Javi Gracia plan for Southampton key to Leeds United appointment, might already have gone to waste
Javi Gracia showed the Leeds United hierarchy he was the man for the job by breaking down the “biggest game of the season by a mile” says Phil Hay, but it at risk of all being wasted if he isn’t in charge by then.
The Spaniard was appointed on Tuesday (21 February) with the board scrambling to get somebody in ahead of the second of back-to-back relegation six-pointers against Southampton, having lost the first at Everton under Michael Skubala.
The former Watford boss focused heavily on his game plan for what was supposed to be his first game in charge, to prove he was ready to start immediately, but amid complications around his work permit application he has yet to take a training session and may not actually be cleared in time for the game.
Posting on his personal Twitter account on Wednesday morning (22 February) Hay wrote: “Part of Javi Gracia’s presentation to Leeds included analysis of Southampton’s win over Chelsea last weekend – because he knew this Saturday’s game at Elland Road was crucial and would make the job very real.”
While the accompanying story in The Athletic from the previous evening states: “The interview and presentation given by Javi Gracia to Leeds United focused heavily on the club’s recent matches, but in the time he had to prepare, he spent some of it picking over Chelsea’s defeat to Southampton last Saturday.
“Gracia offered ideas about where Leeds were going wrong and how they might improve quickly, but alongside that, he wanted the hierarchy at Elland Road to see how ready he was for their biggest game of the season by a mile.”
But Alex Crook reported on talkSPORT on Wednesday (22 February, 11.51pm) morning that there are “no guarantees” that the former Al Sadd boss is in place for Southampton, and that he is working “with his hands behind his back” at the moment as he can’t take training.
It is tempting to view the board’s stance in the wake of the loss at Goodison Park as desperate enough to jump at anyone remotely viable.
But if Gracia has shown he can get a vital win on Saturday then that is the right place to start, given victories for Southampton and Everton last weekend has thrown the Whites right into the danger zone.
Gracia may be the right man for the next four months, but if he is appointed largely on the strength of his game plan for a game this important and then can’t actually use it, then it is makes a mockery of the appointment process.
In light of how the sacking of Jesse Marsch was followed by failed attempts at landing replacements, then a brief, ill-dated attempt to let Skubala take the whole thing on, before a panicked reaction to the Everton defeat, it has been a mess right through.
Even if the 52-year-old is in place but is then beaten at Elland Road by the resurgent Saints it will turn the initial optimism into outright fear for the rest of the campaign, and missing it entirely would be even worse.
If the work permit doesn’t come through soon this could be the most frustrating development yet from a thoroughly dispiriting turn of events since the close of a fruitful January transfer window.
In other Leeds United news, one manager’s career might now be over after missing out on the Whites job.