I recently asked the question about when was the last time the 3 promoted clubs managed to stay up in the Premier League. Well it now looks like it’ll happen and Southampton Leeds and Leicester get relegated. When the final whistle blew on the 21/22 season to jubilation and relief, most Leeds fans were looking forward to a fresh start for the 22/23 season. Most of us had accepted the demise of Marcelo Bielsa and knew there needed to be a clear out of tainted talent and with a full pre-season, impetus and a new plan. We saw plenty of fringe players going out as well as £100m in talent. We saw the reinvestment of that £100m and on paper we felt we were going to see a competitive Leeds living up to their potential. On paper after looking at the squad valuation it was plain Leeds we’re going to finish the new season between 12th and 9th, which would have been another step in the planned improvement project. Indeed many of us were of the opinion that in the summer of 23 the takeover is completed and further £100m+ invested in more talent enabling us to stand a shot at the minor European places for season 23/24. All very, very positive stuff. Then we saw private jets sent for Cody Gakpo who failed to get on it, we saw that jet sent to the south of France and a striker refusing to come. We also saw weeks spent chasing CDK who told the club he wanted to go to Milan not Leeds yet they refused to listen. A bad start to the summer. Things carried on in this vein and Jesse Marsch demonstrating that he was out of his depth. The money invested in new players was an absolute joke as 90% of said players were also out of their depth. Everything seemed to be going wrong even in the scouting department, where it looked like Del BoyTrotter had taken over from Victor Orta. Injuries yet again ravished the squad and yet again proved that the players who got us promoted were past it and not able to help much. Another year of injuries and barn door misses for Bamford, another year of injuries to Cooper and Forshaw and another season of waste. The football was shocking and it became obvious that a new coach was required, yet the board missed another open goal and waited too long to replace Marsch. Then an embarrassing search for a new coach ended with the 5th choice Javi Gracia and now we are in the unenviable position of having our 4th head coach in one season with Big Sam. Indeed the reality is 4 managers within 15 league games, massive mismanagement. We look certain to be relegated and the mood amongst many Leeds fans is black. 2 seasons of shoddiness, 2 seasons of decline after Bielsa had rebuilt the clubs foundations. All the work done by Bielsa for the future was thrown away on an American gamble that failed miserably. Leeds inside 18 month went from a team superbly coached and drilled by Marcelo Bielsa to a Sunday League team now coached by Sam Allerdyce. Dallas out all season and may not get back to full fitness. Forshaw out yet again for the whole season only to come back for the last few games yet again. Cooper the captain missing most of the season, Struijk not good enough was used as a LB when the actual LB was fit but ignored. Ayling yet again with injuries and mistakes. However a couple of high points have been Rodrigo who has shown not only plenty of goals but heart, which was sadly missing by most of the squad. Tyler Adams was also a success but an injury curtailed his season and right when we least needed him out. Wober a late plus to the squad also injured and missing when we least needed it, Sinisterra a player who was bought to replace Raphinha has also been missing for most of the season but has shown glimpses of what could have been. Besides Rodrigo as player of the year candidate one player who also deserves plenty of credit and maybe player of the year is Willie Gnonto. Gnonto a steal at £4m and on the other hand another kid in Rutter costing £35m not used by Marsch or Gracia. However Sam may change that as he and 4,000 Leeds fans watched Rutter’s exhibition for the U21s on Monday. Sam must have been impressed and thinking about the possibilities the kid gives him. Every match report of the 21s play off highlighted the performance of Rutter and spoke about the gulf in class between him and the rest of a very very good intake of players on display. Lets not sugarcoat this season, it’s been the worst season for years, made worse because in the bad times we expected more bad, but this time we expected huge progress after the disappointment of last season. We have a boardroom imploding with Del Boy Trotter being sacked, and said Trotter has been responsible for Marsch, £100m wasted in one season, the Big Kev fiasco, refusing to sack Marsch when asked by the owner. Sacking Marsch too late and then panic buying Gracia. Refusing to sack Gracia and threatening to resign. Well he got sacked but in some respects this board of directors should be in jail. They have squandered a business plan, huge amounts of cash, seen reputational damage to the club. In any “real” business, heads would roll, an independent regulator would step in to investigate as stock market valuation plummets. Leeds have been the Gerald Ratner of the last 2 seasons and deserve to fail. On top of this it looks like Victor Orta is walking straight into another top job in Seville, as Monchi is going to be sacked and Orta to take over next month. Seville are still playing in Europe comps….
