You shouldn’t expect much in the way of a balanced assessment of Leeds Fans CBS’s plans to purchase Leeds United at this time, partly because news that they (and by which, I mean WE!) agreed a deal in principle to buy the club from Massimo Cellino has only just been announced meaning all the finer details of how the dream of fan ownership will be realised aren’t really out there yet, but mostly… I’m just too damn excited to process it all.

After so many years of mismanagement from shady owners with questionable motives, Leeds fans finally have an opportunity to salvage the wreckage of our once great football club and take responsibility for its restoration.

The news of an ‘in principle’ takeover agreement between Cellino and Leeds Fans CBS came (as all news seemingly does nowadays) via a simple Tweet from Leeds Fans CBS.

This won’t be easy. The funds required are massive and a football club owned by fans comes with challenges of its own. Our opposition aren’t going to go easy on us because we suddenly represent football at its purest – a club operated not for the benefit of shareholders or on the whims of a wealthy individual who wanted the ultimate toy, but for the sheer love of the sport and community it served to create.

But if anyone understands the legacy of this club and the responsibility that comes with its ownership, if anyone understands the importance of our fans and the traditions we hold sacred, if anyone understands what ‘side before self’ really means and what’s expected of those who are chosen to serve us, it’s us. And why not us? God knows we’ve tried the alternative and look how that’s turned out!

After a hellish decade jumping from one owner-created crisis to the next, we have an opportunity to take charge of the situation and effect our own fate. Time to stand up and be counted.