Leeds United survival makes Tim Sherwood eat his words over ‘huge’ decision
After a very tense season-long battle, Leeds United finally secured their survival in the Premier League on the final day of the season.
Jack Harrison’s stoppage-time goal will go down in the club’s folklore as a standout moment as a 2-1 win at Brentford proved enough to see Jesse Marsch’s side leapfrog Burnley when it mattered most.
Tim Sherwood was unconvinced by the 48-year-old American when he arrived in Yorkshire but he had to admit that he was wrong once the Whites secured their top-flight status.
“For Leeds, I had a huge question mark over that,” he told Premier League Productions, as quoted by Leeds Live. “I was thinking ‘Bielsa is loved there, no matter what you do, whoever you bring in, you are going to have an uphill task in winning over the fans and keeping you in the league’.
“But they were dropping like a stone, so, as an owner, you have to make a really hard decision and you have to say, it has paid off. That’s a huge decision to make. You can hear all the Leeds fans.
“Burnley were in the driving seat before the start and you could hear the fans saying ‘Bielsa would have kept us up’. The only way he could win Jesse Marsch was to keep them in the league. And they have done it. It must be a relief for him and the fans.”
Look forward
2021-22 was a scary season for us and one that we do not want to have to go through anytime soon so everything has to now be focused towards next season.
Marsch looks to be closing in on his first signing as Leeds manager already with RB Salzburg’s Brenden Aaronson potentially heading to Elland Road after Bielsa’s failed attempt in January.
That will only be the first of a wave of new faces that will walk through the door at Thorp Arch and you could easily see a handful go the other way with Kalvin Phillips and Raphinha the main names touted for an exit.
It is no secret that this squad has been built in Bielsa’s image but he is no longer the man at the helm so Marsch needs to be given the opportunity to put his own stamp on things and that might mean plenty of upheaval but it will all be for the better of the football club in the long term.
In other Leeds United news, Hibernian have swooped to poach one of the Whiites’ talented young players on a free transfer.