Now I'd like to point out that quite a few of us predicted a 17th place finish for this season and whilst that still might be the case the inference was that we were highly likely to get relegated. Sadly it seems that relegation will now happen which will be a crying shame because we actually have or had the players to finish above the bottom three quite easily and if Adams and Sinisterra had remained fit from January onwards then we'd probably have been fine. Final thought and it's one that was echoed by Big Sam yesterday, the squad it too light and the decisions to loan out Dan James, Cresswell, Llorente, Drameh, Joffy and to release Klich were practically negligent. Every one of those players would have played a part this season and with them in the squad and available for selection we'd be higher up the league. To shoot yourselves in the foot when we actually had good players who wanted to play for us is inexcusable really.
Jammy makes some good points but Marsch was ignoring Rodrigo at every opportunity and played an unfit Bamford. Marsch got Rodrigo injured he also ignored Joffy even when fans were screaming for him last season. Marsch ignored Klich and cast aside Drameh even now fans must admit we would have been better with Drameh instead of watching the mistakes of Ayling and Kristensen. One of the best routines I have seen at the club has been Drameh and Summerville working the right flank with goals and assists. Special relationship ignored and sent the kid out on loan. Marsch seemed to enjoy freezing players out and peeing up their backs. Gracia froze out Rodrigo and Gnonto and can not understand how you ignore your best players
Loan fees received plus saving on wages were clearly the thinking behind the decisions as you say Mr Radrizani will now pay a very heavy financial penalty for those penny pinching savings which started with the quite bizarre decison to offload Dan James just days afer he started in our 3-0 demolition of Chelsea. To be fair to Radz he stumped up the cash to try and strengthen in January but when examined further the departures of Klich, Llorente, Drameh & Gelhardt left us light. Overall it just leaves you feeling what a different season we could have had just a little bit better decision making.
Still need an explanation of the Harrison situation at Leicester what the fool happened, was it Radz, aorta, Harrison, Marsch
Sorry Doc but you can't have it both ways in respect of Rodrigo. Rodrigo has played in 28 of the EPL games he has been available for this season. He has started 20 of those games. He missed the other 7 due to injury. Of the first 19 games of the season, he started in 17, missed one due to injury and came on at half time as a substitute for the other. He then missed 7 EPL games due to injury. Marsch was sacked whilst Rodrigo was out injured. He averaged 72 minutes per game under Marsch, that he was available for. Last Season, Rodrigo started all 12 games that Marsch was in charge for, averaging 74 minutes per games. In the 3 games that Bamford was available for selection under Marsch last season, he averaged 33 minutes per game Those are not the stats of a player that a manager has ignored. Under Gracia, Rodrigo was available for 9 EPL games. He started 3, averaging 66 minutes per game. He made sub appearances in the other 6 games, averaging 23 minutes per game. Potentially you could say that he was ignored by Gracia for an unfit Bamford. Potentially you could also say that neither of our two main forwards were fit to play more than 60 minutes per game. Bamford averaged 62 minutes per game under Gracia, Rodrigo averaged 41. Did Gracia show favour to Bamford, then yes I will agree.
You listen here Aski! You can't back your arguments up with facts and figures when it comes to Marsch. It's clear to everyone that this season is his fault. He clearly never got the best out of Rodrigo. He's had a terrible season. For what it's worth, Marsch started Dramah away at Brentford. The score? A 5-2 defeat. Bielsa only gave Dramah 3 games so he is just as complicit in holding back this wonder kid.
I bet no team has ever beat Chelsea 3-0 and went to Anfield coming away with three points and yet still got relegated
Closest I can get is Watford winning 1-0 at Anfield and then beating Chelsea 1-0 at Vicarage Road when they finished bottom of the EPL in the 1999/2000 season, so I think your bet would be quite safe there Liverpool finished 4th and Chelsea 5th that season Next closest after that would be 1994/95 season when Ipswich (who finished bottom in 22nd place) won at Liverpool (who finished 4th) and (having to discount Chelsea as they were just your average run of the mill EPL team then) and beating 5th placed Leeds United 2-0 and 2nd place Scum 3-2. They only had 5 homes wins all season, and 2 of those were against teams that finished in the top 5 of the EPL that season. They only had 7 wins in total, with wins against 3 of the top 5 placed teams that season. From 42 games played they amassed a total of 27 points
Thought it was generally accepted that Marsche had got a tune out of Rodrigo this season and he was duly lauded for doing so ?
What irked me most about Marsche was at the beginning of the season when he stated that we didn't have to be results orientated like the previous season and we could focus more on the process of improving. Yeh right on...how's that looking now then.
Let's hope they don't make it all the way to the PL and then become disillusioned with the beautiful game
Lol I have was watching two National League North games on Sunday, so League One would be luxury. Even the aggressive pitch invasion after the Chester - Brackley game was not as exciting as the press made out
Think he was referring to when he came back from injury and then maybe a little confused to who was in charge. To be honest I'm not surprised given how many coaches we've had this season.
who do you want an explanation from in order to believe it Doc? It was Radz - wanting to cash in against everyone’s wishes. Saved by the 49ers stumping up the cash.
