Phil Hay baffled by ‘irrelevance’ as Richard Keys-Leeds United video clip emerges
Phil Hay has rubbished Richard Keys’ reaction to Jesse Marsch’s post-match huddle after his first Leeds United game.
For some reason, Marsch organising a talk with his players on the pitch at Leicester on Saturday has been a talking point among certain pundits and broadcasters.
Speaking on beIN SPORTS on Saturday (5 March), Keys called Marsch’s huddle “odd” and dubbed the American the “new Phil Brown“.
The Athletic journalist Hay is baffled by the reaction to Marsch speaking to his players in a group on the pitch, suggesting that it may simply be down to the fact he’s American and people are looking to poke fun at the new Leeds boss.
“I haven’t read Richard Keys’ latest mischief on this but I should definitely go and visit that for fun,” said Hay on the latest episode of The Phil Hay Show podcast [10 March, 26m40s].
“It’s like stonewashed jeans, isn’t it? It’s just a bit of an irrelevance and I think the one thing you have to accept about Marsch is that yes, he is part of the Red Bull stable and he did start in the States and was at New York Red Bulls for a while.
“But he’s coached in Europe for quite a while now, he said himself he wanted to come to Europe because, in his view, Europe grasps football far better than America does. I don’t think that’s really an insult, I think that’s just a fact, it’s far more ingrained in European culture than it is over in American.
“He is a coach who has quite a European history and has been around for quite some time and I don’t see the Americanisms are in any way relevant.”
Crazy
If Leeds had hired an English manager and he did a huddle after the game, would it even have been a talking point?
It’s crazy that something that not many of us would have batted an eyelid at has been so closely examined by sections of the media.
The Gabby Agbonlahors and Andy Grays of the footballing world have had a field day with it. ‘Oh look, an American manager is doing something, let’s ridicule him’.
That’s basically the reaction to anything that happens with Marsch while we also get the sense that there’s a heightened reaction due to the fact he’s in charge of Leeds.
Marcelo Bielsa had his peculiar ways but do we really think he’d have got the attention he did get at Elland Road if he was in charge of another team?
Probably not.
Leeds are a massive club and it seems as though their current and previous managers are two managers who do things slightly differently.
But wouldn’t football be boring if every manager was as plain as Frank Lampard?
In other Leeds United news, a commentator is raging over embarrassing journalism after a video clip of Marsch emerged.