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Leeds were relegated from the Premier League on Sunday after a three-year stay in the top flight. The Yorkshire club had needed to beat Tottenham on the final day and hope other results involving Everton and Leicester went their way, but they were beaten 4-1 at Elland Road. The result meant Sam Allardyce’s side finished 19th in the table, five points behind 17th-placed Everton. Here, the PA news agency looks at some of the reasons why it went wrong. Bielsa legacy casts shadow Leeds chairman Andrea Radrizzani, former director of football Victor Orta and chief executive Angus Kinnear received huge acclaim when the club ended their 16-year Premier League exile in 2020. They played a masterstroke by appointing Marcelo Bielsa as head coach in 2018 but their legacy was always going to be defined by how they filled the vacuum after sacking the Argentinian in February 2022. The board felt they had to act after a poor run of results but, since then, they have got most of their key decisions wrong and the wheels have now fallen off. What exactly did the board get wrong? Bielsa’s successor Jesse Marsch was hailed as a natural replacement but performances and results did not improve. Leeds survived relegation last season on the final day and when Marsch was sacked in February this year, he left the club in a worse position in the table. The board’s failed, ill-conceived bids to hire Rayo Vallecano’s Andoni Iraola and Feyenoord’s Arne Slot led to accusations of panic and, after a fans’ backlash, they also reneged on appointing former Ajax boss Alfred Schreuder. So in came Javi Gracia for his ill-fated stint. The club admitted they had erred by parachuting Allardyce into Elland Road with four league games remaining. Can relegation be blamed solely on the managers? No. After Leeds defied the odds to finish ninth under Bielsa in their first season back in the top flight, they have failed to sufficiently strengthen their squad. A lack of cover for an injury-prone Patrick Bamford and midfielder Tyler Adams is a prime example. It has also been an imbalanced squad with wide players in abundance but no depth in other key areas. Some signings since promotion, such as Raphinha, Adams, Luis Sinisterra and Willy Gnonto, have been a success, but too many others have failed to make an impact, while the arrival of club-record signing Georginio Rutter has left fans scratching their heads. Has the ownership issue muddied the waters? The last-ditch appointment of Allardyce was symptomatic of Leeds’ mis-management and of a club in limbo since the investment arm of San Francisco 49ers increased its stake to 44 per cent at the end of 2021. 49ers Enterprises has an option to own 100 percent by January next year and the ownership issue has not helped decision-making. Orta’s resignation in protest over Gracia’s sacking has left Leeds without a director of football and, if Allardyce departs as expected, they will be without a long-term head coach. How relegation will affect the takeover remains to be seen, while Radrizzani has been linked with a move to buy Sampdoria. The club’s future direction is not clear. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

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“I’ve done my knee.” Keira Walsh knew it immediately, and then came the words to devastate the Lionesses and England’s chances of winning the World Cup as well. That’s how significant a blow losing Walsh is for any amount of time, let alone the tournament and potentially beyond. If England had one irreplaceable player, it would be Walsh. If Sarina Wiegman could have chosen any star to protect for the rest of the World Cup, it would have been their holding midfielder and pass master. The Lionesses now face a terrible wait to discover the extent of Walsh’s injury. It overshadowed England’s win over Denmark, and threatens to hang over the rest of their tournament in Australia. After losing Leah Williamson and Beth Mead to ACL injuries, it looks like England have suffered another, a cruel twist that came after Wiegman made two changes to her team and the Lionesses, for the first time this World Cup, looked to have clicked into gear. Walsh was at the heart of that at the anchor of England’s midfield - as she was during the Euros and in pretty much every England game since then, playing more minutes than any other member of Wiegman’s squad over the last year. She has qualities that no other player in the squad possesses, an ability to dictate the tempo of their play, to shoulder the responsibility of linking everything, a passing range that no one else has. She’s the player that in training her teammates can’t get the ball off. It’s why Barcelona, the best team in Europe, broke their transfer record to sign her. Without her player of the match display at Wembley, or pass through to Ella Toone for England’s opening goal, the Lionesses may not have beaten Germany to win the Euros. Since then, England have lost their spine and after the joy of last summer those are the pictures that threaten to define England’s year as European champions: Mead hobbling off in tears at the Emirates; Williamson wincing as her knee buckled against Manchester United; now Walsh reaching, her studs catching the turf, before being stretchered off against Denmark. It came as England looked to have steadied the ship and found their rhythm against Denmark, Lauren James scoring the goal that looked to have given the Lionesses lift off. There was a lot of noise England had to try and shut out, questions that weren’t answered in the win against Haiti, a clamour for Wiegman to do what she never does and change her starting line-up. That Wiegman did decide to twist indicated that something was not quite right - that England had gone almost six hours without scoring a goal made that perfectly clear as well. Yet with James and Rachel Daly brought back into the side, England looked to have been recalibrated. In the opening half hour, England’s standout feature against Denmark was the time and calmness each player had on the ball - a presence of mind that radiated from James but was set by Walsh. The Lionesses found what they never managed could grasp against Haiti. They took control and dominated possession. Everyone looked more comfortable and England were finally able to take a breath. Then Walsh went down and suddenly England were faced with another problem to solve: except this one doesn’t come with a quick-fix. Despite England’s goals drying up in recent months, Wiegman has had several attacking options in which to replace Mead - with James, Lauren Hemp and Chloe Kelly. The absence of Williamson has been felt off the pitch as much as on, but England have a ball-playing centre-back in Alex Greenwood. There isn’t a like-for-like replacement for Walsh, for her scanning, positional sense in front of the back four, or her discipline and calmness on the ball and off it. There is now a lot of responsibility placed on the shoulders of Georgia Stanway, a key player in her own right, but a midfielder who has a natural tendency to burst forward. As the new pivot of England’s midfield, Stanway will now have to control those attacking instincts. And in the second half in Sydney, while the devastating blow of losing Walsh subsided, England managed to see the game out. It wasn’t always pretty and the Lionesses certainly lost some of the fluidity they showed in the early stages, while Amalie Vangsgaard hitting the post with a late header was the let-off they needed. But that is tournament football and the victory puts England on the verge of the knockout stages - it could even be confirmed if China fail to beat Haiti later today. In doing so, England may have entered a new phase of their World Cup. The game has changed. Wiegman would not admit it, but this Lionesses team is simply not going to be anywhere near what it was when they won the Euros last summer. Mead and Williamson, even Fran Kirby, Ellen White and Jill Scott, were cracks that could have been covered up. England can still go far but losing Walsh reveals a gaping hole that can’t be filled. The Lionesses, like they managed against Denmark, now need to hang on and survive it. Read More England find World Cup balance but more adversity leaves one defining question BBC pundit slams Women’s World Cup pitches after Keira Walsh injury – ‘It’s not good enough’ England manager Sarina Wiegman reacts to ‘serious’ Keira Walsh injury England manager Sarina Wiegman reacts to ‘serious’ Keira Walsh injury England find balance but more adversity leaves one defining question Bethany England: The Lionesses’ overlooked attacking threat in profile

