Here are your Leeds United morning headlines for Monday, May 11.
Ian Harte remembers famous win at Arsenal
The 2002/03 season saw Leeds battling to remain in the Premier League. Terry Venables was in charge at the start of the campaign, before Peter Reid had to take over to try to prevent relegation.
He kept the Whites up with a spectacular win which came with one minor downside: it handed the title to Manchester United.
Leeds produced a stunning performance at Highbury to win 3-2 in their penultimate match, with goals from Harry Kewell, Ian Harte and Mark Viduka. Harte has been reminiscing about that famous victory from 17 years ago, in an interview with Football League World .
“I think if you look at the percentages, Arsenal would’ve had around 60-odd% possession,” he said.
“Yet, we went there, Peter Reid was the manager – we’d had so many managers that season which was a bit of a nightmare – but with Viduks (Viduka) and Harry up front, Jason Wilcox in front of me, Danny Mills, Gaz Kelly, Dom Matteo having to fill in the midfield, it was kind of a makeshift team and we knew how good Arsenal were, but we knew we had to win one of those last two games.
“It was an unbelievable team Arsenal had: Robert Pires, Thierry Henry, Sylvain Wiltord, it was unbelievable, but we knew we had to dig deep and try and get the result.”
Leeds won their final two fixtures to finish five points clear of relegation.
Boris Johnson provides update on football resuming
In Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s latest update on the coronavirus crisis, it was made clear that it is not yet time to fully remove the lockdown restrictions which have been in place since March 23.
This means it remains unclear as to when top level football will be able to resume, and with public gatherings ruled out until at least July, any sport which does occur before then will be done so behind closed doors.
The EFL is due to meet on Wednesday for further discussions on how to proceed, with reports that League One and League Two could be scrapped.
However, promotions and relegations are still expected to take place, and everyone connected with Leeds will be hoping that is true of the Championship too.
Larin move looking unlikely
Leeds look set to miss out on one of the forwards they were reportedly keen to sign.
The Whites’ director of football, Victor Orta, is said to be a long-term admirer of Cyle Larin. He tried to sign the striker while at Middlesbrough, and remains a fan.
However, Larin has told Turkish outlets he wants to become successful with Besiktas.
The 25-year old Canadian signed for them in 2018, but has spent this season on loan in Belgium with Zulte Waregem, scoring nine goals.
