Pablo Hernandez: The prophet who dragged Leeds United to the promised land

Attempted rescue act No 1 happened in the strangest of circumstances. There he was, the new signing, taking a corner in front of a fish mascot in Fleetwood. Leeds United were 1-0 down, and Garry Monk was under pressure just weeks into his job. Everyone was under pressure when Massimo Cellino was your boss.

But then, Pablo Hernandez arrived.

There were two moments when Leeds went from Championship nobodies to consistent promotion contenders. The second one was a crunching Pontus Jansson tackle at Luton Town. But the first one was the day Hernandez’s loan began. Hernandez had been a star at Valencia alongside David Villa, Juan Mata and David Silva. He had impressed at Swansea in the Premier League.

But he decided to move to Qatar at the age of 29. As he returned to the UK, there was a sense he had something to prove.

With little jinks, passes and moment after moment in front of goal, he has proven it. On Friday, Hernandez announced he would be leaving Leeds after five years. The Premier League has not been as kind to his ageing legs, but he departs as a hero. The game against West Bromwich Albion on Sunday should be all about giving him the send-off he deserves.

That corner at Fleetwood came to nothing. Leeds eventually won on penalties, but, in retrospect, it was day one of what would become the Pablo show. The Cellino pressure left the building that day. No matter what happened, managers could turn to Hernandez.

He scored his first at Cardiff, giving Leeds a win at a ground where they rarely, if ever, won. That season he hit eight, dragging Leeds to seventh, just outside the play-offs. Rescue act No 2, then, became correcting a narrative around him — whether he was physically up to it, especially away from home.

When Monk left, Leeds stumbled. That season, Hernandez was the only shining light. With his contract running out, he was voted as the fans’ and players’ player of the year. It was a “fuck you” aimed at anyone willing to let him leave. He signed on.

After another failed promotion attempt under Thomas Christiansen and Paul Heckingbottom, Leeds were not yet all there. The thing is, Hernandez was a prophet without a god. He had come and tried to show Leeds the way forward, but had no one to provide him with a message. Then Marcelo Bielsa arrived.

Months into his tenure, Bielsa hailed Hernandez as a “complete player”. He said he had rarely seen anyone exert as much influence over the entire pitch as the Spaniard.

Ostensibly a winger, Hernandez became a central midfielder under Bielsa. Alongside Mateusz Klich, who ran and ran and ran like a Polish Forrest Gump, Hernandez played as a “free eight”. Everything Leeds did well came through him.

In Bielsa’s first season, he provided 12 assists and scored 12 goals. He pulled and pushed and forced Leeds through games, with the 3-2 win against Millwall a masterclass in playmaking. It was also another rescue act, pushing Leeds towards automatic promotion in a crunch game where they were struggling. He could not push hard enough. He was left crying on the Elland Road pitch after their play-off failure.

The prophet, though, had finally been given a message to transmit from on high. Bielsa and Hernandez had shown Leeds the light, and Leeds saw that it was good.

Any doubt that Leeds could go a step further the next season was extinguished in game one at Bristol City. It was there that Hernandez turned on the edge of the box and with his weaker left boot, unleashed a thunderbolt past the goalkeeper.

The big one had begun. Sure, Leeds had a horror dip in late winter that season, their gap to the chasing pack disappearing game after game. Yet in reality, they stormed out of the division.

It was Hernandez that got them over the line. After lockdown, he was carrying an injury, but Bielsa managed him perfectly. He played from half-time almost every week. Against tiring defences, his vision shone through. He played a superb ball for Jack Harrison to down Fulham. With one run, he made a mockery of the Stoke City defence to tee up Liam Cooper. And at Swansea, he near-enough took them to the promised land.

A lot has been made of Luke Ayling’s run from his own box that day. Hernandez, on tired legs, runs from close enough to the Leeds area all the way to the Swansea box to finish at the other end. He then finds the energy to whip his shirt off and run to the corner, an image now immortalised in a mural in Leeds.

Leeds finally made it back to the Premier League after 16 years. Weeks before the end, Hernandez said: “When I came four years ago, I knew I was coming to a big club, obviously I saw Leeds play Valencia in the semi-finals (in the 2000-01 Champions League campaign). But when I arrived, I was very surprised because it was bigger than I had seen.

“To get promoted with this club would be the best trophy for me in my career. For me, to play in the Premier League with Leeds United is a dream.”

Hernandez managed it. Yes, he has not had his Premier League moment. It has been a tough season. On a personal level, his family have moved back to Spain and while he seems to have found some solace in his video games, it is no match for the support network he usually enjoys.

On the pitch, there have been issues. If he is Bielsa’s prophet, then kicking away a water bottle against Leicester was his decision to hit the rock to bring forth water. Bielsa did not take kindly to that act after being substituted. He spent weeks out of the squad. Even after making it back in, he has featured infrequently. Like Moses, Hernandez has had to, at times, watch his people enjoy what he was promised from a distance.

West Brom, though, is a chance to correct that. It will be the first time he has played in front of fans since last March. And even if he doesn’t, Hernandez has done what he came to do. On a personal level, the rescue act is complete. He has created a legacy for himself that will never be forgotten in Leeds.

For Leeds, Hernandez has done the big job. He had saved them. They were stranded in the EFL desert for longer than they could have ever imagined. More than anyone, Hernandez was the man who led them through it.