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Sky Sports reporter drop Leeds United manager update live from Elland Road as Carlos Corberan emerges as frontrunner
Leeds United will have a contingency plan after sacking Jesse Marsch and will move quickly to name a replacement, according to Sky Sports’ Tim Thornton.
The American coach was sacked on Monday afternoon (6 February) and West Brom’s Carlos Corberan was immediately linked to a return to the club.
He is the name that Thornton cited as the Whites implement change to get them away from a relegation battle, and they are expected to move fast to complete the transition as they will already have made a decision on who their top candidate is.
Speaking live on Sky Sports News, in a clip shared on the station’s Twitter, Tim Thornton said from Elland Road: “The one name that’s being linked at the moment is a familiar name to Leeds United fans, Carlos Corberan, who was part of the set up here at Leeds when Marcelo Bielsa was in charge.
“Of course he’s in a job at the moment so it remains to be seen whether Leeds will make an approach for him, but he’s the one name that’s really emerged as an early frontrunner for this job.
“What I will say is that Leeds will have a contingency plan. They had a contingency plan when Marcelo Bielsa left the club a year ago. Jesse Marsch was appointed very, very quickly. They will have a contingency plan again, so they will have their candidate in mind.
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“I expect them to move pretty quickly on this.”
Big decision
The board will say they got the decision to appoint Marsch right last season, based on the fact that he kept Leeds United in the Premier League.
The debate over whether Bielsa would have done the same will rage on forever more, but clearly the American was heading the same way as his predecessor with results this season.
Left in virtually the same position just under a year later, those in charge have now made the decision to roll the dice again, and they must hit on the right man to ensure the growing danger of relegation can be escaped once more.
The romantic appointment would be to bring back Bielsa and pretend the last 11 months-plus never happened, but that seems remotely possible at best, given the Argentine turned down Everton last month because his methods need to be embedded over the summer and Marsch has just spent the past year training them out of this side.
Corberan certainly has some logic to it, due to his familiarity to the club and his record of success in England, even if his time in Greece earlier this season was the opposite.
But whether he is willing to leave the Hawthorns after less than four months in charge, and whether it will be possible to convince the Baggies to allow him to leave is another matter.
Given that Thornton is convinced the top man will have been identified in advance, that would either mean that groundwork has been done behind the scenes already in terms of finding agreement with the Championship side, or an out-of-work coach is the chosen one.
Whoever it is needs to be able to get to work fast to implement their ideas on a squad filled with big money signings, in order to finally get them all playing to their full potential.
In other Leeds United news, Fabrizio Romano has provided an update on the search for a new boss with conversations ongoing after one man was named on the shortlist.