Sky Sports share if Leeds United have number one choice to replace Jesse Marsch, Raul on the list
Leeds United still don’t have a top candidate to replace Jesse Marsch as manager and are just exploring the options, Sky Sports’ Mark McAdam reports.
The American was fired on Monday after another Premier League defeat, 1-0 at Nottingham Forest on Sunday (5 February), and while various candidates are reportedly in the running there have not yet been any approaches and there isn’t even a primary option from the list that includes five named coaches.
McAdam reported that Celtic boss Ange Postecoglou is someone who has been monitored at Elland Road for some time, and Real Madrid legend Raul is being looked at, while he also named former boss Marcelo Bielsa, West Brom’s Carlos Corberan and Rayo Vallecano manager Andoni Iraola as linked.
Speaking live on Sky Sports News on Tuesday morning (7 February), in a clip posted on the channel’s Twitter, McAdam said of Bielsa: “It’s our information that he won’t be the next Leeds manager, but you never say never in football.”
He said Corberan is “very popular and highly regarded by Victor Orta and those at the top of the football club”, while also mentioning La Liga over-achiever Iraola, then added of Postecoglou that “he’s a name that they’ve been monitoring for some time”.
He went on, in a clip posted on Football Daily’s Twitter, to speak about Raul and the overall state of the race, saying: “They spoke to him when they were looking to replace Marcelo Bielsa, he’s someone they’ve spoken to and identified as a potential future Leeds manager…
“Leeds [are] certainly looking at him as a potential candidate. He’ll be on that list, but there are a number of names on that list, so it’s not like they’ve gone out and identified their number one target yet. They’re just looking at the options.
“It’s also important to say they haven’t made any official approach for anyone as of yet. They are starting this long process that they are hoping to make very short as they look to make a swift appointment.”
Delay
Marsch has been on the hot seat for months now, and it is believed that he came close to losing his job earlier in the season.
So the hierarchy surely should have been making contingency plans in the background to ensure the change could be made as quick as possible.
Already the first of two clashes with Manchester United will come too soon for a new permanent boss to be in place, and the more matches that pass with the temporary arrangement the longer it is before the next manager can start to get their ideas into the squad.
Whether the fact that Orta was such a strong backer of Marsch has prevented ground work from being done towards his replacement is open to speculation.
But since the previous boss was not in a secure position for a significant amount of time, lining someone up in case a change was to be made would have been the sensible move.
It sounds like the Whites are not quite starting from scratch now but aren’t far past that, which isn’t conducive to a quick replacement with minimal upheaval.
Postecoglou has got a track record of winning titles and rejuvenating a big club so makes a lot of sense, but whether he would leave another likely league-winning season at this point is another matter, and AS reported Monday that Raul has already turned Leeds United down.
So there is clearly a lot of work to be done, and some of these candidates are going to fall away, none of which particularly suggests this has been planned properly, so soon after a transfer window that felt like it was.
In other Leeds United news, a Champions League winner is available and has friends on the Whites board.