Leeds and Burnley back in the big time! | Forrest eye Champions League!
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Welcome to Back Pages, bringing you everything you need to know about the biggest sports stories making the headlines in the morning's newspapers. I'm Dharmesh Sheth and joining me are Sam Dean from The Telegraph and the Daily Mail's Riyadh Al-Samurai. Welcome to you both. Yeah, so welcome along, Sam and Riyadh. Let's start then with Leeds and Burnley. All of the papers are going with their promotion to the Premier League. The promoted teams, though, Sam, from last season all went down.

for the second season in a row. What do Leeds and Burnley, do you think, have to do to kind of buck that trend? Yeah, it's a really interesting point because that actually hadn't happened since 1998 before last season. And then, as you say, we've now had two back-to-back campaigns in a row where the three promoted teams have gone straight back down. I think it's a very kind of

intriguing element of the Championship and the Premier League divide, which obviously I think most people would agree is becoming bigger and bigger with each passing year. And of course, the financial disparity between the top teams in the Premier League and the Championship sides is growing too. But I do wonder a bit if what it takes to get up from the Championship isn't the same as what it takes to stay up in the Premier League, if that makes sense. I think you look, for example, at Leicester and Southampton, who came up last season playing very expansive, attractive football teams.

And they tried to do the same in the Premier League and were completely found out and quite quickly dumped out of the division. I do wonder if Leeds and Burnley, especially given the way Burnley have been promoted, might take a more pragmatic approach, similar perhaps to what Bryson produced when they first came up and also what Brentford produced when they first came up under Thomas Frank a few years ago. That seems to be the blueprint to follow, to come up to the Premier League, be solid, be hard to beat, be strong on set pieces.

and kind of forget to a degree the expansive stuff that you've played in the Championship because that's not going to cut it in the top flight. So I think that'll be interesting to see the dynamics and the approach that these two teams take because obviously, as we know, Burnley's defensive record has been exceptional. And for me, that feels like a stronger base to work from than, say, what Burnley had two years ago under Vinton Company when they scored many more goals but were also far more open.

Yeah, Riyad, Sam makes a good point there, doesn't he? We've seen these three teams in Ipswich who are effectively going to go down alongside Leicester and Southampton, trying to do it in the way that they did it in the Championship. Leeds and Burnley will probably have to learn lessons from those teams, won't they?

Yeah, absolutely. Again, I think Sam's point there is spot on. It's quite interesting how these things move in cycles. I remember going back 14 years now, Swansea came up and they were playing this very progressive possession-based football and they were this massive outlier.

And that's, you know, it's long since sort of flipped on its head now that sort of teams come up, they're all looking to play this beautiful, entertaining, attractive football and they just walk into a sledgehammer when they get to the Premier League. We've seen that now the past two seasons. I think where I'd also agree with Sam is about Burnley. I'd actually feel...

quite confident about them staying up. That defence absolutely defies belief this season, whatever it is. 15 goals in 44 games. It's astonishing. Unbeaten in 31. They were talking about sort of

The captain was talking today about boring their way back to the Premier League. I don't think anyone who supports Burnley would be bored by it at all. It's been a magnificent season. Scott Parker's done a tremendous job. It's quite easy sometimes to forget in a scenario like this just how much chaos goes on when you get relegated. Vincent Kompany disappears over to Bayern Munich. How do you pick up the pieces?

They've done a fantastic job there with Scott Parker now.

It's how are they going to settle? I think... I was thinking this evening a little bit about James Trafford and whether or not, when we talk about that disparity between the Premier League and the Championship, is he an example of it? He obviously had a quite horrible time last season. This year, he's been one of the standout players. Is he able to carry that on or is he going to find that leap too significant? But I certainly think...

From the point of view of playing style, coming in, knowing what you are, not arriving and immediately trying to assimilate, trying to beat Liverpool at their game, trying to beat Man City at that game. On paper, that's ambitious to the point of nonsense to do it.

To do it the other way, it almost feels like the kind of common sense approach to it. So to look at Burnley and to look at Leeds side by side, I'd certainly feel a lot more confident about Burnley being able to make it stick this time.

Sam, Riyadh mentions Burnley. A lot of the papers are saying back in the big time is the majority of the headlines in a lot of the papers. But just in particular, I want to ask you about Leeds. Is the Premier League a better place with Leeds United and a successful Leeds United in it?

