'Calamitous' Leeds United should feel privileged and 'sniffy' view is nonsense - David Prutton

And I just think the calamitous way that Leeds have ended up like this is reflective of a calamitous season. Sam was reportedly mooted for the job around the time when Javi Gracia came in and if he wasn't good enough at that point then what makes him good enough now?

Quite clearly, it's the desperation of falling out of the Premier League so any hint of projects or the long term work is rubbish really. It's just really brought into sharp focus what football is like in the Premier League for the teams that aren't the financial and muscular powerhouses or the ones that are challenging for European sports in the title itself. It's literally about being in that division and you can't come away from what it is.You fall in love with a football club but what satiates a football club's voracious appetite is money and the money is in the Premier League. It's the only place to play football and that's what Sam has been brought in to do.

If he does it, he will pocket a hefty sum of money by the sounds of it and quite rightly so because that hefty sum of money pales into insignificance when you look at the massive sum of money that it is that keeps you in the Premier League. And it would be job done.

It just seems nowadays and nowadays is obviously a very broad and vague term but you get managers for four games, ten games, two months, three months, half a season. As a profession, you'd have to be very fearful of what the future of that profession actually is if it's that transient and if it's that quick to move on.

If success and failure is judged in a game by game parameter then are we going to see the future coaches beyond month long rolling contracts and if you have a bad month then see you later and bye? But Leeds have gone from Javi coming in and looking like they had turned a corner to where they are now and if they get over the line, they'll limp over the line because from the teams they have to play Man City and Newcastle are gunning for completely different things and God knows what Spurs bring you.

Then West Ham are another team looking to put as much distance between themselves and the bottom three and with Europe on their mind as well. I don't buy into the very boring cliche of what Sam Allardyce is as a manager.

The longevity that comes with a manager such as that means that he is proven. He's operated in the Premier League for a very long time and who knows what his reign as England manager would have entailed had it not been for situations that he put himself in. We don't know.

But to get sniffy about him, his methods and his track record is nonsense. I think Leeds are privileged to have a manager of his experience. I think he can keep Leeds up and stranger things have happened than Leeds taking points off today's hosts Manchester City.

But the fact that Man City are gunning for the title and that Leeds got pumped by four by Bournemouth, by six by Liverpool and by five by Crystal Palace means that the cynical side of me says that if you're a Leeds United fan then you're approaching the Man City game hiding behind the metaphorical sofa.

Leeds could get absolutely annihilated. Let's be brutally honest. Man City can pull apart the best teams that we've seen and a low on confidence, leaky to say the least defence could get pulverized. If Leeds get anything at all it's a bonus and also if they can keep their goal difference somewhere remotely respectable then that helps.

Then Newcastle are going in for a different portion of the division and Champions League football so that will also prove a very, very tough task. That then means that you are possibly hanging your hat on needing a full points return from the last two games against West Ham and Tottenham which time will tell.

I'll be very intrigued to see how Sam approaches the Man City game given some of his comments as well. I think some of his comments were slightly taken out of context when he referenced Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola.

Klopp is one of the fantastic Premier League managers that we have had the privilege to see and Guardiola is one of the best we have ever seen anywhere. The debate with that is that it's easy when you've got billions of pounds to spend but you've still got to put it together and create results which is what he's done.

I think the point that Sam was making was his history in football - player, manager, working through different eras and different generations and still being in demand and he is. The fact that he is Leeds United manager means he is in demand so I think that's the point that he is making.

I'll be intrigued to see how he goes up against City and can't think for one second that he would just dismiss this game. Because if you get anything from this game it's a massive lifeline and also a huge confidence boost.