OPINION
Dean Saunders wouldn’t get the warmest of welcomes in Leeds.
The talkSPORT pundit was one of the most vocal critics of manager Marcelo Bielsa after the spygate scandal erupted, and he also belittled Bielsa’s analysis saying at the time that every manager did the same – even those in the non league.
Saunders was at it again on the Alan Brazil Show on talkSPORT on Monday, doubling down on his comments, while also putting Leeds in a queue of big teams that deserve to come up from the Championship.
It started when Brazil asked Saunders about a Henry Winter piece in the Times today that said the “Premier League needs Leeds”.
“Henry Winter has written a piece about why the Premier League needs Leeds United,” said Brazil. “Henry says the size of the fanbase is what is needed in the top tier. Dean, are Leeds the one team that need to be back in the top tier?”
Saunders replied saying, “Leeds? Errm, well no, there’s Derby, Forest, they’re all in there queuing up, Sheffield United, Swansea, Villa, they’re all big clubs.”
“You gave the Leeds fans pelters over spygate,” said Brazil.
“I said he was out of order and I mean it,” Saunders replied. “He was out of order sending someone to look through the fence at your tactics when they’re training, bang out of order. He’s got them playing really well, they’re a really good team, so a football side, no problem.”
“But you said they’d have cheated their way up,” said Brazil.
“I never said cheated,” Saunders replied.
Leeds fans can take solace in the fact that Saunders isn’t the most well-regarded of pundits and seems more interested in headlines than analysis – despite his claims that he did Bielsa-like study when he was a manager.
One the same show, Saunders also said that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goal for Arsenal last night – when the Ben Foster cleared the ball, only for it to hit Aubameyang’s ankle and rebound in – should be goal of the season.
The whole spygate scandal was blown out of proportion thanks to pundits like Saunders and you’d have hoped he would have learned his lesson by now. Unfortunately that seems like wishful thinking.