I certainly think so. I know obviously Leeds aren't always the neutral's favourite and I think that's well known in English football but for me the stature and the history of the club means that they really should be in the Premier League. Also while we're talking about Leeds I think it really should be mentioned how good a job Daniel Farquhar has done this year because I think people would easily look at Leeds and think well they should be in the Premier League, of course they've come up, they're a big club, they've got a good squad and a big wage bill.

almost as if it should be kind of straightforward for them. But if you roll back a year to the playoff final defeat at Wembley, Southampton, this time last year, he was under a lot of pressure at that point. Leeds had failed to come up with a huge wage bill and they had a lot of very impressive star players at that point. And they've since gone on and sold them. They generated around £130 million through sales last summer.

And in many ways, the team is actually better, despite the players being worse this season. I think that's a triumph of coaching. Obviously, he's lost Archie Gray, Caricenso Somerville, Jorginho Rota, three players who really were top, top level players in the championship. And they've had to rebuild to a degree under huge pressure, under huge scrutiny. And the fact that Farka has done that for his third championship promotion, I think is worthy of huge credit.

Riyadh, just one final one on the promotion of Leeds United and Burnley, of course, but there's still one more place, isn't there? But Sheffield United, who were for so long this season fighting at the top and looked like they were going to be the favourites to go up, four defeats in their last five have really scuppered their chances. Do you fear for them now? Because we always see the team that always finishes third and really goes for it, sometimes they can fall off when it comes to the playoffs.

Yeah, and I think we've seen that a little bit with Chris Wilder recently. He's slipping slightly towards his tetchy mode again. Obviously, I think an element of that can be forgiven. It's a pretty fraught time. But their form looks pretty bad. I'd say the same for Sunderland. I think Bristol City are quite an interesting team.

in all of this. They're sat there. Obviously, they've lost today, but they've picked up quite a bit of speed in the last few weeks. They've never been in the Premier League. It's a huge city that hasn't been served by top football since the Premier League formed. I'm looking at them and I've got a bit of an eye on

on them making a run for this. But yeah, certainly looking at Sheffield United, this is going to sting tremendously for them. I would have, you know, even if we went back three weeks to a month, I would have had my money on them. Leeds came through their wobble. We were kind of starting to ask the question, is it happening again? Obviously, it wasn't. Daniel Farkas sort of shut that door.

quite emphatically so you know it's you know we're coming we're coming up to the coming up to the playoffs i still i see it as one of the great days in the in the in the sporting calendar i had this discussion recently is it i was talking to an american journalist and sort of the question of you know is it fair if you finish third should you go up no no i absolutely love it i love the i love the bedlam of it i love how unfair it is i think it's fantastic but

You know, I would feel something for Sheffield United if they don't get it done. Yeah, Bedlam. I think that sums it up absolutely perfectly. Let's go to the Telegraph now and change tack a little bit because of a massive result for Nottingham Forest. And one of the headlines is, Forest show that they deserve a place at Europe's top table. Sam, I want to start with you. Back in the top five on Nottingham Forest, this is...

becoming potentially one of these stories of the Premier League season, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. And I think it probably already is one of these stories of the season. And what Nuno Espirito Santo has done there is rightly received a lot of headlines and a lot of credit over the past few months. And obviously they've had that little wobble in recent weeks. And I think a lot of Nottingham Forest fans were gratified

growing extremely concerned that that wobble was the start of a very unfortunately time slide out of the big five but tonight that's a huge win for them it's absolutely massive in their pursuit of champions league football and when you look at the fixtures for the teams competing for those champions league places which obviously is by far now the most engaging part of this premier league season i think the forest fixtures look pretty good compared to chelsea for example have a very difficult run compared to newcastle to have some tough games including chelsea and arsenal

And also compared to Villa, who have pretty difficult places to go, including City, Bournemouth, who could still be trying to compete for these kind of places too. So you look at it now and I wonder if Forrest are almost through the worst of it in terms of the nerviness and that kind of worrying period that they've been in the last few weeks. Especially now Chris Wood is back and scoring goals and seemingly returning to full fitness too. So yeah, a huge win for Forrest and another step towards what I think would be the finest achievement of any team in English football this season.

