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Speaking on the Inside Elland Road podcast, prominent Leeds United pundit Phil Hay has given his verdict on what the future holds for manager Marcelo Bielsa and owner Andrea Radrizzani at Elland Road.

What he said

In a Q&A section of the aforementioned podcast, Hay was asked by a fan whether he thought Bielsa and Radrizzani would stick with the Whites if they fail to achieve promotion to the Premier League this season.

On the subject of the Argentine coach’s future, Hay said: “I don’t think Bielsa would stay for another year in the Championship. If it [promotion] doesn’t happen I can’t see him being here next season.”

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As for Italian majority owner Radrizzani, he said: “he consistently says he has a limited shelf life in the Championship and doesn’t want to lose a fortune…He’s always been fairly honest about that and I’ve had the gut feeling that it wouldn’t be a long stint here if Leeds didn’t make it to the Premier League…it’s a fair assumption that he could leave.”

A matter of urgency

Promotion to the top flight is still very much on the agenda for Leeds this season. They are in the thick of the Championship title race, along with Norwich City and Sheffield United. Leeds have also led the division for much of this campaign.

Falling short of promotion this season would be hard to take for fans. However, the loss of Bielsa as a result would arguably constitute an even greater disappointment.

Since his appointment in the summer, the 63-year-old has utterly transformed the Yorkshire club. Having made relatively few signings, he has taken a squad that finished 13th last season and turned them into title contenders who play scintillating football and give chances to promising youth academy prospects.

If Hay’s instincts that Leeds would lose Bielsa and Radrizzani if they missed out on promotion are correct, then the need to secure a return to the top flight this season becomes more urgent than ever.

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Leeds United produced a scintillating performance on Friday night to utterly outclass fellow Championship promotion chasers West Brom at Elland Road. The Whites deservedly won by a 4-0 scoreline, secured with goals from Pablo Hernandez, Patrick Bamford who netted twice, and Ezgjan Alioski.

Alioski’s goal came late, in injury time, and was a deserved reward for his all round performance. The 27-year-old left-back worked relentlessly hard all night for Marcelo Bielsa’s side. He constantly harried, pressed and chased his opponents, winning tackles and breaking up play. He also got forward at every opportunity and was a persistent threat to the Baggies’ defence.

The goals took the 25-cap Macedonia international’s tally for the season to seven, and he has also racked up five assists, as per Transfermarkt’s stats. 

Leeds fans were delighted with the performance the No. 10 produced on Friday. After the match, many supporters took to Twitter to praise Alioski for his tireless display…

[ad_pod ]Rangers have suffered an injury setback ahead of Friday night’s clash at Easter Road, as Gareth McAuley has picked up a fresh hamstring concern.

What’s the word?

McAuley has featured just ten times in all competitions this season, next to nothing considering the Gers have had four trophies to fight for.

The Northern Ireland international was brought to the club after the summer window ended last season, signing as a free agent as Steven Gerrard bid to strengthen his defensive ranks.

After missing the early part of his first term at Ibrox with a calf problem, the defender is now nursing a hamstring injury, Steven Gerrard confirmed at his press conference on Thursday, and the boss even added that it is a “new issueâ€.

What’s the verdict?

Put simply, this was a pointless signing by Gerrard.

The 39 year-old was supposed to be at Ibrox to provide depth, yet missed most of the first part of the season through injury, and at his age it is no surprise to see him pick up another muscle problem.

Gerrard brought in some quality additions in his first summer window, but signing a then-38 year-old to improve depth is pretty foolish, as older players are far more inclined to struggle with fitness and muscle injuries, just as McAuley has done.

The boss already had an impressive pairing in Nikola Katic and Connor Goldson before he signed the veteran, though the former has since been replaced by Joe Worrall, and the capture of McAuley now looks like one of Gerrard’s earliest managerial blunders.

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Sheffield United’s automatic promotion hopes received a setback on Monday night as they could only manage a goalless draw against bitter local rivals Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough. Despite this result meaning that the Blades missed out on a chance to leapfrog Leeds United into the top two, Chris Wilder’s side remain very much in the hunt to go up.

With 11 games left to go in the Championship campaign, there’s still plenty of football left to be played. However, Blades defender Chris Basham still expects the promotion fight to go down to the wire.

What he said

As quoted by the Yorkshire Evening Post, the 30-year-old said: “Everybody is stepping up to the plate. I think it’s going to go quite far to the end.”

