Heidi's blog Leeds United v Tottenham Hotspur (Spurs), 28th May 2023 at Elland Road

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At least we all know our fate now that we have been relegated back to the Championship. Having seen the writing on the wall for so long this season, I was already resigned to our demise which started with the sacking of the one person who was trying to bring the good times back to Leeds, Marcelo Bielsa. After hearing his name sung around the ground today, I know I am not the only one who believes this to be the case. Success does not happen overnight and there will always be ups and downs along the way and nothing will convince me otherwise, that we would be in this position if Bielsa had of stayed here. With Radrizzani on the move to Sampdoria, and silence on where Leeds United are heading next under the split ownership which has affected our season big style and been disastrous for us as a club, I am hoping that tomorrow brings some news of what happens next in the boardroom. To give us any chance going forward we need this resolving asap with fans kept in the picture as they don’t deserve to be kept in the dark over this because one thing is for sure, we will be here long after these have all gone!

With it having been such a busy week for me personally, it did help to keep things surreal on the Leeds front. Friday saw me being filmed for an appearance on Calendar, then I headed to the Peacock for an interview with Katherine Hannah and West Yorkshire Sport, then this morning I appeared on BBC Radio 5 Live. Sadly, my feelings about being resigned to relegation came to fruition. We also moved into our new house yesterday a couple of days after our furniture came out of storage. The one thing the removal firm told me was that we had too much stuff to fit into this house as we were downsizing. It’s a good job I’d already started decluttering not that you could see I had! I will have to reduce my stock of Leeds books I have written and at the moment I have found Back to Reality and The Sleeping Giant Awakens. If anyone is interested in buying them at the reduced price of £7 (postage extra) please get in touch. Big thanks to those people who have supported me in buying them over the last couple of days. Friday and Saturday saw a great couple of events watching Paul Wilson perform his Leeds songs put to popular music at both the Commercial, Morley and The Holbeck Working Men’s Club. The evenings were spent with great people including our Scandinavian and Maltese fans and as always, it’s the fans who make our club and we have a special bond between us.

To think 48 years ago today, I was in Paris to see Leeds United robbed of their rightful trophy in the European Cup Final. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be a date that came back to haunt us, but sadly it did. Also, the number of lone magpies I’ve seen these last couple of weeks you could say they were rubbing my face in it as we were definitely going down!

Team: Robles, Ayling, Cooper (captain), Koch, Harrison, Rodrigo, Kristensen, Wöber, Struijk, Forshaw, McKennie.

Subs: Firpo for Wöber (60) Aaronson for Struijk (60), Rutter for McKennie (60), Gnonto for Harrison (88).

Subs not used: Meslier, Summerville, Greenwood, Roca, Mullen.

Leeds lost the game 4-1 with Harrison scoring for Leeds (68). Harrison scored our first goal in the premier League and our last.

Attendance: 36,871 with 2,858 Spurs fans.

Referee: Anthony Taylor.

Booked: Struijk, Wöber.

Leeds got off to the worst start possible by conceding a goal within the first couple of minutes. We certainly know how hard to make it for ourselves. Leeds did try to get back into the game despite it being an uphill struggle, when twice a Koch header went wide. We didn’t have any clear-cut chances as we went into the break still a goal down.

With having to rely on other results today, our only chance was winning the game but that became an impossible task when we conceded a second goal within two minutes of the restart. Any chance of a fight back had now disappeared as we had no chance of staying up now, but I knew we didn’t deserve to stay up anyway we were that bad. We eventually made a triple substitution and that at least saw us putting some fight into trying to get back into the game. When Harrison saw his shot hit the bottom of the net to pull a goal back after a Rutter assist, the hope was there that we could have a fightback. Well, those thoughts didn’t last long, but the pitch invader timing may have impacted on this. It took a minute for Spurs to get their third goal meaning we were well and truly beaten on the day and relegated from the Premier League. Conceding a goal quickly after scoring a goal, has been one of the worst things this season. The misery didn’t end there though as their player literally waltzed around all our players to score a fourth.

