One week ago, Leeds United were preparing to announce the extension of Michael Skubala’s caretaker reign across the club’s “upcoming fixtures.” This was shorthand for Everton and Southampton before reassessing the team’s performances and how the land lay with Victor Orta’s ongoing head coach search.
With the original quest for Jesse Marsch’s successor stymied by uncooperative clubs employing successful head coaches, the backlash against Alfred Schreuder’s sighting at Elland Road opened up the Skubala route. The under-21 chief had done well in the Manchester United matches and curried favour with first-team players who were suggesting Skubala get the gig on a longer-term basis.
The search would press on, the wait for top targets to become available would stretch out, but in the meantime, