English Championship, Leeds United chopped most of their “top players”, including Rasmus Kristensen, Diego Llorente, Marc Roca, Rodrigo, Jack Harrison, Max Wober, (even Brenden Aaronson on loan), Tyler Adams, Weston McKennie, Georginio Rutter, Archie Gray, Crysencio Summerville and Luis Sinisterra.
Let’s hope he gets significant playing time in the EPL……and that’s if he can remain on the team moving forward
When a team goes down there’s usually a fire sale because you can’t afford your roster even with the parachute payment. Aaronson is under contract until 2027 making about 3 million a year. If Leeds finds a suitor willing to payoff some of their 30 million investment they’ll sell him, but otherwise he might just move to the bench if they but some attackers. I think their main targets will be defensive and to try to buy Solomon as his loan ends. If they can move Bamford, that will help clear some salary.
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You’re also throwing in guys that left before the team was relegated, left after last season, and Wes who was only on loan at Leeds to begin with.
Without BA – no promotion. With BA…promotion. Haters gonna hate….
MotO,
Correlation does not necessarily imply causation.
He’s played 87% of the available Championship minutes, he’s their third leading goal scorer. I think you have to at least give him some credit.
JR,
What are you saying?
No BA no promotion?
Ridiculous.
BA has done great since he came back. He did his part but he’s far from the only reason Leeds got promoted as MotO suggests.
There’ are barely credible rumors that he won’t be retained for next season since the squad is going to need a serious upgrade. One can argue that he deserves a shot but BA has done little to suggest that he is an EPL regular.
The same barely credible rumors suggest that Farke will be fired since , while he gets you promoted he also keeps getting you relegated.
V: ok MoT was being a little overboard, but Aaronson is a part of their improvement (which is really just 6 fewer losses and 4 more draws, wins are the same at this point compared to last year) but so is Solomon, Tanaka, and Bogle. If you want to be objective Tanaka and Bogle were huge upgrades over Kamara and Gray. Solomon and Aaronson were pretty equal to Summerville and Rutter. Leeds will add players the three promoted teams last year all did with little success Leicester (-48 million) Ipswich (-150 million) and Southampton (-80 million). If they could get 10-15 million for Aaronson they should do it. Leeds doesn’t have any obvious young stars to sell for big money just a bunch of 14-18 million dollar estimated value guys. They probably should look at one Gio Reyna, if he’s right physically and mentally he’s a significant upgrade at the 10 position and for a good value at 10-15 million. That’s a big if, though!
JR,
It seems like every season the EPL gets harder and harder to stay in.
Leicester and Ipswich got promoted last season by a comfortable margin and both are coming right back down in flames.
Nothing about Leeds, as presently constituted, suggest to me that they will do any better than Leicester or Ipswich. I’m sure BA, Luna, Reyna and a few other USMNT types could make the first team but Bielsa isn’t there anymore.
Playing time is great but I’m not sure getting your brains beaten in every game is such a great thing for your career or your morale.
Trusty started and played tons of games for an awful Sheffield United defense during their relegation season. They got toasted every game. How much has he benefited?
Trolling…being funny…c’mon guys lighten up. Can ONE player on a soccer team really make that much of a difference? 99.99% of the time we all know that would be a outlandish assertion.
However, some on here do make outlandish accusations of how trash BA is. Thus the trolling part of the comment 😉
great comment. he doesn’t suck, and he puts in a shift
BA ain’t trash.
But he is a one trick pony, an Arriola2025 with upgraded turbo and a much better shot.
I value a great engine and coaches love that great engine. And BA, bless his heart, has made the absolute most of it. I’ve love him to prove me wrong and raise his game another level but I think he’s maxed out
The USMNT has always had players with great engines ( LD, Stu Holden, Frankie ). But you need more than just the engine.
USMNT fans overrate BA because he’s also a great story, a great guy, great family and just adorable. US fans love that shit and it makes for a great interview on TV.
And he runs all day and all of the night. It’s the main reason he’s played so many games for Leeds. Everyone is blown away by his ability to play( run) two 90 minute games in a row. If he did not have that super power and wasn’t such a “coachable guy” he wouldn’t start, and might not play very much.
He is living testament to the hope that if you work hard enough and run long enough, eventually you’ll be good enough.
If you took Malik’s or Gio’s skill and talent and downloaded it into BA , you might have a monster player.
But that ‘s not what we have here.
Vacqui who said:
And he runs all day and all of the night. It’s the main reason he’s played so many games for Leeds. . . . If he did not have that super power and wasn’t such a “coachable guy” he wouldn’t start, and might not play very much.
Are you trying to say that effort and being a good teammate matters? Lets all be sure to criticize BA for working hard and listening to his coaches. He’s not Mbappe . . .he has to go.
Midwest Ref,
BA is where he is because he puts in maximum effort all the time.
And he’s a good teammate because well he’s just a really good guy.
If you read everything I’ve written about him it’s always the same. Everyone roots for him for good reason.
I’m not criticizing him for that.
I’m critical of the fact that he is a mediocre player. He is better on the ball than Gyasi but not much better. And he’s a better finisher than Ariolla but not a ton better.
He has two things that set him apart, his engine and his character. He has used both to take him a very long way.
And I could be wrong, but I think what we see now is probably the very best he can do.
He is to be admired for that.
Pochettino may think otherwise, but it is not enough for me.
I don’t think BA is a good enough soccer player to play regularly in the EPL or the Bundesliga. Can he play for the USMNT? I would like to think we can do better but maybe we can’t.
I’ve watched this team for a long time and there have been many really great people on it that are very easy to root for. But no matter how wonderful a human being is, and how far they can run, that alone is not enough to make you a topflight player.
Being a wonderful human being and a wonderful teammate does not necessarily make you a wonderful player.