Yeah, good point. Riyad, Sam made the point there about, you know, this is the most intriguing part of this Premier League season now because, look, the title race is done, more or less. Relegation effectively decided. Liverpool clearly are into the Champions League. We expect Arsenal to more or less make it there as well. Who joins them?

Yeah, look, I think if we're talking about that, if we're talking about does it boil down to De Forest getting into the Champions League or not, I would agree with Sam in the sense I think they are through the worst of it. I've got the fixtures in front of me here. Brentford, Palace, Leicester, West Ham, Chelsea on the last day. That could be interesting, but notwithstanding Chelsea's result against...

against Fulham, I wouldn't be putting a penny on them right now. Forrest, on the other hand, I think you'd look at Nuno and if it weren't for Arne Slott, I'd make him a shoe-in for manager of the season. They had a horrible time last year. They've been brilliant this season. They've made a virtue of counter-attacking football, which for Champions League chasing side is pretty atypical.

I love the way they play. Even tonight, they've toughed it out against Tottenham. They've come in on the back of that result against Everton. They're still there. They're still fighting. I think it's absolutely...

what they've done. I think it's also a bit of a relief for all of us that there is still some loose ends this season. I think the title races ended up being a bit of a damp squid and that's full credit to Liverpool and slot. The relegation, we've discussed. We've kind of needed this actually to keep things interesting. Man City seems to have found their

well, actually that's massively overstating it. They seem to have stabilized, shall we say. So, you know, I think that little tussle there

Between Forest and Chelsea, you've got to keep in mind Aston Villa and Newcastle, both of them have been going well lately. So, you know, I think it's interesting, but I would expect Forest to see it through now. Sam, just very quickly before we head to a break, clearly there's a flip side to this coin on the Monday Night Football and that's Tottenham. Five changes Ange Postakoglu made. The priority is clearly Tottenham.

the Europa League, but do you see any scenario that Ange Postakoglu remains at Tottenham next season if they don't win the Europa League? No, I think that if is the crucial one. I think even if they do win the Europa League, it's not guaranteed that he would stay anyway. I think obviously, as has been discussed a lot over the past few months, he had the excuse of the injuries, which was valid.

but since then that has eased up and Spurs haven't really improved that much. So I think the vibe is all pointing one direction for Ange Boster Coghlu, sadly for him. And I think sadly for a lot of people who really like him and understandably so, but yeah, that Europa League remains alive and that's what it's all about now. And you can see that tonight with their team selection and even just the atmosphere watching on TV tonight, it looked like it was flat. It wasn't the place that Spurs wanted to be. It was sort of clearly second fiddle for them and the Europa League is everything for them right now. Yeah.

Let's get to the Guardian and a really interesting story regarding Trent Alexander-Arnold. We know he made all the headlines yesterday with that goal against Leicester that puts Liverpool to within three points of securing this title. But Virgil van Dijk has been having his say.

And Sam, he says there's no pressure on Alexander-Arnold to stay. Is it just like almost paving the way for what we kind of know now that this is going to end with Trent Alexander-Arnold leaving Liverpool for Real Madrid? It does feel that way. It also feels a little bit from those quotes like Van Dijk's trying to protect Alexander-Arnold to a degree.

And I think also we saw that after the final whistle against Leicester yesterday when Van Dijk pushed Alexander-Arnold towards Liverpool fans to say he's still one of ours, he's still one of our own, please celebrate him accordingly. And I think that's what good leadership looks like from Van Dijk's point of view. But for Trent Alexander-Arnold, all the indications appear to be that he's going to Real Madrid. We know that Madrid have been confident for some time about signing him. We

We know that Van Dijk and Mohamed Salah have now both committed to Liverpool contracts and Alexander-Arnold has not. So that, again, all points in one direction. But until it's done, there's still going to be that glimmer of hope for those Liverpool persuasion that there could be a late U-turn or even this big offer could come in from Liverpool still to change his mind at the last minute. It does feel increasingly unlikely, but...

