Leeds face £100MILLION transfer firesale if they fail to win promotion to Premier League as worrying omen emerges

2019 – THEIR last failure was one of the most dramatic and traumatic in the club’s history.

That season Leeds — under Marcelo Bielsa — were caught red handed sending spies to snoop on Derby’s training sessions during the regular season in an incident famously remembered as Spygate.

And it was written in the stars that the two clubs were collide in the play-offs. Leeds were cruising to victory in the two-legged semi-final — winning 1-0 at Pride Park thanks to a Kemar Roofe strike and then 2-0 up in the tie after Stuart Dallas put them in front at Elland Road.

But a remarkable second-half saw Derby win 4-2 on the night — with Manchester United midfielder Mason Mount among the scorers — to snatch a 4-3 victory.

It prompted Rams boss Frank Lampard and his players to celebrate by mimicking holding binoculars to mock their opponents for their spying antics.

2009 – LEEDS were in their second season of three in League One and finished fourth to reach the end-of-season lottery where they faced Millwall in the semi-finals.

And a Neil Harris winner 19 minutes from time gave the Lions an advantage to take to Elland Road for the second leg.

But Luciano Becchio gave the West Yorkshire faithful hope by giving his team the lead — only for it to all end in tears when midfielder Najim Abdou struck the fatal blow for the South Londoners 16 minutes from time.

2008 – HAVING dropped into the third tier for the first time in their history, Simon Grayson’s men were hopeful of bouncing back at the first attempt.

But they had to make do with the play offs after only finishing fifth.

And they reached the final after coming back from 2-0 down against Carlisle to win the two-legged semi 3-2 on aggregate.

But James Hayter fired Doncaster’s winner at Wembley to send Leeds’ Yorkshire neighbours into the Championship instead.

2006 – TWO seasons after dropping out of the Premier League, Leeds had a chance to bounce back after finishing fifth in the Championship.

They managed to reach the final after beating Preston 2-0 at Deepdale with goals from Rob Hulse and Frazer Richardson to seal a 3-1 aggregate win. But they did not make it easy for themselves as Stephen Crainey got sent off with 21 minutes left and Richard Cresswell followed him in stoppage time.

But the final was a complete disaster as Watford powered to a 3-0 win at Wembley with Jay Demerit and Darius Henderson, from the spot, scoring on top of an own goal by keeper Neil Sullivan.

1987 – LEEDS were involved in a play-off marathon back in the days when both the semi-final and final were two-legs and if the scores were level the match would be replayed at a neutral venue.

Having got past Oldham in the semi-finals on the old “away goal rule”, they played the final home and away against Charlton.

Both teams won their home leg 1-0 — James Melrose grabbing the winner at Selhurst Road where the Addicks were groundsharing and Brendon Ormsby at Elland Road.

So the final had to be settled by a replay at Birmingham City’s St Andrew’s.

And after a goalless draw in 90 minutes, the game went into extra time and although John Sheridan gave Billy Bremner’s side a 99th-minute lead, Charlton prevailed with a late double from Peter Shirtliff.