Leeds and Norwich City are currently the Blades’ main challengers for promotion. Sheffield United travel to Elland Road on Saturday March 16th in what could be a season-defining clash for both clubs.

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Looking ahead to this fixture, Basham said: “No-one is going to win every game. If they do, fair play to them, they deserve to go up, but I don’t think everyone will. We’ve still got to go to Leeds yet and, hopefully, we can go there and beat them.”

Whilst Wilder’s side currently trail the Whites and the Canaries, Basham believes his team has what it takes to triumph.

“We’re in a really good position for this group of players and the budget we’ve got and every player is an outstanding one in the dressing room. That’s why they’ve mucked in so well.”

Strength in numbers

It’s highly likely that the title and automatic promotion race will remain a point of intrigue, and delicately poised, until near the end of the campaign. 

Basham is also correct to highlight the Blades’ strengths, which include having strength in depth. This is especially true in attacking areas, where having the likes of Billy Sharp, David McGoldrick, Gary Madine and Scott Hogan all to call on should ensure that they have enough firepower to keep them amongst the goals for the rest of the season.

It is vital, as Basham says, that there’s a good dressing room atmosphere at Bramall Lane, so that the squad players will be engaged and ready to step up to the plate if called upon in the run-in.

Aston Villa continued their season revival with a 1-0 win at rivals Birmingham City in the Championship today.

In a game overshadowed by a nasty incident involving a pitch invading fan and Jack Grealish, it would be the Villa midfielder who would have the last laugh as he slotted in the winner with 20 minutes to play to send Dean Smith’s men home happy.

Indeed, the performance of Grealish and ability to recover from what was a shocking incident, proved just why he is one of the best – if not the best – players in the second tier.

A mature head was needed from Grealish, who seems to relishing in his role as Villa skipper, and we got just that from Villa’s number 10 in what was an assured, confident, and classy display at St Andrews.

It begs the question of what might have been for Villa this season has he not missed a big chunk of the campaign with injury, and his timely return to form and fitness could see Villa land a play-off spot in the end anyway.

It’s unlikely Grealish will stay put in the Championship for long if Villa aren’t promoted soon, and Premier League clubs will have been super impressed with him today.

While Villa will be looking to keep hold of their star man, he showed today just why he is so coveted by club’s in the upper echelons of the footballing world.

With 190 Premier League appearances to his name, Gary Cahill is sure to go down as one of the best defenders of his generation having won everything there is to win at club level.

The Derbyshire-born player took the first steps to his footballing dream by signing at the age of 15 for Aston Villa where he would represent the club’s youth teams for a further four years.

Despite impressing as a teenager for the Lions, he was loaned out to Burnley in order to gain some first team experience. 32 games later and now a fully-established central defender, Cahill would mark his return to Villa Park with arguably the stand-out moment of his career for the club.

With the score locked at 1-1 during a Premier League clash against arch-rivals Birmingham City in 2006, Cahill produced a spectacular overhead kick finish to put his side ahead and send the home supporters crazy. The sublime technique displayed would have been more suited to that of a striker rather than a defender yet it showed just how much talent that he had at his disposal.

Nevertheless, after sanctioning yet another loan move to the Championship in 2007, Villa decided to let Cahill leave on a permanent deal at the turn of the year, selling him to Bolton Wanderers. In hindsight, Villa supporters must have seen this is a huge mistake as throughout his five year stay with the Trotters, the defender proved to be very consistent and reliable.

A number of outstanding performances during the 2011/12 campaign attracted the interest of Chelsea who agreed a fee believed to be in the region of just £7m for Cahill (via the BBC). The former Villa man’s career then skyrocketed as he was part of a squad which won both the FA Cup and the Champions League with the latter seeing him produce arguably the greatest ever performance of his career to date in the final.

Despite going into the game against Bayern Munich as underdogs at the Allianz Arena, Chelsea prevailed via a penalty-shootout after a dogged defensive display led by Cahill and fellow central defender David Luiz. In a match which was dominated by Die Roten, it was quite simply incredible just how the Blues managed to come out victorious, especially when you consider that they were managed by the vastly inexperienced Roberto Di Matteo.

Following this achievement, Cahill played an integral part in winning the Europa League in 2013 before going on to claim the second double of his career two years later, winning both the League Cup and the Premier League under then-boss Jose Mourinho.

After a change in the way that Chelsea set-up in 2016 by Antonio Conte, the England international was almost faultless in the side’s barnstorming run to the title, producing an incredible level of consistency.

