Leeds United relegated from the Premier League: Sam Allardyce admits players may have been too weak to transfer training-ground work into matches

The Whites were relegated from the Premier League after three seasons on Sunday, and their 68-year-old interim manager admitted the squad may have been more mentally fragile than he appreciated when taking the job without time to do proper due diligence.

When they comfortably outplayed and beat relegation rivals Nottingham Forest on April 4, they looked well-placed to retain their top-flight status.

Although 13th place was deceptive in such a tight league table, with only two points separating Leeds from the bottom three, they had won three of their first six league matches under coach Javi Gracia, and all of them against teams competing with them to stay up.

But four days later they turned a 1-0 lead at home to Crystal Palace into a 5-1 defeat, and never won another game all season.

Former England manager Allardyce, an experienced figure when it comes to rescuing teams from relegation, was brought in with just four matches to play and took just a point from them.

The urgency of the situation meant his decision to take the job was based more on the stature and history of the club than a proper assessment of his chances of success with the squad.

In the final game of the season – when even, as it transpired, victory over Tottenham Hotspur would not have saved them – the timing of the goals in a 4-1 defeat spoke volumes about Leeds's weakness.

Harry Kane scored in the first two minutes, Pedro Porro two minutes into the second half. Kane's second came two minutes after a Jack Harrison goal for Leeds back into the contest. Lucas Moura's came in stoppage-time.

"We've had legendary players with the experience of Eddie (Gray), Gordon (Strachan) and Gary McAllister talking to them about the football club and they've commented about how the players in training looked really up for it in training, really enthusiastic and ready to go so you think you've lifted the mood and got players in the right frame of mind but actually on the pitch unfortunately that hasn't materialised into a more consistent performance over the four games.

"I haven't been able to achieve even one win which makes me really, really disappointed in myself as well as everybody else because I thought we could have."

Leeds must now find their fourth new manager since sacking Marcelo Bielsa in February 2022. Allardyce did not rule himself in or out, but said on Sunday there had been no conversations with the board about anything beyond the season just ended.