We have been here before. Patrick Bamford’s Leeds United story has ebbed and flowed for the best part of seven years. We are at a familiar part of the cycle: the club’s one-time England international is fit again, showing promise and they need something new up top.

The 31-year-old knows the routine well. In July 2020, two days before lifting the Championship title, national radio station Talksport asked if Bamford was good enough to start in the Premier League for Leeds. The No 9 chimed in on X at the time: ‘And so it starts’, accompanied by three sleeping emojis.

That was five years ago this summer. If he was weary of the debate about his attributes then, he would have been well advised to stay away from social media in the years since. On that particular question, Bamford emphatically proved his doubters wrong with 17 top-flight goals and an England cap in September 2021.

But since Bamford was selected to start for England against Andorra, the story has been anything other than smooth sailing. Since playing through an ankle injury to finish a September 2021 match at Newcastle United, Bamford has been absent from 45 per cent of his club’s league matchday squads. In 72 of the 161 league squads named by Leeds since that day, Bamford has been missing, almost entirely due to injury.

Across the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons under Marcelo Bielsa, the striker was absent from just one of 84 league squads. Bamford’s body has been failing him since that ill-fated Newcastle game. When he has been fit, he’s either been one of many players underperforming in a relegation-bound outfit or scraping cameos together under Daniel Farke, save for one spell last term.

Farke said if Bamford had been available, his side would have been promoted (Matt McNulty/Getty Images)

Between New Year’s Day 2024 and March 8, Bamford scored eight goals in 10 appearances. Nine of those outings were starts. It was a show of form which, admittedly, fell away through March and April but left Farke maintaining that if his striker had been fit for the final two games of the season and play-offs, Leeds would have been promoted.

There’s no finer compliment Farke could have paid Bamford, pinning an entire club’s promotion fate on the fitness of one footballer. That bullish assessment did not translate into faith on the pitch this season, however.

Before he did eventually succumb to a long lay-off at the turn of the year, Bamford was named in 20 of Farke’s 21 preceding league squads but only got 101 minutes across eight cameos. In simple terms, the manager either did not fancy risking his striker’s fitness or did not fancy him full-stop, preferring Mateo Joseph and Joel Piroe. The point is, the accumulation of training was there, hence his inclusions on the bench, but it rarely translated into game time.

We have now come full circle. Bamford’s last Leeds goal came in the 4-3 win at Middlesbrough in April 2024. Almost exactly one year later, he was scoring again at the same ground but saw an offside flag wrongly raised against him. It was only 17 minutes from the bench, but Bamford showed more than enough to prompt the primary debate ahead of Saturday’s Preston North End clash.

Should Bamford start in the league for the first time in 355 days? Nobody is expecting an immediate return to England form, but he’s caught the eye with what Farke has given him.

A decent turn at Luton Town was backed up by a mature, composed, hard-working and aggressive display on Teesside. At a time when the team was under the pump, his role at the tip of the attack was everything they needed in the closing stages. There was, of course, the goal that should have stood, too.

Captain Ethan Ampadu pushed Bamford forward to receive the three cheers of the away end after full time on Tuesday.

“I like it a lot because Patrick was out since the beginning of January,” said Farke, post-match. “He comes back with his enthusiasm and also this great will to deliver.

“You see this in each of his movements. We need his experience, his smartness in these last minutes to win the ball, to keep the ball, to win a free kick. It’s important we have him.

“I would have preferred he would have scored (for) the first time since ages today. This is also an effect for his confidence. It would have done magic because he also gets lots of stick quite often.

“We all know what we have in a fit Patrick Bamford. To have him back on this way, to his best fitness. He can’t be there with 100 per cent, but he has already played a crucial factor for us today.”

If Piroe or Joseph were in good form, there would be no argument to draft Bamford off the back of two cameos. However, the former has not scored since the win at Bramall Lane and the latter has looked out of his depth for much of the season.

It’s not only a dry spell in front of goal for Piroe, but everything else is lacking, too. He was careless with the ball and weak in his duels on Tuesday night. If Bamford’s fit enough, it feels like the stars are aligning on his return to the fold. He would strongly argue he is ready for that.

Bamford played well in substitute appearances against Luton and Middlesbrough (Paul Harding/Getty Images)

One source close to Bamford, speaking anonymously to protect relationships, said the forward was disappointed to be left out of the Swansea City game. The striker felt he had several weeks of training under his belt and an encouraging international break at Thorp Arch.

There are only five games left of the regular season. Some sections of the fanbase will feel Bamford’s time has come and gone at Leeds. There may not be enough time in this campaign for those opinions to be turned, but it’s an important pocket of time for the striker nonetheless.

Tuesday’s introduction made it 200 Leeds appearances for Bamford. Opta’s Jonny Cooper said Bamford is only the second player in the club’s history to wear its No 9 shirt on so many occasions after Mick Jones, of the famous Don Revie side. Jermaine Beckford, Mark Viduka and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, exceptional in United attacks, cannot match that length of service.

Are these five games a chance for Bamford to seize back the narrative of his time in West Yorkshire? His part in that 2020 promotion may have been forgotten by some. Ironically, he may end up being the only survivor of Bielsa’s title winners to taste promotion on the pitch in front of fans. Pascal Struijk is injured and may not return this season, while Illan Meslier looks set for bench duty until the summer.

It’s only five games, but if Bamford scores promotion-winning goals, it’s hard for anyone to argue against the mark he left on Leeds United.

(Top photo: Ed Sykes/Getty Images)