Watch (Relegation Agony): Leeds United and Leicester City drop from EPL
- by Mike Woitalla @MikeWoitalla, May 28, 2023
The teams relegated in the 2022-23 English Premier League season are:
Leeds United, which started the season with American Jesse Marsch at the helm, and includes three U.S. players: Tyler Adams, Brenden Aaronson and Weston McKennie. Englishman Jack Harrison, who scored of Leeds' lone goal in Sunday's 4-1 loss to Tottenham, played youth club, high school and college ball in the USA before starting his pro career in MLS.
Leicester City, which won the English Premier League title in 2016.
Southampton, whose Director of Football Operations, Matt Crocker has been hired by U.S. Soccer as Sporting Director to set U.S. Soccer’s sporting vision, develop "sporting culture" and oversee "the performance of all national teams." While Leeds and Leicester's fate was decided on the final day, Southampton's drop had been sealed two weeks ago.
Leeds United hired Marsch, who had been fired by RB Leipzig after five months in charge, during the 2021-22 season to replace Marcelo Bielsa 26 games into the season with the team in 16th place. It finished 17th under Marsch and avoided relegation on the last day of the season.
For the 2022-23 season, Marsch acquired Adams, whom he coached at the New York Red Bulls and Leipzig, for a transer fee of about $20 million and Aaronson, for whom Marsch coached at RB Salzburg, for about $30 million. (More than what Salzburg received for Sadio Mane or Erling Haaland.) Marsch brought in McKennie on loan in February, a month before Marsch was fired with Leeds United in 17th place with 18 games left.
McKennie started the loss to Tottenham while Aaronson, who finished the season with 1 goal and 3 assists in 36 appearances, came on in the 59th minute.
Sam Allardyce coached Leeds United's last for games after replacing Marsch's successor Javi Gracia.
It turned out that even a win over Tottenham wouldn't have been enough for Leeds, because Everton beat Bournemouth, 1-0, a victory that also doomed Leicester City despite its 2-1 win over West Ham.
So let me get my head around this. Our new saviour to lead the USA national programs into the future , was Southamptons Director of Football Operations and they just got relegated !
Oh boy, this doesnt look good. And the fired manager of Leeds who also were relegated is a considration for the USMNT job ! This doenst look good either.