Leeds United should have kept faith with Javi Gracia as they entered the final month of the Premier League campaign. That’s the belief of BBC 5 Live pundit Chris Sutton, who insists the Whites were wrong to roll the dice following their heavy defeat to Bournemouth, which left them staring down the barrel of relegation with four games remaining.
Gracia spent just over two months at the Elland Road helm after replacing Jesse Marsch in February and he did get off to a strong start. The Spaniard picked up 10 points from his first six Premier League games in charge, with wins over Southampton, Wolves and Nottingham Forest being enough to pull Leeds away from the bottom three.
Form nosedived after the win over the latter, though, with a run of five winless games, including a 5-1 defeat to Crystal Palace and a 6-1 loss to Liverpool, seeing Leeds take a swift turn towards the Championship. Eventually a limp 4-1 loss to Bournemouth on the south coast pushed the Leeds board into action, firing Gracia and putting Allardyce in place for the final month.
