I won the Golden Boot with Leeds United - fans should be confident they can buck 6-team Premier League trend
Championship promotion would set Leeds United up for an even more difficult task next season.
Former striker Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink expects Leeds United to be back in the Premier League next season where they will put up a good fight to survive.
Leeds have eight games left to decide their fate with two of themselves, Sheffield United and Burnley set for automatic promotion while one will face the play-offs. Daniel Farke’s side are well-placed to avoid the latter, with a point at QPR leaving them top of the Championship during the March international break, with a more preferable run of fixtures to come on paper.
Should Leeds hold their nerve, then focus will quickly turn to next season and the increasingly difficult task of remaining in the Premier League. The trio who pipped Farke’s side last year are virtually nailed on to go back down, with play-off final victors Southampton potentially set to break Derby County’s lowest ever points tally of 11.
Leeds United’s Premier League survival chances rated
Leicester and Ipswich Town have both found life incredibly hard as well, and if all three do drop then it would mean every newly-promoted team facing instant relegation for the second consecutive year. But Hasselbaink, who spent two seasons at Premier League Leeds, winning the Golden Boot in 1998/99, expects his former side to put up more of a fight.
“They will get it over the line,” former Elland Road frontman Hasselbaink told Gambling Zone. “They drew against QPR, but I've got all the confidence that they will get it over the line. Leeds are one of those clubs that hold a special place in English football. We know that the Premier League will be a richer place with them in it.
“Because of the size of the club and the way that it’s run with the new owners, if you’re a Leeds fan you would be pretty confident that they could put up a very good fight in terms of staying in the division. After what happened last season, the agony of the play-offs, I expect them and Daniel Farke to have learned from that experience, while also using it as motivation to ensure that come May, Leeds are celebrating returning to the promised land of the Premier League.”
How Leeds can survive in the Premier League
Focus inside Elland Road at present is purely on the Saturday’s meeting with Swansea and then each of the seven Championship games to follow. Survival plans will carry little weight if Leeds are not promoted first, and few would welcome the chaos of play-off football, meaning a top-two finish is the absolute goal.
Should that goal be achieved, Leeds will be set for a busy and expensive summer, with 49ers Enterprises keen to avoid the mistakes of previous owners in missing the target on recruitment. Their hit-rate in two summer windows so far has been impressive, but the task is significantly harder a level up.
Key areas Leeds will likely look at are upfront - Patrick Bamford will be 32 in September and has availability issues while Joel Piroe and Mateo Joseph are untried at the top level - and attacking midfield, a position Farke has been keen to strengthen for some time. Left-back may also become a priority if Junior Firpo plays out his contract, while Illan Meslier’s problems throughout the campaign have fuelled debate over a new goalkeeper.
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