Leeds United are hoping to buck the trend of newly-promoted clubs being immediately relegated to the Championship from the Premier League.
Sunderland, Burnley, and Leeds United are the latest contingent after Leicester City, Ipswich Town, Southampton, Burnley again, Sheffield United, and Luton Town.
Leeds’ owners, the 49ers, have done their Premier League research on what it takes to survive. There are no guarantees that it will work, with transitioning from a dominant Championship team to an underdog Premier League particularly difficult to navigate.
The vast majority of the new signings are comfortably 6’1″+ as well. However, whether Farke has the tactical flexibility in the Premier League remains to be seen after failed attempts with Norwich City previously.
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Tim Sherwood and Alan Shearer share verdict on Leeds’ survival hopes
Other predictive supercomputer models are negative about Leeds’ survival chances, and other famous faces in football, such as Ben Foster, expect relegation for Leeds from the Premier League.
That’s despite the fact that the points needed for Leeds to survive Premier League football have dropped via the latest research done on the last 10 years or so of the English top flight..
A panel of Premier League experts and pundits have been providing their verdict on a number of topics for the official Premier League website, including who will survive and which new Premier League team will finish the highest.
The most famous faces among that contingent are arguably former Blackburn Rovers duo Alan Shearer and Tim Sherwood. The latter is a regular panel member of Sky Sports’ Soccer Saturday and the former one of the BBC Match of the Day pundits.
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Together, they agree that Leeds stand the best chance of survival over Sunderland and Burnley. Shearer said: “Leeds. I’ll say Leeds because of their home crowd.”
Sherwood added: “Leeds. Like Alan, I’m tipping Leeds to finish above Burnley and Sunderland due to the home support at Elland Road.”
However, do either of them actually think Leeds will survive? No. Shearer: “Three teams to be relegated. Burnley, Sunderland, Leeds.”
Sherwood added: “Burnley, Leeds, Sunderland. The gap between the Premier League and Championship is widening every year.”
Six of the ten-man panel backed Leeds to be the strongest of the three promoted clubs, with Darren Bent, Don Hutchison, Leon Osman, and Glen Murray opting for Sunderland. No one chose Burnley.
Shay Given, Matt Holland, and Rob Green were the only three to back Leeds to stay up out of the ten representatives.
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Jamie Carragher’s verdict on Leeds United’s survival hopes
Farke has overseen a significant rebuild of his squad, but Leeds’ transfer spend is still less than Sunderland. Speaking on the Chris Moyles Show on Radio X, Jamie Carragher delivered his verdict on Leeds’ survival hopes.
“I just think the atmosphere at Leeds, they’ve got to make that a fortress, make it a place where teams don’t want to go, and now you’ve asked me, I’m going to say yes, Leeds, they’re the one I think can stay up.
“I don’t want to predict that the three promoted teams are going to go straight back down because that will depress me if that happens again, so I’m going to go for Leeds staying up.
“I think Leeds are one of those teams that maybe if you’ve got a big rivalry with them, maybe Manchester United, I think a lot of supporters up and down the country want Leeds back in the Premier League, they feel like a Premier League team, and hopefully they will stay.”