Sam Allardyce was brought in to help and save Leeds United from relegation
Sam Allardyce was brought in to Leeds United to save the team from being relegated, but he had to apologize to the fans after they were relegated on Sunday. He stated that the team did not have the same level of skill and depth as the top teams.
Despite losing 4-1 to Tottenham Hotspur at home, a win would not have been enough as Everton, who were also fighting relegation, won 1-0 against Bournemouth to stay in the league.
The team from Yorkshire ended up in second-to-last place, with a difference of five points from the area of safety and a lead of six points over Southampton.
“It’s really sad Leeds are in this position and to the fans I apologise that I didn’t do better and the players didn’t do better and try and win at least two out of the four games and give ourselves a better opportunity to stay in the Premier League,” Allardyce said referring to his matches in charge.
He told BT Sport the relegation was “professional suicide.”
Spurs dominated Leeds with two goals from Harry Kane, and the Elland Road audience responded with a combination of negative and subdued reactions at the end of a disappointing season.
“Most of it comes down to how good are your players?” added Allardyce. “These players have tried very hard and I can’t fault their effort but as a squad, they haven’t been good enough by the fact that they’re in the bottom three in the Premier League.”
“And I would have loved it if I could have got a little bit more out of them, so I take responsibility for that.”
The fourth manager of Leeds this season, 68-year-old Allardyce, made a surprising comeback to the game on May 3rd after a two-year break. He confidently claimed that he was as good as Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, and Mikel Arteta. However, Leeds only managed to earn one point in the four games he managed.
“It’s tough our world when things start failing and when they start failing and confidence starts going it’s very difficult to claw it back,” he said.
“You have to just put that behind you and come back and be more determined in terms of what you’re going to achieve next year in terms of how to get out of the Championship.”
Asked if he will make a pitch for the manager’s job for next season, Allardyce said there will be discussions next week “when we get over the disappointment of getting relegated.”
“The last thing I wanted was to be the man who took Leeds United down. I tried all we possibly could try to get the players to get better results.”
Having quality players, Allardyce said, was all about recruitment “…because better players and more intelligent players make you a better coach, make everybody at the club better, make it a happy club going forward.”
The manager, who has had many different coaching positions, was questioned about why he chose to include six defenders in the lineup for Sunday’s match, as a win is crucial for their team to avoid being relegated.
“Why do you think that was?” Allardyce snapped. “See, you don’t need to be a head coach or anything like that to understand the need for a clean sheet. Because we had conceded 74 goals.”
“I’m sorry for getting a bit touchy,” he added, “but it is a bad day for me.”
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