Leeds United host Middlesbrough in a top-of-the-table Championship clash on Friday.
Speaking to Middlesbrough’s website, Tony Pulis has put rivalries to one side to praise Friday night’s opponents Leeds United, claiming it’s a club with ‘enormous potential’.
Boro visit Elland Road in a top-of-the-table Championship clash tomorrow evening.
Leeds sit above Pulis’s side on goal difference and victory for either side would see them open up a six-point cushion in the automatic promotion places, until Saturday’s round of games at least.
It’s easily the biggest game in the Championship so far this season, but the Middlesbrough boss has rejected the chance to stoke the fire with a spicy remark, instead preferring to reminisce on how he used to watch Leeds as a youngster.
He told Middlesbrough’s official website: “It’ll be a great game and Elland Road is a fantastic stadium, a great club with fantastic supporters. I was born in the 50s and I still remember how good they were back then.
“I remember going to watch them at Wolverhampton and it was an experience that will always stick with me. They’re a great club and they’ve got a great manager.
“Under the lights, a sell out – it’ll be fabulous. He’s (Marcelo Bielsa) my age and he’s probably seen what they did in the 60s and 70s and it sticks with you.
“They were one of the great teams when I was a boy. It’s a club that has enormous potential and everything is there. They need that little bit of luck and success.”
It’s a nice sentiment by Pulis, but he’ll be desperate to beat Leeds nonetheless, though it could be tricky.
Marcelo Bielsa has the Whites playing brilliant football at the moment and Tuesday’s 2-0 loss at home to Preston in the League Cup was their first defeat of the season.
It will be a fascinating contest, with Bielsa’s side scoring 14 Championship goals in five games – more than any other club – but Boro have the best defence in the division, conceding only twice.
Victory won’t guarantee either side of promotion, but it’s both teams’ first real test and could tell us how good they really are.
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