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Sky Sports pundit claims only one manager capable of replacing Bielsa at Leeds
Sky Sports pundit Curtis Davies believes that only one man is capable of taking over from Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United – and he’s not convinced that Carlos Corberan is ready for such a big job.
Bielsa has dropped a big hint that he wants to stay at Leeds beyond the end of this season, but only ever signs one-year deals. He’s also said that the Leeds project “surpasses” him as a coach.
Andrea Radrizzani has admitted that Leeds are looking at succession plans just in case.
Corberan was Bielsa’s second in command, in charge of the Under-23s, before moving to take the first-team job at Huddersfield.
Huddersfield are currently struggling in 18th in the Championship.
Talking on The Football Show (Sky Sports, Tuesday, 11am), Davies said replacing Bielsa would be extremely difficult.
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“That’s going to be the most difficult part because it’s such a unique way of doing things, the way they train,” Davies said.
“Bielsa has had the buy-in of double and triple [training] sessions, making them the team they are.
“The only other option they’ve got in terms of someone who’s trying to do it is the manager of Huddersfield because he was his assistant.
“But is he going to be at that level by then to take over fully and be ready for Bielsa ball at Leeds? It’s difficult to say.
“The key is to keep hold of him for as long as possible, to give them more experience and more time in the Premier League.
“It’s going to be very difficult to find anyone to come in and do what Bielsa does.”
Corberan not the man
It’s true that it’s going to take a special manager to come in and take Leeds to even bigger heights after Bielsa, but at some point that’s what’s going to have to happen.
We want Bielsa to stay as long as possible but this is a project that will have an end date.
Bielsa is 65 and his family is back in Argentina. He can’t stay at Leeds forever.
We think we need at least two more seasons with him and ideally three or four.
That will give us two summers to strengthen the squad to the point that we’re a top-six or top-eight side, with players that other managers can work with.
We don’t think any other manager could have got this team out of the Championship and playing like this in the Premier League.
Some of our promotion heroes will have to go to make way for players that can see the rest of the project through. The Leeds project surpasses some of them, too.
As for Corberan, he’s nowhere near ready to take over a team like Leeds United and we don’t think he will be by the time Bielsa leaves.
We’d like Brendan Rodgers as our next manager. But we’re not ready to think about life without Bielsa at the moment.
In other Leeds United news, ‘Massive’ – Exclusive: Pundit reacts to early Leeds team news v Southampton