What’s next for Leeds United as Marcelo Bielsa begins to prepare for life in the Premier League?

Manager looks certain to sign a new contract but the same cannot be said for all of his players while the £18m obligation to buy Jean-Kevin Augustin despite failing at Elland Road could come to dictate their summer plans

Leeds United had only just taken a one-goal lead at Pride Park when Ben White decided he’d try to pass the ball across the face of his own penalty area.

Wayne Rooney was in the way, but that was no problem for a player of the centre-half’s ability. White chipped Rooney, arcing the ball close enough to his head to elicit a little jump out of Manchester United and England’s all-time leading goalscorer, but not close enough for him to reach it.

It was a moment of pure impertinence - the type Rooney was partial to himself when he was White’s age - and one of many examples from Sunday afternoon of a team revelling in their new status as Premier League players to-be.

Marcelo Bielsa named something of a second-string line-up to play Derby County but Leeds still secured a win over their play-off tormentors from last season that was proof, as if it were needed, that they have outgrown the Championship.

To survive or thrive in the top flight will be a different proposition though, and after 16 years of slapstick missteps, the next moves which owner Andrea Radrizzani and director of football Victor Orta make must be the right ones.

Extending the manager’s contract beyond the end of this week is unquestionably the first piece of business on the agenda. Bielsa was unwilling to discuss his future on Sunday. “It’s a moment to say thanks to our players,” he insisted. “To give this achievement to our supporters. Say thanks to the club and the authority for all they allow us to do.”

But even one of world football’s most detached and enigmatic figures seems to have been genuinely affected by the scale of his achievement. When you saw him hopping out of his Volkswagen Golf to walk over and embrace a disabled supporter who had been waiting for him outside Pride Park, it was hard not to write off impending contract negotiations as a formality.

Keeping the squad together may not be as easy. Leeds have not been nearly as dependent on loan players in this promotion bid as last year’s Aston Villa, for example - who spent an eight-figure sum rebuilding much of Dean Smith’s squad out of necessity - but have made use of temporary solutions.

Moves are already being made to extend Jack Harrison’s stay from Manchester City and goalkeeper Illan Meslier is surely preferable to Kiko Casilla. White, however, is all but certain to return to his parent club. The only low point of Leeds’s weekend was Graham Potter’s insistence that the highly-rated young defender will be a member of Brighton’s first-team squad next season.

Leeds celebrate promotion to the Premier League (Getty)

Don’t forget Jean-Kevin Augustin either, even if those in the corridors of power at Elland Road rather would. Though the RB Leipzig striker’s loan contract expired during lockdown after three appearances and no goals, the deal involved an £18m obligation to buy if Leeds were promoted. Legal action may be required in order to determine whether the postponement of the season and belated nature of their promotion changes anything.

If not, and if Augustin has to be signed for a cool £18m, that will surely affect Leeds’s ability to spend in other positions and on other, more desirable players. Though Bielsa’s side are easily the best to be promoted from the Championship since Wolverhampton Wanderers two years ago and better than a handful of current Premier League sides, four or five signings will be required in order to inspire confidence that they will stay up.

In the centre of defence, White will have to be replaced. It is a tall order, but then so was replacing Pontus Jansson with White last summer. A new, reliable goalkeeper is needed, even if the 20-year-old Meslier makes his temporary stay from Lorient permanent. A natural left-back would not go amiss - the right-footed Stuart Dallas has deputised there for much of the campaign - and up front, Patrick Bamford will continue to divide opinion. A better finisher with Bamford's movement would be ideal.

Bielsa hugs a disabled fan outside Pride Park before Leeds's victory over Derby (Reuters)

And so the long, happy weekend now melts into an exciting but uncertain summer. One of the few things we can be sure of about the first top-flight Leeds side in 16 years is that Bielsa will not compromise on his ideals.

Whether that is the dynamic movement, the slick intricate passing, the furious pressing, or just the sense of self-expression which encourages a centre-half to chip the ball over the head of an opposition player inside his own penalty area, Leeds’s sparkling brand of football will remain and this time, it will be played on a befitting stage.