That's never impossible in football. And we've seen such situations before. I mean, Steven Gerrard, for example, very nearly left the club for Chelsea many, many years ago and then changed his mind at the last minute. So I certainly wouldn't rule it out, but it does feel a little bit like it's destined to happen now. And I do think those Van Dijk comments are quite protective of his teammate and also just trying to make the point that

It's not been done yet. It's not settled yet. Let's still enjoy this while we can. And I'm sure from Liverpool's point of view, they want the focus to be on the Premier League title and perhaps winning it on Wednesday. And if not that Sunday afternoon against Tottenham Hotspur. So that's what they want to be talking about. And they don't want the whole thing to be around Trent Alexander-Arnold. But until that future is resolved, journalists like me and Riyadh and Sky Sports News, I'm sure, will still be focused heavily on Alexander-Arnold's future.

It's interesting the point that Sam makes there, Riyadh, about the title and when Liverpool could win it because Arsenal play Crystal Palace on Wednesday night and if they lose to Crystal Palace, then the title will be Liverpool's without them winning.

in inverted commas, kicking a ball. But in the Daily Telegraph, Chris Bascom, his article is headlined, for one night only, every Liverpool fan will support Arsenal. It's all about trying to win that title in front of their own fans at Anfield on Sunday against Tottenham, isn't it?

Yeah, I think now that the sort of jeopardy has fallen out the bottom of this situation, I think they can probably afford to feel that way. Of course, look, the context to all of this is when they won their only other Premier League title, it was during COVID, and we all remember what that was like.

Who wants to win a title in front of an empty stadium? So, look, they want it back at Anfield. They want it... I think it's Spurs this weekend. So, you know, look, the way Tottenham are playing, it feels...

That feels like a little bit of a sort of one foot putt, doesn't it? To, to, to, to, to win this title to kind of go to what we were talking about off camera a moment ago, but it's look, I can, I can completely understand, understand the feeling with that. It's going to be, it's going to be huge. And even sort of referring to what we were talking about prior to the break a moment, a moment ago, what Arnaud slot's done there has been tremendous. And I factor in,

what's gone on with trent with mo salah with virgil van dyke within that if it wasn't hard enough to take over from an absolute giant of a manager and a character particularly from jurgen from jurgen klopp to come in with that level of turmoil with you arguably your three biggest players

coming out of contract, it's been a narrative that's run up with all three of them up until the last fortnight to be able to navigate that and to, to win the league with, with, with games to spare that, that, that, that, that is a rare achievement that, that, that, that slot is now on the brink of, on the, on the brink of pulling off, pulling it off. Look, if, um,

If Arsenal don't win it, if Crystal Palace beat them, I'm sure they will find a way to move on from the fact that they couldn't do it at Anfield. I'm sure they'll manage to...

sort of arrange their trophy parade as necessary anyway. I can't imagine it being something they lose too much sleep about, but clearly they want to have that Anfield moment and they've clearly earned it as well. Yeah, feels like when and not if as far as that title and Liverpool are concerned. Let's look ahead to the summer transfer window because it looks like it's going to be a really, really busy one. If you go to the mail,

And this is starting to gather a bit of momentum, this story. Manchester United close to Matthias Kunja coup. Sam, this would be quite a big signing for United and maybe a statement signing for them as well.

Yeah, I think so. And we know that Kunio's got a £62.5 million release clause in his new Wolves contract, which he signed in February. We know he's a proven goal scorer in the Premier League. I think 14 goals this season, 12 last season. And what I find really interesting about this potential deal, if it happens, is that it almost harks back to the Sir Alex Ferguson era in terms of United's transfer dealings, because

I'm sure we all remember under Alex Ferguson, United would routinely just sign the best players from within the Premier League. They didn't go shopping elsewhere that often. If you look back at some of their best signings, Cantona, Keane, Teddy Sheringham, Dwight York, Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney, Michael Carrick. These all came from lower Premier League clubs, players who had proven themselves in English football and it cost a lot of money, but came in and were ready to hit the ground running straight away.

But as you look at United's transfer business in the last five years or so, I think there's only two players who've really come in for big money from within the Premier League. One was Harry Maguire, who I think has overall been a success, and then one was Mason Mount, who obviously...

has had big fitness issues. So it feels like a little bit of a throwback in the sort of deal that United have stopped making in favour of signing players like Anthony or Rasmus Hoyland who come to the Premier League with no experience here and no proven signings. For me, this feels like the right kind of move. Sam, time has caught us up. Time has caught us up, Sam. Apologies. Sam, Ria, thank you very much