Cahill would later captain the Blues to his first ever FA Cup final in 2018 where an Eden Hazard penalty secured a 1-0 victory for the club. However, since this triumph, the defender has been left out of Maurizio Sarri’s plans for the future and has only featured sporadically during the 2018/19 campaign.

At the age of 33, Cahill undoubtedly has at least two or three more campaigns to play before he calls time on his distinguished career and maybe, just maybe this could happen where it all began, with Villa.

Regardless of what division the Lions find themselves in next season, the acquisition of a former Champions League winner would clearly bolster the club’s squad and bring much-needed experience to their back line.

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Arsenal are confident that Aaron Ramsey will be fit to play against Newcastle United after an injury scare on international duty, per the London Evening Standard.

The Gunners star sustained a thigh injury in Wales training, leaving him absent from his side’s Euro 2020 qualifier against Slovakia.

What’s the word?

Ramsey withdrew from Ryan Giggs’ squad before their 1-0 win over Slovakia on Saturday.

The report claims that the midfielder has already returned to his club for treatment and could be fit to feature against the Magpies.

Arsenal are hopeful that he has merely sustained tightness in his thigh instead of a tear or a strain.

Unai Emery’s men face the Magpies on Monday evening and are currently in Dubai for warm-weather training.

They face Al-Nasr in a friendly on Tuesday but Ramsey will certainly be absent from that game.

A timely boost

Ramsey has been in exceptional form for Arsenal in recent weeks, reminding the club of his abilities ahead of his move to Juventus in the summer.

The 28-year-old has scored four goals and laid on eight assists in 2018-19 and may well be needed to down the Magpies.

Rafael Benitez’s men have lost just one of their last five outings, beating the likes of Everton and Burnley.

They sit seven points clear of the relegation zone and are mightily close to confirming their Premier League status for another campaign.

A win over Arsenal would be both a scalp and a major boost; Emery having Ramsey back helps to eliminate that possibility.

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Crystal Palace fans on Twitter have been busy discussing Scott Dann’s performance against Huddersfield, with the majority under the impression that the centre-back is not what he used to be – some have even suggested that he is finished at this level.

The former Blackburn man was making just his third Premier League start of the season in the absence of Mamadou Sakho, who looks set to miss the rest of the season.

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The 6 foot 2 defender himself had only just returned to full fitness towards the end of 2018 after suffering a serious injury of his own, and his time on the sidelines seems to have affected his game slightly.

The 32-year-old looks to have lost a yard of pace, and as a result, appears to be a weak link in the Eagles’ backline.

His passing also used to be one of his best features, but even that looked wayward against the Terriers, leading many Palace supporters on Twitter to criticise the Englishman…

[ad_pod ]Southampton’s gritted their teeth through a difficult clash with Brighton at the weekend but Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s second-half strike proved decisive as the Saints took three points away from the Amex Stadium.The Southampton skipper was quick to praise the man who assisted his goal though – Nathan Redmond – and commended his teammate’s resilience, spirit and quality after the hard-fought victory.

Indeed, the former Norwich man has had a far from straight-forward season but finally looks to be showing what he can do and is proving to be yet another example of a player who has come on leaps and bounds since Ralph Hasenhuttl took Mark Hughes’ place in December.

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Bursting forward before releasing Hojbjerg on Saturday, the former Norwich man showed exactly why he is in the starting XI – to bring pace and skill – while his captain finished the move with aplomb.

Redmond has been playing just off the front man in recent weeks – as opposed to out wide – and is proving far more effective in that role. Will the 5 ft 8 forward be able to keep it up for the rest of the season, though? Only time will tell.

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Leeds United’s hopes of securing a top-two finish in the Championship were harmed on Saturday when they suffered a 1-0 defeat at Birmingham City.

And the Leeds fans took to social media to criticise Ezgjan Alioski for his performance.

The 27-year-old was once again deployed in the left-back position, but picked up a booking during a disappointing 90 minutes on the field.

According to WhoScored, Alioski made three tackles and had a pass success rate of just 84% at St Andrew’s.

But there were a number of occasions where the Macedonia international wasted promising positions, which led to frustration amongst the Leeds fans.

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And a selection have taken to social media to criticise a player who has seven Championship goals to his name during the 2018-19 campaign.

Leeds are now in serious danger of having to go through the playoffs this term.

A selection of the Twitter reaction from the fans can be seen below: