WEST BROMWICH, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 11: Karlan Grant of West Bromwich Albion celebrates scoring his team's second goal during the Sky Bet Championship match between West Bromwich Albion FC and Coventry City FC at The Hawthorns on December 11, 2024 in West Bromwich, England. (Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
Mowbray: Leeds will go up but they need £200m to stay up..
Leeds United are still expected to cruise to promotion according to West Brom boss Tony Mowbray, but to avoid an immediate relegation, they might need £200million in new signings.
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The Whites remain in the driving seat for automatic promotion and the Championship title after their 1-1 draw with West Brom, now unbeaten in 17 and looking for a strong end to the season.
While no seasoned Leeds fan will confidently boast the prospect of promotion, most outside the club are already expecting Daniel Farke’s side to be returning to the top flight when this season is over.
Tony Mowbray: Leeds need £200m to stay up next season
(Photo by Adam Fradgley/West Bromwich Albion FC via Getty Images)
West Brom boss Tony Mowbray will have no doubt been delighted with how his side fared against the league leaders, going toe-to-toe and looking the better side for good portions of the game.
He’s under no illusions though that Leeds are getting promoted regardless of what happened on Saturday afternoon, saying this (via Birmingham Live):
“[Leeds] are very, very good. I’m sure in my mind they are going up.”
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The task for Leeds, then, if they are to be in the Premier League, is how they buck the trend of promoted sides going straight back down: Southampton, Leicester City and Ipswich Town this season look set to join last season’s Sheffield United, Burnley and Luton Town in immediate relegation from the top flight.
Mowbray believes the only tonic is big spending, as he continued:
“I think for this football club it’s about what they do in the summer. I had a chat with Daniel, how much are they going to spend? How are they going to survive?
“Southampton and Leicester were amazing teams last year in this league and they can’t win a game. So is that going to be Leeds next year?
“There’s always this thing at the back of your mind – ‘what are we going to do in the summer?’ Are Leeds going to spend £200 million just to give themselves half a chance?
“Or are they going to go with this team and probably get relegated by February? I don’t know the answers.”
The gap isn’t too big between EFL and PL, the quality of recruitment and coaching is
The fact that the three promoted sides look to be going down again this season does paint a grim picture of how tough it is to stay in the top flight.
However, it avoids the glaring context that all six teams mentioned above that have climbed into the Premier League have recruited largely woefully, while coaching themselves to oblivion too.
Sheffield United lost their two best players in that summer and didn’t replace, Burnley played a style that was just never going to work, Luton recruited awfully, Leicester lost their manager and haven’t recruited well at all, Southampton recruited poorly and had a play-style also just asking for relegation, and Ipswich are the closest to staying up because they’ve thrown the chequebook at it with a very good coach.
The blueprint is there from Fulham, Nottingham Forest, and Bournemouth not only with their coaches’ high-intensity style, but also in how they sign players to bridge the gap in the top flight.
