Fans of relegated Leeds have been let down by baffling boardroom decisions
The Guardian As kick-off approached the strains of Dont You Forget About Me by Simple Minds drifted over the sound system. Maybe it was the acoustics, but the lyrics sounded particularly plaintive.
By the final whistle no song would have been sufficiently forlorn to match the mood as wholesale boos signalled that Leeds had just experienced footballs equivalent of stepping off the edge of the world.
After winning only seven Premier League games all season, fewer than any other team, and conceding 78 goals, more than anyone else, Sam Allardyces side had been erased from the topflight map.
Leeds go down with a whimper as Tottenham miss Europe despite win
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Results elsewhere dictated that even if Leeds had won they would have ended up in the Championship but a 4-1 defeat by a Tottenham side whose underachievement is such they have failed to qualify for Europe exacerbated the anguish.
It also confirmed that Allardyces experiment with a back five had failed. There is a strong argument that his two managerial predecessors this season Jesse Marsch and Javi Gracia should have implemented a defensive quintet much earlier but when, with barely a minute gone, Son Heung-min squared for an unmarked Harry Kane to score with characteristic incision Allardyces system suffered a major malfunction.
