‘Shambles’ - What Graham Smyth said immediately after Leeds United relegation in Marcelo Bielsa point - YEP 28/5/23
Leeds United will pour over their unsuccessful battle against relegation from the Premier League over the coming days.
By Mark Carruthers, Graham Smyth
Sam Allardyce’s side made their way into the final 90
minutes of a long and testing season knowing only a win against Tottenham
Hotspur would give them any chance of extending their top flight stay into a
third season. But there seemed little doubt over the eventual outcome from the
moment Harry Kane fired the visitors in front with just two minutes on the
clock at Elland Road.
Pedro Porro doubled Spurs advantage in the early stages of
the second-half and although Jack Harrison briefly reduced the arrears for
Leeds, Kane’s second of the day and a late goal from Lucas Moura condemned the
Whites to a return to the second tier that many suspected had been coming
throughout a lacklustre second half to the Premier League season.
But YEP writer Graham Smyth believes the roots of the
Whites’ relegation into the Championship were not sown in recent weeks, but in
the decision to part ways with the highly-popular Marcelo Bielsa in February
2022 and questioned what had been gained from allowing the departure of a man
that led the club into the Premier League.
Speaking via his Twitter account, he said: “You have to look
back now and ask what did Leeds United gain by sacking Marcelo Bielsa? Now
weigh it up against what they lost. Today's performance, the team put out, the
squad, the lack of comms from the ownership all week, the lack of clarity on
the takeover. Wow. Shambles.
“Even if sacking Bielsa was the right call, the succession
plan and recruitment has killed them dead this season. Then there's the length
of time given to Marsch. The faffing when he was sacked. Chasing unobtainable
targets. Madness.”
