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Leeds United, News

Luciano Becchio to join Leeds United in next few days – reports

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Leeds United could be on the cusp of bringing Luciano Becchio back to Elland Road, according to reports on social media.

A fan uploaded an image with Becchio in Leeds train station, claiming that the Argentine striker is on the cusp of signing for the Whites in the next few days.

Becchio has been without a club since leaving Belgrano, a side in his native Argentina, last month.

Would it work?

Leeds have started playing a 4-4-2 formation since the appointment of Steve Evans as head coach last week.

However, with both Chris Wood and Mirco Antenucci on the pitch, the Elland Road side do not have a back-up striker for the bench.

This is especially the case given Lee Erwin is out on loan.

Wood is a classic style target man, something Leeds definitely do not have in reserve.

Becchio would be an ideal option for that role. However, his fitness is up for debate, as he has not played much football since joining Rotherham on loan last season.

Becchio is, however, a better instinctive finisher than Wood, who has struggled to match good build-up play with clinical strikes in front of goal.

Rumour rater

It seems preposterous at first, why would a fan have the scoop? However, there is no real reason for Becchio to be in Leeds train station on any given Sunday.

Most tellingly, Becchio is clutching a copy of today’s The Sun, as also confirmed on Twitter.

Interestingly, while Massimo Cellino has previously denied an interest in bringing Becchio back, he has backed his coaches this season in the market, and Becchio is clearly a player Evans rates – having signed him at Rotherham.

However, another fan has said that Becchio has said he is just visiting Leeds, so it’s hard to tell what the truth of the situation is.

Rumour rating: 3/5

"Newcastle United v Zulte Waragem, 2007 (2)" by User:Responsible? - Self-photographed. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Newcastle_United_v_Zulte_Waragem,_2007_(2).JPG#/media/File:Newcastle_United_v_Zulte_Waragem,_2007_(2).JPG
Newcastle, News

A Timeline of Woe: How Newcastle found themselves on the brink of relegation

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Ahead of the last game of the season, we’ve taken a look back over Newcastle’s campaign, which sees them dangerously close to the relegation zone with only a game left to play.

Should results not go their way on Sunday, Newcastle could find themselves plying their trade in the Championship, a division they escaped in 2010, next season.

In part, this is a result of the policies of the owner, Mike Ashley.

A poor summer of recruitment caused a bad start to the campaign.

However, manager Alan Pardew turned it around in staggering fashion, climbing to seventh in the league.

Having not been given assurances over transfers in the January window, however, he moved on to Crystal Palace, who he saved from relegation with plenty of time to spare.

John Carver was then put in charge, and coming into the last weekend of the season, he has lost nine of the last ten games, putting Newcastle only two points above the relegation zone.

They could still go down.

Featured image credit: “Newcastle United v Zulte Waragem, 2007 (2)” by User:Responsible? – Self-photographed. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

News

Revealed: Football fans are broadly optimistic

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With summer upon us, most football fans are starting to think about next season, and whether their club can achieve their goals next time around.

Most clubs, it has to be said, don’t do anything of note in any given campaign. We therefore thought it’d be interesting to find out whether most football fans think next season will bring about more joy for their side.

We put out an appeal on Twitter for responses to a survey, and fans were incredibly quick to respond.

The results

Looking at the data, what this revealed is that most football fans are generally quite positive about their next campaign. This makes sense, otherwise they wouldn’t keep attending.

However, surprisingly, the difference between fans who are excited and fans who aren’t isn’t that great. This might, in part, be due to the increasing discrepancy between those who can achieve, and those who can’t. Many fans are increasingly overwhelmed by the idea that their club will never do well, which explains some of the responses.