Leeds target interim manager after move for Andoni Iraola fails
Leeds seem increasingly likely to make a short-term, interim managerial appointment until the end of the season as it becomes clear that Andoni Iraola is unwilling to leave Rayo Vallecano before the summer.
The Leeds board held discussions about potential candidates for that role on Monday, with just about the only certainty being that Alfred Schreuder will not be Jesse Marsch’s successor.
Schreuder was at Elland Road on Sunday to see Leeds lose 2-0 to Manchester United and talked to executives about the vacancy after the match but the former Ajax head coach had flown to England partly to catch up with two old friends in the visiting manager, Erik ten Hag, and Ten Hag’s assistant, Steve McClaren. Schreuder was McClaren’s No 2 for a time at FC Twente.
Schreuder, who lost his job at Ajax a fortnight ago after seven games without a win, was one of a number of managers to have had conversations with Victor Orta, Leeds’s director of football, and his fellow executives over the weekend.
Although the publicity surrounding Schreuder’s appearance can not have harmed his hunt for a job, it went down badly with Leeds fans who crave a manager with a more impressive CV to succeed Marsch. A week after the American’s sacking, though, Leeds have not made the progress they had hoped.
Last week they were rejected by Feyenoord’s Arne Slot and another contender, Carlos Corberán, signed a new contract at West Brom. Leeds have a real interest in three, possibly four, managers, but all look unavailable until the end of the season.
Foremost on that list is Iraola, but Leeds are close to accepting he cannot be prised away until June at the earliest. With the much-admired Marcelo Gallardo, who left River Plate last October, also unwilling to join a club during a campaign, Leeds have turned their attention to potential interim managers capable of rescuing the team from relegation.
Despite the caretaker, Michael Skubala, presiding over two decent performances as Leeds drew 2-2 at Old Trafford last Wednesday before losing to Ten Hag’s side four days later, the club hope to have a new man at the helm in time for Saturday’s relegation six-pointer at Everton.
That game is followed by a similarly high-stakes fixture when struggling Southampton visit seven days later. In one of those coincidences with which football abounds, Marsch is high on Southampton’s shortlist to replace Nathan Jones, .