Desperate situations call for desperate measures and it doesn’t get more desperate than where Leeds United find themselves.

Squirming in the Last Chance Saloon of the runaway gravy train known as the EPL, they are reaching panic stations.

And they’ve pressed the nuclear button.

In calling for Sam Allardyce, they’ve hired the Red Adair of football, the man to turn to when no one else can put out the fire.

Although clinging to 17th place, one above the drop zone, they were favourites to join all-but-relegated Southampton out of the exit door.

Having scraped just one point from their last five games and conceded a record 23 goals in April alone, they were in freefall.

And they face the toughest run-in of all the relegation strugglers: next up they go to Manchester City.

Barring the upset of the millennium, the title favourites and best team in Europe will further reduce Leeds’ survival chances.

Fans only have to think of what the rampaging Erling Haaland might do to that defence and they’re left pleading for mercy.

Born in Leeds while his father, Alf Inge Haaland, played for the club in the 1990s, he once said he had a soft spot for the club.

The best they can hope for is that Pep Guardiola gives him the cotton wool treatment after he’s wrapped it up in an hour.

Next come high-flying Newcastle at home, not-entirely-safe West Ham away and top-four-chasing Spurs at home.

If the incline gets progressively easier, it’s still a daunting peak to climb: all those opponents have an awful lot to play for.

However Allardyce’s appointment is dressed up, it is sheer, blind panic.

The one thing that unites the warring factions at Leeds is the dread of going down.

It took them 16 years to come back after Peter Ridsdale’s “Living the Dream” turned into the ultimate nightmare.

Down among the dead men as rivals duke it out for glory.

Everyone at Elland Road knows how hard it is for a so-called big club to clamber back up.

Like Nottingham Forest, both Sheffield clubs, Sunderland and Southampton, Leeds have even slipped into League One.

It’s a fate that must be avoided at all costs – even paying Allardyce £3 million for four matches seems a gamble worth taking: relegation could mean missing out on hundreds of millions.

And it’s why Crystal Palace called 75-year-old Roy Hodgson out of his retirement home at the first hint of danger a few weeks ago.

He has already made Palace safe and Leeds will be hoping experience pays off again.

Not only did they sack manager Javi Gracia this week but sporting director Victor Orta as well.

And in doing so, have demolished the entire Marcelo Bielsa ethos.

At a stroke, they’ve gone from cavaliers to roundheads – some fans are calling it sacrilege and a few even wanted the Argentine legend back.

In between, there was Jesse Marsch, who never won the fans over, and then Gracia, who after a decent start with three wins in six games, lost the plot.

And amid turmoil behind the scenes and fan disenchantment, Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani made his last throw of the dice.

Already, he probably wished he’d done so sooner – Allardyce was available in February after all.

As the media hype the Great Escapologist, there is already a different vibe – as there is bound to be in the most important place of all: the Leeds’ dressing room.

New manager bounce? Big Sam does it in spades and has saved four of out five clubs from the drop – but never with as few games left as this.

After success at Sunderland, West Ham, Crystal Palace and Everton, he was devastated when his last rescue – at West Brom – failed.

He blamed the mitigating circumstances of Covid but we thought we’d seen the last of him as he sank into well-upholstered retirement.

His brief tenure with England was abruptly ended by a newspaper sting, but he’s harvested rich pickings in bonuses from his great escapes.

He is above all a great motivator and that’s what Leeds’ mostly youthful squad needs.

At 68, he’s old enough to be the grandfather of many, but his past heroics will be well-known to all but the most ill-informed import.

They’ll be hoping he’s not lost his touch.

French keeper Illan Meslier, highly rated by many, has been a flapping disaster of late, his confidence gone.

But those in front of him have been little better and this is bound to be the area on which Allardyce concentrates. Expect the Alamo against City.

The more you look at what sounded like a fanciful rumour at first, the more it makes sense: Allardyce ticks quite a few boxes.

If morale and defence are the most obvious areas for improvement, there is much more to him than Route One football – as he never ceases to insist.

“If my name had been Allardici, I’d have managed Real Madrid and Inter Milan,” he once famously said.

The point being that a no-nonsense homegrown manager, as he’s been cruelly typecast, was not given the credit or the opportunities his record deserved.

His peak coincided with the arrival of such continental star managers as Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Jurgen Klopp and finally Pep Guardiola.

In comparison, Allardyce’s football was deemed home-spun and old-fashioned.

Mourinho dubbed it “19th century football”, yet nothing could be further from the truth. And Pep has called him “a genius”.

As he reminded the media this week, he was a pioneer of sports science and always had an entourage of coaches, physios and data experts behind him.

Only a skeleton staff will accompany him to Elland Road because of time constraints and he will be without right-hand man Sammy Lee who has not been excused from jury duty.

Allardyce will approach the task in time-honoured fashion and, crucially, will be a new voice in the dressing room.

While he has nothing to lose, Leeds have everything to lose. But the club has given itself a sliver of a chance. They’ve become a rabble: Big Sam is a rabble rouser.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.