Championship’s Yorkshire revival gives football its northern soul back

The county’s fortunes have waned but Garry Monk, Carlos Carvalhal and David Wagner are overseeing promotion challenges with three sleeping giants

It did not take Garry Monk long to start second-guessing the inevitable question. Why on earth did the former Swansea City manager want to risk his career at Leeds United, a chaotically run, fallen giant emblematic of Yorkshire’s footballing rust belt?

As if working for Massimo Cellino, Leeds’ eccentric owner, was not bad enough, had Monk not read Gary Neville’s analysis of the national game’s changing topography? “The north is being cut adrift in English football and I fear the damage may be permanent,” wrote the former Manchester United captain turned pundit last year.