Simon Jordan blasts Leeds United live on talkSPORT over new manager hunt issue amid Jesse Marsch to Southampton reports
Southampton will be eyeing Leeds United as the club they want to replace them in the relegation zone once Jesse Marsch is in charge, says Simon Jordan.
The south coast side are on the brink of appointing the American who was sacked at Elland Road last Monday (6 February), with Mark McAdam reporting live on Sky Sports News on Wednesday afternoon (15 February, 1.39pm) that “almost certainly within the next 24 hours” he would be in place.
Jordan believes that these developments put the Whites in a dangerous position because Marsch will know the inner workings of their dressing room, and has slammed the club as an “embarrassing carcass” for seeing their ex-boss go to St Mary’s while failing to replace him themselves.
Speaking live on talkSPORT on Wednesday, in a clip posted to Twitter, Jordan said: “I think the more embarrassing carcass is probably Leeds, because not only have they fired a manager that’s going somewhere else that knows all about their dressing room, they can’t find one themselves.
“Imagine how much he knows about the Leeds dressing room? The team that’s going to get dragged into the relegation battle that Southampton are going to try and replace is Leeds, right?
“That’s the team that they’re going to jump [to get] out of and put Leeds in the bottom three… that’s where it’s going to land, it’s going to one of four or five teams…”
“And they play each other pretty immediately,” added Jim White.
“And they play one another, so he’s going to know what’s going on in that dressing room,” agreed Jordan.
Laughing stock
Marsch wasn’t lighting up the Premier League at Elland Road but he is at least a permanent manager who has kept a club in the top flight, just.
For all his faults he is also an upgrade on Nathan Jones, so while his presumed move to Southampton is hardly going to make them unbeatable it could lift a side that otherwise looked dead an buried.
The extra element of Marsch having inside knowledge of Leeds United is a concern, but given he was unable to use it to his advantage enough when actually in charge of the Whites players it is open to debate whether he can get other players to use it against them.
But it is inescapable now that the Whites board have dropped the ball on this whole transition, because if they were going to sack Marsch this season they really needed to do it at the right time and with a succession plan in place.
It now appears that both were not the case, and while the only people laughing if Michael Skubala and company defeat a Marsch-led Southampton side at Elland Road on 25 February will be the home fans in the stands, it is an embarrassing situation for the club currently to be missing out left, right and centre on replacements.
Only time will tell whether Marsch can do a better job at St Mary’s then he did at Elland Road this year, and whether Skubala or anyone else can do better than the American with the Whites squad, but so far his removal has only led to more uncertainty, which will remain the case unless the caretaker team can win some games.
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