Who will survive the last dance?

No hiding place for nervy supporters in three-way fight on nailbiting day

YOU could hardly blame fans of Everton, Leeds and Leicester City today if they were to follow the example set by Toffees winger Dwight McNeil.

With so much at stake in the fight for survival, McNeil decided to give last weekend’s televised matches involving Everton’s relegation rivals a swerve. He watched Michael Jordan’s inspirational basketball documentary The Last Dance instead.

‘I love watching football. I’ll usually watch any game but those two — I just couldn’t,’ says McNeil. ‘I didn’t see Leeds on the Sunday, I was out with my missus for the afternoon. On Monday night [Leicester at Newcastle], we decided to watch the film and check the result afterwards.’

It worked out well. Leeds lost at West Ham and Leicester managed only a point at St James’ Park. So, the equations for the final, nerveshredding day are simple: Everton survive with a win against Bournemouth. Any other result and Leicester beat West Ham, then the Foxes stay up. If Everton lose, Leeds defeat Tottenham and Leicester don’t win then Leeds survive. If Everton draw and Leicester fail to win, Leeds will survive if they win by three clear goals.

‘It was a relief to hear both scores because it’s in our hands now,’ said McNeil. ‘We’re at home with our fans behind us. We’ve got to treat it as a normal game but we do know what’s at stake and the job that needs to be done.’

As ever on the final day, all games kick off at the same time. Fans at home may choose to switch over or go for a walk but supporters inside Goodison Park, Elland Road and King Power Stadium won’t have that luxury. A few, usually those who have discovered the stadium’s wi-fi password, or maybe an old stalwart with a wireless to his ear, will be providing updates from the other matches. .

Everything is on the line. Survive and you live to fight another season, or go down and deal with the implications of losing your best players as well as £100million a season.

For Everton and Leicester, that is a real worry. Everton are already facing a Premier League investigation into alleged financial fair play breaches. They’ve made losses of £417.3m over the past four years. And they have a new stadium to pay for.

Leicester posted losses of £92.5m last year with a £182m wage bill. They also have a loan with Australian bank Macquarie secured against future Premier League television rights that, should they go down, will likely need to be paid off with parachute payments. Not to mention the fact that eight first-team players are out of contract this summer and Youri Tielemans and James Maddison are expected to leave.

Leeds’ future, meanwhile, will affect their impending takeover. The US investment company behind NFL side San Francisco 49ers intend to buy out current owner Andrea Radrizzani. If they stay up, reports suggest their valuation of Leeds will be between £400m and £500m. If they go down, it’s expected they will only be willing to pay around £150m.

Can Leeds boss Sam Allardyce work another miracle, then? He kept up Bolton, Blackburn, Crystal Palace, Sunderland and, indeed, Everton. His only relegation came in his previous job at West Brom.

Of all of those Great Escapes, he thinks this one, if Leeds can do it, would be his greatest.

‘In terms of saving football clubs, keeping Leeds up would be the best of the lot,’ said Allardyce. ‘I’ve saved other football clubs in dire and desperate situations but that’s always been with a lot more games and a lot more opportunities than this to put into place what you need to save them. Let’s hope we’re smiling on Sunday and hungover on Monday.’ Allardyce famously danced a jig on the pitch with Jay-Jay Okocha when Bolton beat Middlesbrough to survive on the final day of the 2002-03 season.

It remains an iconic image and

Allardyce reckons leading 15-goal scorer Rodrigo would be the perfect dance partner should his team somehow escape.

Allardyce added:

‘I fancy Rodrigo as the best dancer — a ‘Big Sam Samba’, that would be nice.’

Leicester boss Dean Smith was in charge at Villa when they took seven points from the final four games of the 2019-21 season to beat the drop. Villa’s fate was in their own hands on the final day but Leicester do not have the same luxury. ‘This would be a very proud day if we do it, but we have to win our game and rely on other results,’ said Smith. ‘Each escape has its own merits, the one at Villa with four games to go was seven points. That in itself was a big ask, this has been a big ask and hopefully we can do it.’