Gary Neville slams Leeds United hierarchy for poor planning and naive managerial hunt
Gary Neville has slammed the Leeds United hierarchy for their naivety and arrogance shown in the search for Jesse Marsch’s successor at Elland Road.
Turbulence at the West Yorkshire club hit a new high following the dismal 1-0 defeat to Everton, in which Michael Skubala was tasked with leading the side after the club’s failure to find a suitable managerial candidate in the last fortnight.
Speaking on The Gary Neville Podcast (Sunday 19 February, 32:30), the Sky Sports pundit was baffled as to how the club failed to have a contingency plan in place or a manager lined up who could take charge of the team straight away.
He said: “Sometimes it can be poor planning, it can sometimes be a little bit of arrogance – both, probably – that you think you can sack your manager and think ‘don’t worry, we’ll get one of the ones that we want’ and all of a sudden they all turn you down or they all aren’t available.
“That can happen, and that’s usually naivety that causes that, where you sort of get above your station and think you can just bring anyone in that you want.
“From Leeds’ point of view, you have to look above the players and you have to look above the current interim manager and you have to say it isn’t looking particularly great on their part at this moment in time.
“In terms of how they’ve dealt with the sacking of a manager, you need a seamless transition to settle the changing room down and settle the fanbase down.”
Shambles
Neville is quite right in his assessment of Leeds’ hunt for a new manager – it has been an absolute shambles.
When a club sacks a manager mid-way through the season, let alone when they are sat within the clutches of relegation, 99% of the time, the club’s hierarchy has names on paper who can take the reins pretty swiftly.
What followed Marsch’s sacking at Leeds was the complete opposite of a proper plan. From the outside looking in, it seemed like Victor Orta and Andrea Radrizzani were approaching every manager under the sun in a bid to appoint a successor to Marsch – but all of whom were still currently in jobs.
The likes of West Brom manager Carlos Corberan and Andoni Iraola at Rayo Vallecano were never going to leave their clubs mid-season unless everything lined up perfectly. In both cases, this unfortunately did not happen.
Now, Skubala has been left with the tough task of unifying the club at one of its lowest points and trying to navigate the team away from the relegation zone.
In other Leeds United news, click here to see breaking, around-the-clock updates on Leeds’ search for a new manager in our interactive live blog.
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