Ken Bates has cranked up the pressure on Simon Grayson by insisting Leeds need Premier League promotion this season.
Whites fans deserve the Premier League, says chairman
Ken Bates has cranked up the pressure on Simon Grayson by insisting Leeds United need to earn Premier League promotion this season.
The Leeds chairman, who turns 80 on Sunday, saw his club miss out on the play-offs in their first season back in the Championship.
And, despite losing key players including star winger Max Gradel over the summer, Grayson has managed to guide his team back into the top six on a shoestring transfer budget.
Now Bates is banking on a top-flight return for Leeds, who were relegated in 2004 following their much-publicised financial woe.
Fans
He told the
Daily Express: "We need to get promoted this year. Not financially but for the fans' sake.
"I actually spoke to Simon Grayson about it after the Barnsley game.
"He reassured me that we were going to get promoted so I said to him, 'How come we're fifth then?' We'll see."
Bates also reckons Leeds would be already among Europe's elite if the league tables were based on a club's financial prudency.
He has welcomed UEFA's moves to put the brakes on free-spending clubs with their fiscal fair play restraints set to be introduced.
Achievement
And the outspoken Monaco-based businessman says mega-rich Manchester City will have achieved nothing if they clinch the Premier League title.
"If it went by financial fair play, my club Leeds would be in the Champions League. It pays for itself," Bates added.
"If Manchester City win the Premier League, what have they really achieved?
"If you just 'buy' it, where is the management achievement?"
