Ex-Leeds United and Tottenham Hotspur coach warns of ‘disaster’ relegation scenario amid ‘tremendous’ battle

Former Leeds United assistant Gus Poyet has warned that his old club face a ‘disaster’ should they drop out of the Premier League.

Leeds are currently locked in relegation battle for the second season running, sitting just goal difference above the dotted line. The Whites are on their second manager of the season, having replaced Jesse Marsch with Javi Gracia, and they are desperately hoping they can repeat last season’s feat in pulling off a late run of form to avoid finishing inside the bottom three.

After all, it took the Whites so long to get back to the Premier League following their last relegation that fans are understandable concerned about what awaits them should they descend to the Championship. And to add fuel to that particular fire, former Leeds assistant and current Greece manager Poyet has described a possible relegation as a ‘disaster’.

He told Neuecasinos24.com: “I think it’s going to go down to the last few games of the season. I think it is going to be tremendous, the relegation battle is going to be immense, not only because of the quantity of teams who are going to be involved, but because of the quality of the teams and how big they are.

“Leeds, Everton and Co. are big teams and if they go down it could be a disaster. Especially for Leeds, after so many years trying to come back up to the Premier League and then a few years later if they go down…”

The relegation battle looks mightily close currently, with just six points separating bottom club Bournemouth from Crystal Palace in 12th. It’s no surprise that Poyet thinks the race will run until the very end of the season. “This is because at the end of the day you need to get to, we used to say 40 points and then we said 38, but now I think if you get to 34 or 35 points then you are safe,” he added. “So yes I think it is going to go to the wire.”