Palmer played for both Leeds United and Sheffield Wednesday.
Carlton Palmer does not fancy either of Leeds United or Sheffield Wednesday to gain promotion to the Premier League next season.
The Yorkshire pair appear destined for mid-table finishes this campaign, which they each began with aspirations of going up.
And according to Palmer – who played for both Leeds and Wednesday – serious work is required on each of their squads if they’re to put things right next time out, despite the latter club’s mini-resurgence of late.
“The manager [of Leeds, Paul Heckingbottom] is looking, I think, towards the end of the season and looking at players who he wants to keep for next season, who he should get rid of for next season,” the 52-year-old told episode eight of Proper Sport’s It is what it is show. “He has a lot of work to do with that Leeds team. They’re not a team that you would look at and say next season that they’re going to challenge to get promotion – neither are Sheffield Wednesday, by the way.
Wednesday won three in a row before Saturday’s narrow defeat to third-in-the-table, Fulham – a run which began against Leeds at Elland Road – but Palmer warned: “I do not like to see Sheffield Wednesday lose, but what I don’t want to see is what’s happened in previous years, where they start to getting results towards the end of the season because the senior players are back and everybody thinks, oh, it’s going to be great for next season. It’s not. It needs a big clearout at Sheffield Wednesday.
“Senior players, when it was on them they didn’t do it. There’s no pressure now, the season’s over, they’re not going to get relegated so it’s alright to go out and play with that freedom. You’ve got to play when you’re under pressure and they didn’t do that, so the manager [Jos Luhukay] and the chairman [Dejphon Chansiri] don’t want to look at false dawns.”
Both Wednesday and Leeds have experienced mid-season managerial changes, which means the coming transfer window will be the first in which their respective bosses can properly sink their teeth into the squads they inherited from their predecessors.
Can Leeds and/or Sheffield Wednesday challenge for promotion next season?
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
