Good Morning. It's Wednesday 3rd April, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Can anyone stop Ipswich Leeds fans will be hoping that Ipswich Town's bitter rival Norwich City can slow them down on Saturday lunchtime when visiting Carrow Road. The Canaries have one of the best home records in the Championship (behind Leeds and Ipswich), having won their last seven in a row. The problem will be, stopping Ipswich from scoring! Town have netted 84 times this season (nine more than Leeds), through 19 different goalscorers. With nine wins in ten, Kieran McKenna's side have taken top spot, both in the Championship, and in the form guide (over the last 10 games). It was hoped that the wheels would come off on Bank holiday Monday against Southampton, but true to form, Ipswich won it with the last kick of the game! 30% of their goals (25) have come in the last fifteen minutes of play, with many being the difference between securing the win, or settling for a draw. The Canaries would like little more than to knock the Tractor boys off top spot, not to mention improving their play off hopes. please log in to view this image Remaining fixtures and potential banana skins With just six games (seven for Leicester City), we look at the remaining fixtures which will define Leeds future. Promotion to the promised land is worth (up to) an estimated £265m, and could guarantee Leeds keep hold of their biggest assets (or at least be in a position to negotiate decent profits should anyone leave?). Ipswich Town Norwich City (A) - April 6 Watford (H) - April 10 Middlesbrough (H) - April 13 Hull City (A) - April 27 Coventry City (A) - April 30 Huddersfield Town (H) - May 4 Leeds Utd Coventry City (A) - April 6 Sunderland (H) - April 9 Blackburn Rovers (H) - April 13 Middlesbrough (A) - April 22 Queens Park Rangers (A) - April 27 Southampton (H) - May 4 Leicester City Birmingham City (H) - April 6 Millwall (A) - April 9 Plymouth Argyle (H) - April 12 West Brom (H) - April 20 Southampton (H) - April 23 Preston North End (A) - April 27 Blackburn Rovers (H) - May 4 Where are the potential banana skins? Will 100 points be enough for automatic promotion? How much of a phycological disadvantage will the club finishing third have, going into the play-offs? please log in to view this image Foxes pleading for clemency Leicester City believe they should be afforded leniency by the football authorities for breaking financial fair play rules due to how unexpected and unique their rapid decline from the Premier League was, having finished eighth the season before! Their accounting figures can only be described as Ridsdale-esque, with Chief Executive Susan Whelan delivering pre-tax losses of £89.7m, on the back of a record £92.5m deficit the season before! According to Rob Tanner from the Athletic: "In the accounts, which cover the disastrous 2022-23 season in which Leicester went from an eighth-placed finish the previous year to finishing 18th and losing their Premier League status after nine seasons, the club admits it may have breached profit and sustainability (PSR) rules, but believes there should be mitigation considered because of how unexpected and unique their rapid decline was. Before relegation, they had won the Premier League, the FA Cup and competed in three European campaigns." please log in to view this image
Morning all, It doesn’t matter how ‘unexpected’ Leicester’s relegation was - they broke the rules, pure and simple. That’s not a viable excuse. A club should budget for every eventuality. It’s like driving without insurance, having an accident, and saying you didn’t expect it to happen. Well the unexpected does happen - and they should be made to pay.
If anyone is to step on a banana skin it's....well err we never do things the easy way do we ......just gotta maybe get a good pair of thick soled wellies
It’s a tough call, be foolish to write off anyone at this point. Looked a nervous performance from us the other night but that could have been the lag from the international break and the disruptive injuries we picked up during it. Gurev was the biggest miss, he wins a lot in midfield and keeps our possession ticking over. Ridiculous “mitigation” from Leicester, if that’s their defence I’d be expecting a points deduction. Should have sold more players in the summer they were relegated to balance the books, or loaned them out
Gruev could be the difference between autos and playoffs. Very important player for Leeds. Need him back asap.
Leicester should at least have done an Everton and denied everything, a bit like Private Baldrick at Blackadder's court martial in Blackadder goes forth.
Morning all. Seriously Leicester's defence is 'Sorry Guv'nor we didn't expect to get relegated. That really is a piss poor excuse.
At this stage, Ipswich are a great team it has to be said and were going to be flat out to get second. As for Leicesters financials, worst that'll happen is a four point deduction next season. We've seen the amount of fiddling Everton have done and they'll be in pl next season with a shiny new stadium. As with everything in life it seems to pay to bend and break the rules as you please. As for club finishing third, they'll have a slim chance in playoffs
Morning all Leicester are in trouble and they know it. The victory against Hull was vital for us, that was a very difficult Easter on the back of an International break that punished us. I just read that Kamara was ill against Hull and would not have played had we either Roberts or Gruev back or not needed Ampadu at CB Good news is Gruev could be fit for our next game, hopefully Moore will be out for a couple of games at least for Ipswich, it's getting hot at the top
Just to put a positive on it, some statistician on talkSPORT said that’s not actually true and the team that finished third most often gets promoted in the playoffs. Maybe need Aski on this one
I think Ipswich will go on to win the league, theyre a good battling team who never give up, leicester have an easier run than us also with a game in hand, hopefully there is a few slip ups from the other two and we avoid the dreaded playoffs where we never do well. Farkes team choices could be vital too.
Yeah I noticed a lot of PL players (plus Kane at Bayern Munich) were ‘unable’ to play for their countries but were immediately back playing for their clubs. We should have done the same with our players.
Especially the ones who only played friendlies. Rutter went beyond that by having an operation so he would miss International duty - that's commitment!!
I've looked at this before, and going from memory, I'd have to disagree with Talksport. I'll try and find my document that has all the stats on it, but in the last 10 years, the team that finished 3rd, have won the play offs 4 times, the team finishing 4th has won the play offs 4 times and the team finishing 5th has won the play offs twice. So based on a 10 year period, whoever finishes 3rd this season, has a 40% chance of being promoted, same as the team finishing 4th Edit - Ok technically Talksport are correct, in that the team finishing in the first play off position has the highest number of promotions (14 times in a 36 year period), but they also fail to be promoted over 61% of the time. Season 94/95 only 1 side achieved automatic promotion and play off places were competed between teams finishing 2nd to 5th. Season 90/91, 3 teams were automatically promoted (I wish that was true for this season ) with the play offs competed between teams finishing 4th to 7th. Season 89/90 Swindon finished 4th and won the play off final, but Sunderland who finished 6th and lost the play off final were promoted due to Swindon having financial irregularities, but for stats purposes I have counted Swindon as being successful. Haven't included 86/87 because the play off format was different, as I am sure most of us remember In the first 10 years of the plays offs (not counting 86/87) teams finishing in the first and second play off position achieved promotion 30% of the time, and the teams finishing in the third and fourth placed positions achieved it 20% of the time. From 97/98 to 2006/07 teams finishing in the 1st play off position achieved promotion 40% of the time, 2nd play off position 10%, 3rd 30% and 4th 20%. From 2007/08 to 2016/17, First placed play off team achieved promotion 40% of the time, 2nd achieved it 20%, 3rd 30% and 4th 10%. In the last 6 seasons (2017/18-2022/23) team finishing in 1st play off place has achieved promotion 50% of the time, 2nd place 33% and 3rd place 17%. Team finishing in the 4th play off place has failed to gain promotion in the last 6 seasons. This is the best period for teams finishing in the first play off place, basically its 50/50. Not something to bet your house on
