You could hardly blame Everton, Leeds and Leicester City fans on Sunday if they followed the lead of Toffees winger Dwight McNeil.
With so much at stake in the fight for survival, McNeil decided to give a boost to last weekend’s televised games involving relegation rivals Everton. Instead, he watched Michael Jordan’s inspirational basketball documentary, The Last Dance.
“I love watching football. I usually watch any game but those two – I just couldn’t,” says McNeil. “I didn’t see Leeds on Sunday, I was out with my wife for the afternoon. Monday evening [Leicester at Newcastle]we decided to watch the movie and check the result afterwards.’
It worked well. Leeds lost at West Ham and Leicester managed just one point at St James’ Park. So the equations for the nerve-wracking final day are simple: Everton survive with a win over Bournemouth. Any other result and Leicester beat West Ham, then the Foxes remain standing.
If Everton lose, Leeds beat Tottenham and Leicester don’t win, then Leeds survive. If Everton draw and Leicester don’t win, Leeds will survive if they win by three clear goals.
Everton’s Dwight McNeil didn’t watch his relegation rivals on TV last weekend
“It was a relief to hear both scores because it’s in our hands now,” McNeil said. “We are at home with our fans behind us. We have to treat it like a normal game, but we know what’s at stake and the work that needs to be done.
As always on the last day, all matches start at the same time. Home fans can choose to change or go for a walk, but fans inside Goodison Park, Elland Road and King Power Stadium won’t have that luxury. A few, usually those who’ve discovered the stadium’s Wi-Fi password, or perhaps an old devotee with a wireless in their ear, will provide updates from other matches. .
Everything is online. Survive and you live to fight another season, or go down and face the implications of losing your best players as well as £100m a season.
For Everton and Leicester, this is a real concern. Everton are already facing a Premier League investigation over alleged Financial Fair Play breaches. They have suffered losses of £417.3m over the past four years. And they have a new stadium to pay for.
Everton are already facing a Premier League investigation over alleged Financial Fair Play breaches
It will be a tense day for supporters of clubs facing relegation
Leicester suffered losses of £92.5m last year with a wage bill of £182m. They also have a loan with Australian bank Macquarie secured against future Premier League television rights which, if they were to go down, will likely have to be repaid with parachute payments. Not to mention the fact that eight first-team players are out of contract this summer and Youri Tielemans and James Maddison are set to leave.
Leeds’ future, meanwhile, will affect their impending takeover. The American investment firm behind the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers intends to buy out current owner Andrea Radrizzani. If they remain standing, reports suggest their valuation of Leeds will be between £400-500m. If they go down, they are expected to only be willing to pay around £150m.
Can Leeds boss Sam Allardyce perform another miracle then? He held down Bolton, Blackburn, Crystal Palace, Sunderland and, indeed, Everton. His only relegation came in his previous job at West Brom.
Of all those great escapes, he believes this one, if Leeds can pull it off, would be his greatest.
“In terms of rescuing football clubs, keeping Leeds would be the best of the lot,” Allardyce said. “I’ve saved other football clubs in dire and desperate situations, but it’s always been with a lot more games and a lot more opportunities than that to put in place what you need to save them. Hopefully that we smile on Sunday and that we are hungover on Monday.
Sam Allardyce says keeping Leeds in place would be his greatest achievement in avoiding relegation
Dean Smith said it would be a proud day if Leicester managed to avoid relegation
Allardyce danced a jig on the pitch with Jay-Jay Okocha as Bolton beat Middlesbrough to survive on the final day of the 2002-03 season.
It remains an iconic image and Allardyce reckons 15-goal top scorer Rodrigo would be the perfect dance partner should his side somehow escape. Allardyce added: “I like Rodrigo as the best dancer – a ‘Big Sam Samba’ would be nice.”
Leicester boss Dean Smith was in charge at Villa when they took seven points in the final four games of the 2019-21 season to beat the drop. Villa’s fate was in their hands on the final day, but Leicester don’t have the same luxury. “It would be a very proud day if we did, but we have to win our game and rely on more results,” Smith said. “Each escape has its own merits, Villa’s with four games remaining was seven points. That in itself was a big ask, it’s been a big ask and hopefully we can do it.
