The story of an upwardly mobile exemplar of innovation disintegrating into a bitter caricature of the very aspects his haters used to mock, as a result of his own egotism and hubris, makes Sam Allardyce the obvious candidate to be Leeds United manager through the month of May 2023.
After promotion, Leeds United became a club caught waiting for someone to decide its direction, unable to get beyond the next crisis. And out in front was Victor Orta.
Javi Gracia says football is not about miracles, but miracles still have a better rep in some boardrooms than science, because so many are attempted each season that a few will come off and make the idea, of miracles, stay tempting.
When Leeds lose a vital match this way there’s nothing new to say that hasn’t already been said. That, pals, is purgatory. At least, by definition, it’s temporary.
If focusing on the game is the excuse, then next time I suggest we get a full children’s choir down there and force the squad to join them in a rendition of Ilkley Moor Baht’at, because focusing on the game isn’t doing them any damn good.
There is more than one way to get promotion from the Championship — there has to be, because there is only one Bielsa.
The players need to remember who they are and how they got here, because that wasn’t easy and neither is this.
Wilf, if you’re reading this, blink once for ‘ankle still hurts’, blink twice for ‘this weirdo hates me’.
This season was supposed to be his season, which is why Joffy’s cherubic face is still all over the adverts on the club shop at Elland Road. Instead he’s become another exhibit in the case against Leeds United’s mismanaged squad.
The people to blame can fire someone then hire someone else then move blithely on, in the background when they choose to be, or the foreground when they choose to be, until they sell and take the profit and leave.