Today at 2:45 p.m. ET, Newcastle United and Leeds United square off in Round 3 action of the Capital One Cup at St. James Park in England. The game can be live streamed here.
Newcastle manager Alan Pardew has said that marquee signings are a thing of the past for his club as its business model has been to slash costs since the 2008-09 season, an example that Leeds has not followed which Pardew believes has led to financial struggles for them as they've been spending above their means.
"We get criticized a lot for perhaps not over-spending and not perhaps being a little bit more ambitious in terms of our signings," Pardew told ESPN. "But you can look at those other situations where it hasn't gone well, and Leeds are an example of that, unfortunately. But they are rebuilding and I know it is a much tighter ship now and hopefully, they are putting down the foundations to return to the Premier League."
Pardew is excited for today's game, which he feels will be a "really good occasion," and he said he plans to field a strong team that includes Academy graduates Paul Dummett and Sammy Ameobi as well as Ivory Coast international Cheick Tiote.
"We are putting out a strong side," Pardew said per ESPN. "But I do need to look at one or two to see if they can push to be starters for this team, and in particular two young players from our academy, Ameobi and Dummett, who have done absolutely brilliantly and are really knocking on the door of the first team, so those two will definitely play."
Meanwhile, Leeds manager Brian McDermott has shied away from rumors that speculate the club may be trying to land free agent midfielder David Bentley, 29, who was released by Tottenham at the end of last season and doesn't have a team. McDermott has said that Leeds already has enough players at the midfielder position including Ross McCormack along with El-Hadji Diouf, who he dubs as similar players to Bentley.
McDermott said he doesn't plan on signing players just for the sake of it.
"You can't take someone just because they are an easy deal," he said, according to ESPN. "I think David Bentley is a good player, but they're here and the last thing you want to do is stockpile players in the same position. That isn't right."
Leeds has lost three of its last four games coming off a 2-1 loss to Burnley at home Saturday, and has struggled to find goal scoring following the departure of Luciano Becchio, who was sold to Norwich in January. Leeds has just seven goals thus far in the Sky Bet Championship.
Leeds plans on monitoring injured players Sam Byram (hip) and Lee Peltier (groin) heading into the matchup while Stephen Warnock will return to action after being suspended through the weekend. Byram played in his first game since April on Saturday, but said his hip was sore following the match while Peltier didn't play at all.
Leeds looks to find some goal scoring while Newcastle hopes to win a very important match when these two teams clash today.
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