Chants of sack The Board, Marcelo Bielsa, you’re not fit to wear the shirt were ringing around Elland Road at the end of the game. Harrison went around the ground shaking hands with fans after handing his shirt over, so he has played his last game for us. Who else is heading out of the door, we will find out very soon. I know some fans think Allardyce should have been brought in sooner but to me, he hasn’t brought anything different to the club and team who were in free fall.

I want to thank everyone for their lovely comments about my blog, books and photos and as always, they are greatly appreciated. After dropping my husband off at hospitality, it was lovely chatting to many of you and of course, taking your photos. As my daughter pointed out, we will now get a 10% rebate on our season tickets plus 6 extra games albeit in the Championship plus the season starts earlier. Being a glutton for punishment, I decided I would go to Oslo for the pre-season game against that team from over the Pennines although I would have preferred different opposition. It will be great to be amongst our Scandinavian fans again, but I couldn’t believe it was 2015 when we were last there. I had taken a video of us all singing at a pub that they had arranged for us to meet at pre-game which appeared on my timeline recently. It was lovely watching it again and feeling the positive vibes although it was sad to see a familiar face who has since died. Fans who have died during this season were remembered before the game with a minute’s applause and had their names appear on the screen. I would also like to extend my thanks to the ticket office staff for looking after me since I’ve had my hip operation. I am looking to return to my own seat for home games but looking to be nearer the front at away games next season. My first job tomorrow will be to go to Selby market and enjoy my Doubtfires ice-cream despite it being freezing at Elland Road today. As a club we, need to hit the ground running so it is up to them now as to what happens next. For the fans, enjoy the break and I will see you all next season. Love to you all, LUFC – Marching on Together!

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I hope the absence yesterday means he is selling up and leaving, if not it’s even more of a disgrace that he shied away on the final day. Relegation didn’t bother me yesterday, like you I’d resigned myself to it some time ago.

What bothers me is the fear of a delayed sale and arguing over the final price. If it is to be full 49ers control we need it to happen swiftly so the new appointments can be made.

We can’t afford a 4-5 week delay and unrest with players and agents

 

Fingers crossed we will know more in the next couple of days. The radio silence is deafening.

 

Sorry we missed you this time Heidi, none of us made it to that gig. To be honest I didn't bother arriving at ground too early and got away relatively quickly afterwards. Lack of atmosphere outside was subdued to say the least. Two wasted seasons in a row but hopefully more to cheer for come August

 

Fourth pic in Heidi you can see myself and my son in the Southstand.

 

Is that your lad being carried away by the stewards ?

 

no Dirty. He is the one with the white polo shirt and bald head. (narrows it down I know)

 

So it’s you being carried away so

 

I would never have got my legs over the barrier. I'm 3 or 4 places to the right, got my normal faded blue cap on.

 

Not surprised. To be honest I found it okay with the fans, just the lack of 90 minutes of football once again that wasn't!

 

Glad to have caught you on camera. Remember you can save the photo for your use.

 

Beyond unbelievable we couldn’t keep a clean sheet for first five minutes even

 

At least I spotted you with the descriptions.

 

Yes the game was dead and buried within two minutes!

 

Heidi the annoying thing for me was Rodrigo came out straight away and apologised, he said we let the fans down. Harrison said on camera we were not good enough and let the fans down. 2 days later Cooper makes a statement, after 3 days Radz makes a statement. The rest of them are in hiding, oh sorry Koch apologised, Kristensen and even said he was staying. Adams appologised after 3 or 4 days. Think the fans have had enough of this shower of cowards

 

The delay was caused by the company managing their social media accounts weren’t back to work till Tuesday. Monday was a bank holiday remebery

 

Cheers Heidi, I've met you a few times in the Peacock and you took a few photos of the Irish supporters at not606 meetups. Hope you're getting better.

 

Nearly behaving myself

 

Did you make the sunday flight?

 

It's an absolute mess behind the scenes but with what has come out since, I'm sure there is a lot more to come sadly.