End of the chapter
It feels like it’s been in the post since mid-October, but the worst was finally realised at Leeds United yesterday after two years of poor decisions caught up with the club. Last year’s final-day escape proved to be a small delay in the inevitable conclusion once the Whites stood by Jesse Marsch through the World Cup break.
Hindsight is all we have in situations as seismic as this for a football club and if failing to refresh Marcelo Bielsa’s squad in summer 2021 lay the groundwork for this demise, persisting with the American was the ultimate hammer blow. Marsch oversaw a run of two wins across 17 games between late August and his February 5 finale: these were the straws which broke the camel’s back.
Relegation cannot have been a shock for many, especially given how painfully predictable Sunday’s second-minute opener was. It feels like it’s been coming for a while, with the Bournemouth loss the most recent bellwether, but the real sadness in this fall is the end of the chapter Bielsa built.
READ MORE: How Leeds United house Bielsa built crumbled leaving Radrizzani to deliver final act club deserves
The club is on a financially sound footing capable of supporting a promotion push, with none of the existential dread which consumed all sides of Elland Road in 2004. Relegation is far from welcome at any time, but this squad and this ownership feel in need of a reset which could be prompted by this watershed moment.
The real dismay is in knowing the club is right back where it started before the Argentine arrived in 2018. It was a glorious passage of time for United, but it’s hard to ignore the feeling that opportunity was wasted.
After that torturous 16-year wait was ended, the club was taken to ninth in 2021 with the foundation, figurehead, momentum and public support to kick on. That was the window we will look back on as that chance, that slim opening to work on cracking the top four over several years.
Instead, it’s Home Park on a Tuesday night in November with no sign of a confirmed owner, director of football or head coach.
Where is the owner?
Football is a different business to many, but remove the narrative and emotion for one moment. Consider the majority shareholder in a business worth hundreds of millions of pounds being absent on the day that organisation sees millions wiped from its value.
How could Andrea Radrizzani choose to stay away from Elland Road on the day it was very likely to be relegated? The Italian had to be in LS11 to face the music on Sunday, but chose to stay away.
The chairman is supposed to be the figurehead leading by example, showing everyone the way and a unifying figure for all levels of the business to get behind. Radrizzani was front and centre for the title win in 2020 and 20/21 top-flight odyssey, but could not bring himself to face up to the darkest day of his ownership.
In a week which was building up to the likely relegation of the football club, there was no communication from the Elland Road top brass, despite all of the circling uncertainty, while Radrizzani was publicly courting his next plaything in Italy. For that imbalance in his attention to be followed by an outright no-show yesterday would have been an insult to a great many United supporters.
Whether he could have expected insults and anger or not, you have to front up as the owner and be seen. Even when the club statement did come, an acknowledgement of this shambolic season, it featured no signature, no name, no accountability, no direction, no stability.
Whether Radrizzani is at the end of his road, and a great many fans hope he is, or not, there needs to be certainty and clarity sooner rather than later on who is calling the shots in this pivotal summer.
Allardyce works his way out of a job
Sam Allardyce talked a good game, but ultimately what did he have to show for his 25 days at the helm other than a reported £500,000? The Manchester City game was always going to be a write-off, the Newcastle United draw was the high point (a draw) and then, when it really mattered, the final two games delivered zero points.
After the reserved, guarded, monotone, quiet performances of Javi Gracia in press conferences, Allardyce’s brash, loud, colourful, bragging was a breath of fresh air. The 68-year-old knows his way around a media briefing, knows how to win over journalists and suggested he might have the experience needed to pull off this miracle.
It was always going to be a tall order and this relegation is not on Allardyce in any way, shape or form. He had four matches and less than a month to right this listing ship, but it proved a bridge too far.
While the results have not turned, dispatches from around the club have been glowing in their praise of Allardyce’s effect among staff. The charisma has proven a light for many in a dark time as the club headed towards relegation.
One school of thought held Allardyce up as the experienced, stable appointment the club could use next season while it got its house in order behind the scenes for the next long-term project. And yet, on an afternoon the team had to win their game to retain any hope of survival he selected six defenders, all of whom have shown this season they struggle to protect their goal.
Allardyce is far too long in the tooth to move away from the solid foundations at the heart of tactical philosophy, but even he must have learned in three games how inept that defence has proven to be. What’s more, with the team trailing at half-time, Allardyce still failed to do anything about the lack of natural attackers on the field. Post-match, talk moved to the future and his place in United’s.
Asked how much this squad needed gutting to return to the top flight at the first time of asking, Allardyce deferred to assistant head coach Karl Robinson’s experience of the league, rather than his own. “Karl knows more than me, to be fair, about the Championship so I would look at and talk to him if we end up sorting everything out here and see what the better direction would be to go,” he said.
Robinson has only spent one of his 13 years in first-team management in the second tier, That was the 2015/16 season with Milton Keynes Dons and it ended in relegation.
Player farewells
The most poignant of the goodbyes on Sunday came from Jack Harrison. The winger never stopped trying on the field, no matter how forlorn it all looked, and got the one consolation goal Leeds could muster.
Substituted with a knock in the 88th minute, Harrison made a point of slowing his final few steps from the field. He looked around, did a 360 and ensured everyone had seen his thankful applause. It was reciprocated.
Perhaps more tellingly was the lingering, thoughtful walk around the very perimeter of the Jack Charlton and Norman Hunter stands. Harrison would give his shirt away and then go to the effort of shaking as many hands as he could.
As a 26-year-old English winger with 21 goals and 16 assists in the Premier League across the past three seasons, Harrison is going to have a lot of suitors this summer. Despite his new contract, relegation weakens United’s hand and they will not stand in the way of Harrison’s career if the right offer comes in.
Harrison would leave with 206 appearances to his name, ahead of the likes of Brian Deane, Albert Johanneson and Eirik Bakke. He’s been a cornerstone of this Premier League return and a highly dependable cog on the field who will be sorely missed by many supporters.
By contrast, Weston McKennie was among those to experience the full ire of the home support. The American was roundly booed as he came off in the 60th minute before the language turned especially sour as he approached the dugout.
Relegation was always going to spell the end of this loan experiment and you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would have wanted McKennie to stay next term. No doubt, he has built a very good career, but in 20 appearances for the club he has not proved well suited to a relegation dogfight.
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