Leeds conceded four goals on a day they knew only a win would give them a chance to survive. Photo: Getty Images/Alex Dodd Leeds United v Tottenham Hotspur Results
Leeds United have spent 16 long, difficult and controversial years trying to get back into the Premier League, but after only three years in the top flight, all ended. They fell apart again.
For a long time, «make Leeds United» was a shorthand for the disastrous failure of a Premier League club after they were relegated to League One amid financial troubles and a board room. coup.
The worry — no, the fear — now is that Leeds are going to do it all over again. Like 19 years ago, this may have been the beginning of the pain, not its peak.
After a brief display of Yorkshire defiance; through endurance and struggle against Tottenham, Leeds surrendered and finally suffered another heavy defeat.
The pre-match display of unity was exposed as a lie as fans turned their backs on their team and the people who own it. There was a lot of anger and a brief threat that things would get ugly when fans in the South Stand tried to invade the pitch after the final whistle. and even louder urges owner Andrea Radrizani to sell and go home (this is a polite version) to Italy.
Leeds currently have no idea who will be their owners when they start the league next season, let alone who will be the manager. The Telegraph Sport have been told the ownership issue will be resolved before the league transfer window opens on June 14, but why would the San Francisco 49ers buy them now?
They are no longer guaranteed access to the wealth of the Premier League and will have to deal with the financial turmoil and psychological damage caused by relegation to the Championship. Leeds know better than anyone that nothing comes easy at the second tier and big names are regularly humiliated and caught in his clutches. As things stand now, both Southampton and Leicester City look more stable and much better suited for an immediate return to the Premier League, with plenty of competitive teams waiting for them as well.
Of course the 49ers, who already are big stakeholders and are excited about their vision for the development of the club, they will need to negotiate a new price because nobody is paying £420m for a champion kit, let alone one that Leeds are in.
< img src="/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/0c51fcac361b2e46825bca9366198513.jpg" />Not even Sam Allardyce could save Leeds from relegation. Photo: Reuters/Scott Heppell.
The fans don't want Radrizzani and his henchmen to continue running their club, but the level of sarcasm directed against the current government could well have scared the Americans. who don't often — if ever — see scenes like this on the other side of the Atlantic.
It's not the happy, tight-knit club it was when the 49ers were first intrigued by the idea of buying it. It is a club divided and polluted by discontent.
The summer break will allow some wounds to heal, but off the pitch there is so much to fix before things can be fixed.
It's worth remembering We know Radrizzani was once a hugely popular figure, loved and praised . In truth, it was the decision to appoint Marcelo Bielsa as manager that changed Leeds, not him.
It was Bielsa who brought everyone together and it was Bielsa who raised a team full of Championship players in 2020 and made them play one of the most exciting matches in England.
Leeds sacked the Argentine in February last year at the end of a long losing streak and growing fears of relegation. However, no one came close to repeating what he had here. Since then, Leeds have had four different managers, including caretakers, and none of them have been able to build on the legacy he left behind. Tellingly, during the defeat to Tottenham, the fans spent a significant amount of time chanting the name of their extremely popular and still revered former manager.
They will love him back, it's unlikely. The attitude towards the incumbent President Sam Allardyce is cool. He did nothing to improve Leeds in his short time as manager, scoring one point in his four games in charge.
“I can tell them what I think needs to be done,” Allardyce said. “But we have to see how the club moves forward in terms of ownership. This needs to be sorted out before anyone talks to me or anyone else about being a manager.»
Harry Kane scored twice for Tottenham at Elland Road. Photo: Getty Images/Alex Dodd
The 68-year-old knows what it took to get promoted by a major Championship club before, having done it with West Ham and Bolton Wanderers before, but he looks old-fashioned and out of step with the modern football world. He'll object to it until he's blue in the face, but Leeds know they need their hearts and minds back and is he capable of it? Prescribing it would be risky, but it is true for anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation.
Leeds have players they can sell, led by Jack Harrison and Tyler Adams, to raise funds for reinvestment. It will help to rebuild whoever is in charge, but the club needs to be united in order to achieve anything. It was like the exact opposite of the Spurs scoring within two minutes at the start of both the first and second half. They also scored a third goal less than two minutes after Harrison pulled back.
Ryan Mason is being coy about Harry Kane's future at the Spurs. but losing 4-1 in front of their fans added insult to injury.
Home fans tried to cheer up by mocking their predicament by singing a rendition of «Leeds is falling apart again…» and «That's why we're falling».
At such moments, you either laugh or cry. Or you get angry, and they did it in the second half — serenading the players that they weren't fit to wear the shirt, insulting Weston McKenny's body shape before venting their anger on the board. When a Leeds fan burst onto the field and was only sent off with the help of eight stewards, the home supporters taunted the players by saying «He's got more fight than you, he's got more fight than you.»
» Leeds United — Tottenham Hotspur. formulations
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