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The boss of Silverstone has warned Just Stop Oil campaigners that they will be putting lives at risk if they protest at the British Grand Prix. The climate activists have already targeted the Lord’s Ashes Test, the Premiership rugby final and the World Snooker Championship so far this year. Speaking to the PA news agency ahead of Sunday’s race, Silverstone managing director Stuart Pringle said: “The fundamental difference here is that you are not putting your life in danger when you run on the pitch at Lord’s. “You are not putting your life in danger when you sit on a snooker table or protest at a flower show. “A motor racing track is not the place to go. It is extraordinarily dangerous and people will be putting lives at risk if they go there, and any sensible, right-thinking person can extrapolate what the ultimate risk here is. “My strong, strong message is: ‘Do not put your life in danger. This is not the place to go and sit on a floor’. It is absolute madness if someone climbs on to a live racing track.” Five protesters invaded last year’s British Grand Prix after they stormed the Wellington Straight – the fastest point of the Northamptonshire track – before sitting down during the opening lap. The contest had already been suspended following Alfa Romeo driver Zhou Guanyu’s high-speed crash, but a number of cars sped by the group before they were dragged away by marshals. The protesters were handed suspended jail sentences in March. Silverstone has worked alongside Northamptonshire Police to beef up security ahead of this year’s event, with a record 480,000 people expected to attend over the weekend, and more than 140,000 fans in place for the race. Pringle added: “We have no specific intelligence, but we will plan for the worst and hope for the best. If somebody is minded to invade a flower show then they are probably minded to invade a motor race because we have many more global viewers. “But there are plans in place. We will have a much more visible police presence around the event and we hope that fans help us to try and spot people who are planning to disturb people’s fun.” Lewis Hamilton is gearing up for his home race following a disappointing Austrian Grand Prix where he finished seventh and was then demoted to eighth after a post-race penalty for exceeding track limits. Hamilton was also dealt a public rebuke by Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff. The Austrian told Hamilton to “just drive the car” following a number of complaints by his driver over the radio. “There are days when I can say I’m truly proud of myself, and days like today when frustration takes over,” said Hamilton on his Instagram account. “In a race it can feel like you’re hanging off a cliff and losing the strength to hold on. “It’s confusing for us to have such strong performances one day and then be nowhere the next. “But when you really care about what you’re doing, you brush it off and keep fighting. Heads down for Silverstone.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Max Verstappen refuses to ponder title hat-trick despite another emphatic win Toto Wolff plays down impact of ‘just please drive it’ remark to Lewis Hamilton Austrian Grand Prix to remain on F1 calendar until at least 2030

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Manchester United must beat rivals Manchester City to keep their Women’s Super League title hopes alive, or Chelsea will win the title with a game to spare. Chelsea closed in on a fourth successive Women’s Super League title as first-half goals from Guro Reiten and skipper Magda Eriksson earned them a 2-0 home win over Arsenal. Reiten put the Blues ahead with a 22nd-minute strike before Eriksson - who earlier in the week had announced she will be leaving the club at the end of the season - added a finish just before the break. Katie McCabe had the chance to pull a goal back with a penalty on the hour but put it wide as Emma Hayes’ side went five points clear of Manchester United at the top. United failing to win their penultimate game of season, the derby against Manchester City at Leigh Sports Village that kicks off at 6.45pm, would see Chelsea crowned champions, adding to the FA Cup they secured with victory over the Red Devils at Wembley last weekend. Read More Departing Magdalena Eriksson and era-crowning win show why WSL title heading back to Chelsea

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