Sam Allardyce admitted it is a ‘sad day for the club’ after Leeds’ three-season stay in the Premier League was ended after a 4-1 home defeat to Tottenham confirmed their relegation.
Harry Kane and Pedro Porro scored early in either half to put Spurs 2-0 up and, although Jack Harrison reduced the deficit, Kane struck a game-clinching second in what could be his last game for the London club.
Tottenham substitute Lucas Moura rubbed salt into Leeds’ wounds by waltzing through a porous defence in stoppage time to complete their misery.
Sam Allardyce said on BT Sport: “It’s professional suicide. You prepare for a game, you get the players down here, put in some tactics, you look at the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses and then try to play the game as best you can.
“But when you do what you do in the game, football in those moments, the errors are huge errors and Harry Kane is going to take full advantage. We messed up again. We tried to find our way back and then we mess up again in a big way.
“Our response to going 1-0 down was very good but unfortunately with a huge amount of attempts, I think we had 20 or 21, only two were on target and that probably says it all for Leeds this season…You want to go out with some pride but unfortunately I didn’t see that sadly.”
Allardyce added: “It’s very sad for the club getting relegated after working so hard to get back in the Premier League for so long. The rebuild has to be something that is particularly well planned by everybody for next season.”
Asked if he wanted to be part of that, Allardyce said: “I don’t know. One, do they still want me? Two, what is the outlook of the club going to look like? What is the strategy both on and off the field? What do you want to do?
“That’s a pretty big strategy to put in place. It’s a pretty big document that has to be talked about and laid down to try and go in the right direction for next season. If that’s all going in the right direction for me and for the board then we’ll see.”
Jack Harrison said: “It’s tough what’s going through my mind at the minute. We knew as a team what was on the line, we tried to give our best.
“The intensity and the aggressiveness required in the game was not our downfall, we always bring that, it was just some small details but it’s disappointing. We just have to look for the future.
“(Pressure) is always part of the game, it’s up to you as individuals to deal with that. If you come together and build that camaraderie you deal with it together but it just wasn’t enough today.”
Asked if too many managers had a negative impact, Harrison added: “I’m not the one for that, that’s for the people that make the decisions up top. As players, we have to crack on and do our best on the pitch.
“We are out there playing the game, we have to do our best and get on with it regardless. As players that’s all we can do.”
