The day had begun with a jab in the ribs. Leeds United were going to West Ham United, safe from relegation and not afraid to rub it in.The club’s official social media accounts carried an image of Ethan Ampadu and Dominic Calvert-Lewin travelling up a London Underground escalator and past a descending West Ham player. It took little deduction to see the arm belonged to Crysencio Summerville.Almost two years to the day since his last appearance for Leeds, in 2024’s Championship play-off final, Summerville was on his way back to the second tier as his former club prepared for another go at the Premier League. It’s actually not hard to imagine Summerville being gone by the time West Ham start at Sincil Bank or Toughsheet Community Stadium next term, but Leeds were having a dig all the same.
🆚 West Ham
— Leeds United (@LUFC) May 24, 2026
They were safe, West Ham were almost certainly down and someone who left West Yorkshire to play at a higher level was now being left behind. Even in beating Leeds on the day, there would be no last laugh for anyone in claret and blue.This was the kind of Leeds performance outsiders had expected since the team secured safety, but battling displays with Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton & Hove Albion dispelled that myth. As Daniel Farke suggested afterwards, it proved to be one game too many for a side missing three starters through injury.There was nothing to take, or worth dwelling on, from the game, except the acrimony which surrounded it. The in-fighting and mutiny across ownership, staff, players and fans after a miserable campaign.This is what happens to any club which takes its top-flight status for granted with a succession of poor decisions. West Ham finished ninth two years ago and won the Europa Conference League 12 months prior to that.Tottenham Hotspur’s own plight is another warning this can happen to any club in the country’s top 20. Leeds, 14th, safe with three to play, FA Cup semi-finalists and Old Trafford victors, cannot rest on any laurels this summer.And nothing under this administration suggests they will now kick back and expect to do this all over again with the same group of players. It’s hard to recall a summer which has ever been anything other than critical for Leeds United, but there is a lot to get right across the 89 days between now and the 2026-27 campaign.Daniel Farke, who has not hidden how high the Leeds bar has to remain this summer, reiterated what’s required post-match.
