Jamie O’Hara talks through ‘Brilliant’ Leeds & WBA promotion plan, admits ‘hard luck’ on Forest
Former Wolves midfielder Jamie O’Hara is a fan of seeing Leeds United and West Brom handed promotion into a 22-team Premier League.
Since the season was brought to a halt due to coronavirus, there have been a number of plans mooted for order in football to be restored.
One of those plans sees the Championship’s top-two being awarded automatic promotion with Liverpool being handed the Premier League title and no teams being relegated.
O’Hara admits it is harsh on clubs like Fulham and Nottingham Forest but he points out that Leeds and West Brom have been up there all season and deserve promotion most.
“Footballers are not guinea pigs,” O’Hara told talkSPORT on Thursday.
“You can’t expect footballers to come back to make everyone feel better and lift morale and all the bigwigs get the money because there are so many financial implications around the Premier League.
“It’s like ‘oh, we’ve got to get footballers back’. The health and safety of the players and everyone involved in the teams is paramount.
“For me, you can’t punish people, you can’t relegate people so I think you make Liverpool champions, you have no relegation, Leeds and West Brom come up and five go down the next season.
“Imagine a season with Leeds and West Brom in it and all the teams fighting again. It will be brilliant.
“It’s hard luck on teams like Fulham and Nottingham Forest who are in the play-offs but you weren’t there after 75 per cent of the season.
“Let them go up and then just don’t relegate the other teams.”
We both agree and disagree with O’Hara.
While we would love to see Leeds win promotion, no matter what, we need to look at this scenario without the white, blue and yellow-tinted specs.
Do Leeds fans really want to have their return to the Premier League tainted by accusations that it wasn’t a ‘real promotion’?
We want to go up by completing an entire Championship season and finishing either first or second.
It would be fairer to give Liverpool the title and Leeds and West Brom promotion than it would be to scrap the entire season but it would be fairer to complete the remaining matches.
In other Leeds United news, David Seaman has shared what he’s heard about Marcelo Bielsa at Thorp Arch.