GET ON UP
Not content with prompting scenes of unbridled jubilation at Turf Moor by securing promotion to the Premier League after a one-year absence, Burnley’s win over Sheffield United also sparked similar, if less densely populated scenes of elation across t’Pennines in yonder Leeds. Sporting shades and busting the kind of moves you don’t often see in the formal surrounds of Elland Road’s Lorimer Suite, Largie Ramazani was still dressed in full kit almost three hours after the 6-0 slaughter of Stoke. He was also the conspicuous life and soul of a party in which his teammates could be seen whooping, hollering and popping champagne corks safe in the knowledge that Burnley’s blunting of the Blades confirmed they’d be returning to the top tier too. Inside one ground and outside another, the euphoria of players and fans of both teams knew no bounds.
And why would it? Having booked their places in next season’s Premier League, both clubs can now look forward to being installed as white-hot favourites to go straight back down again, while angrily dismissing the naysayers and coming up with a plan to help ensure they are not quite as bad as West Ham and two other teams. While Football Daily is prepared to concede that pouring buckets of ice-cold water over the respective parades of Burnley and Leeds fans less than a day after their teams have won promotion may smack of bah humbug curmudgeonliness, now the empty fizz bottles have been consigned to the recycling bins and the celebratory smoke bombs have dissipated, plenty of shrewdies in Burnley and Leeds will be examining the quite frankly dismal top-flight records of their respective managers and thinking the same. Whether or not those in the Turf Moor and Elland Road boardrooms are among them and heartless enough to pull the trigger sooner rather than later remains to be seen.
Following Sheffield United’s poorly-timed late season wobble, Chris Wilder’s hopes of returning to his lofty status – as a Premier League manager in front of whom post-match sandwich-eating by match officials is frowned upon – are now pinned on the playoffs, where Sunderland are also guaranteed a spot. With just a couple of games to go, the other two places are currently occupied by Liam Manning’s Bristol City and Coventry, while Michael Carrick’s Middlesbrough and Alex Neil’s Millwall are also knocking on the door. At the bottom end of the table it’s also still all to play for, with four of the bottom six winning on Monday, among them the long-term basement-dwellers Plymouth doing a dogged impersonation of a floater that refuses to flush. Meanwhile in what some would have you believe is The Best League In The World™, the excitable babble is all about who will come fifth.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
I think I showed I could do it [on a cold, rainy night in Stoke] many times. It was very windy there and the fans were always behind us – it was a loud stadium” – Xherdan Shaqiri reckons he is living proof that tricky little flair players can deal with the often grim conditions that come with playing football on top of a hill in north Staffordshire.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
The unbridled joy of promotions for Leeds, Burnley and probably Sheffield United before their inevitable relegations this time next year leads me to conclude we need a new competition. We could call it the Parachute League. Get relegated from the Premier League and you go into this with your shed-load of money along with the top three in the Championship. So Leeds, Burnley, Sheffield United, Southampton, Ipswich, Leicester could play each other for ever with perhaps Norwich and West Brom added for good measure. This would save the rest of us having to watch them getting hammered each week, and would make the Championship fairer for the rest who don’t get money for failure. We need to add to this a new individual award. We could call it the Mourinho Cup. It would be awarded to the manager making the most excuses not involving himself in a season. Previous winners would have included Chris Wilder, Chris Wilder and, er, Chris Wilder. A special award for anyone who makes an original excuse but there wouldn’t have been any winners of that over the last couple of seasons” – Jonathan Harris.
Of course, the great thing about this ‘Back where we belong’ quote is that both Leeds and Burnley will be able to use it at this time next season too” – Noble Francis.
In the comments section of Big Website the other day, someone (sorry, I can’t find the line) suggested that both Manchester United and Spurs would find a way to get to the Bigger Vase final, and then both would find a way to lose. They might be right” – Colum Farrelly.
Send letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s letter o’ the day winner is … Jonathan Harris, who wins a copy of The Scouting Game, by Chris Robinson and courtesy of Pitch Publishing. Visit their bookshop here. Terms and conditions for our competitions can be viewed here.
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