Good Morning. It's Monday 27th May, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...
Doomed Leeds miss out againThey'll be no fairy-tale return to the big time for Leeds Utd, after suffering excruciating Play-Off final agony for an unprecedented fourth time, at the hands of Southampton!
We were promised fireworks but had to make do with sparklers, as Leeds proved once again they were not up for the big occasion! Adam Armstrong's 24th minute strike (his fourth against Farke's men this season) was all that separated the two teams in the end; yet apart from a moment of magic from Dan James, there was very little to get excited about from the men in white.
There was little to choose between the two sides, but after going behind, the confidence got sucked out of Leeds, and there seemed to be an inevitability that things were not going to end well.
Where did it go wrongPromotion was always going to be a tall order after losing so many players last Summer. Farke did incredibly well to assemble the team he did, in such a short amount of time, but we were always going to have to strengthen in January, to stand a hope of Promotion
As a club, Leeds don't learn by their mistakes. Last season, they failed to prepare for the Championship, and this campaign, after getting themselves into a fantastic position, didn't finish the job, deciding instead to gamble with the same 15 players, hoping they would have enough in the tank to crawl over the finishing line!
Winning three of our last eleven games is where it all went wrong, and Leeds have paid the ultimate price. You look at both line-ups yesterday, and can't help thinking that Southampton got it spot-on with their loanees.
Flynn Downes, Taylor Harwood Bellis, Ryan Fraser, David Brooks, and Mason Holgate (traded in for Joe Rothwell in January) made a massive difference to the Saints squad this season. According to Daniel Farke, Southampton were 1% better yesterday. Perhaps if we had used the loan system properly, it would have been a different story yesterday!
The cost of failure could run up to £150mDaniel Farke will face the most difficult challenge of his Managerial career next season, should he decide to stay at Elland Road. Depending on which source you believe, Leeds will need to find £100m - £150m in player sales to keep themselves above water. Undoubtedly, this will mean losing the likes of Archie Gray, Georginio Rutter, Wilfred Gnonto, Crysencio Summerville and Ethan Ampadu.
Their task is made all the harder by the news that the deserters who fled Elland Road last Summer, can spend another season out on loan, running down their contracts, without so much as a loan fee in many of the cases. Of course, Leeds have the option to sell the likes of Roca, Wober and Harrison but they'll not be in a position of strength at the negotiating table.
All in all, If this were a computer game, even the most sadistic among us would be reaching for the reset button!
