15 Leeds United fans tell the story of relegation: ‘Sell the club & f*ck off home’
Leeds United are back in the Championship after three years in the Premier League. The club have been relegated after a humbling final day 4-1 defeat at home to Tottenham.
The damage had already been done for Leeds, who would’ve been down regardless of what they did at Elland Road as relegation rivals Leicester City – who also went down – and Everton won their matches against West Ham and Bournemouth respectively.
Sam Allardyce failed in his job as a firefighter, failing to turn the team’s form around and only leading them to one point from four matches in charge. Leeds went down with a whimper in the end, ending up five points adrift of safety on 31 points, having taken just two points from their last eight outings.
“This year, in my opinion, we’ve done a great job in the market and we have a very competitive team”, Leeds chairman Andrea Radrizzani told The Athletic last summer – comments that have since come back to bite him.
“The target I set is between 10th to 14th position. If we’re lucky, we are close to 10th or more. If we aren’t lucky, we are 15th. But I think we are in that range.
“I don’t want to have any more heart-attack risk. I don’t have any doubt that we’ll avoid a situation similar to last season. It’s impossible.”
It’s a big summer ahead for Leeds, with lots of uncertainty. There’s ambiguity over who will be running the club, with a takeover by the San Francisco 49ers yet to be fully completed and Radrizzani currently in the process of buying Italian club Sampdoria.
There’s also no director of football following the dismissal of Victor Orta earlier this month, while it also remains to be seen who will be in the dugout next season with it looking incredibly unlikely that Allardyce will remain in his post.
Here are 15 Leeds fans that tell the story of where exactly things have gone wrong this season.
LANDMARK: Leeds have finished a single league campaign with just 31 points, the club’s lowest points total since 1946/47 (18). #LUFC pic.twitter.com/WG52mRyiQm
— LUFCDATA (@LUFCDATA) May 28, 2023
'Sell the club and fuck off home' the chant now.
Radrizzani not here to hear it in person. #lufc
— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) May 28, 2023
One silver lining from today is that surely whoever comes in can’t countenance employing Allardyce next season. Genuinely awful approach to a must win match against a relatively middling opponent, subs far too late & absolutely dismal to watch too. #lufc
— 𝕋𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕪 (@tommy_lufc) May 28, 2023
Impossible: achieved ✅ @andrearadri
— The Square Ball (@TheSquareBall) May 28, 2023
They’ve got to act NOW.
Board changeover,
Manager in.PLAN, IDEA, IDENTITY! #LUFC
— Conor McGilligan (@ConorMcGilligxn) May 28, 2023
What’s frustrating about this relegation is that it was so predictable and avoidable but the hubris and ego of the board meant they couldn’t see it. It was “impossible”. Yes, individual players let us down at times but the only people to blame are people at the top. They must go.
— Andrew Haigh (@AndrewHaigh) May 28, 2023
Please stop saying Allardyce didn’t have enough time. He has made Leeds worse which is some effort. #lufc #yousackedbielsa
— rick broadbent (@ricktimes) May 28, 2023
Obviously the post-mortems will go on long into the night & there’s been a veritable cavalcade of mistakes/misfortunes for months on end now but losing Phillips & Raphinha, then being without their ostensive replacements for much of the season hasn’t helped matters. #lufc
— 𝕋𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕪 (@tommy_lufc) May 28, 2023
Every Leeds fan will agree we absolutely deserved to go down. Owners of the club tell us it’s impossible to go down, stick with Marsch too long, sign experimental players in January, missing open goals and penalties. A shambles and the team are just not good enough
— LUFC Worldwide ⚪️ (@LUFC_WorldWide) May 28, 2023
I’m glad that we’d have been down regardless and I’m glad they never even got a sniff at survival because they don’t deserve it. #LUFC
— Lewis Deighton (@LewisDeighton17) May 28, 2023
Another pathetic performance, like the previous 37. I don’t blame the players. The squad hasn’t been supported by the owners. They won the lottery with Bielsa and just spunked all the winnings away. Amateur owners #lufc
— Nick Burns (@NickBurns1983) May 28, 2023
Honestly, what’s there to hang to here? What are the building blocks for next season? What is the identity we want to preserve? We’ve been totally hollowed out this season… on the pitch, in the dugout, in the boardroom. An absolute wreckage of a club. #lufc
— EastStandUpper (@EastStandUpper) May 28, 2023
Deserved to go down, we were not good enough. Bought badly, appointed poor managers, and never addressed the obvious weaknesses in the team.
Thanks for giving us a taste of the Premier League Bielsa, we adore you, and we will be back again. Mot 💙 #lufc pic.twitter.com/QeHoU3QVS7— Gary Fleming (@garyfleming7) May 28, 2023
Deserved that. Fitting end to the season. Fuck off.
— Michael Normanton (@Michael_TSB) May 28, 2023
READ NEXT: ‘F*ck it, I’m getting stuck in’: An oral history of Leeds 2-1 Bristol Rovers, 2010
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every Leeds United manager since relegation from the PL?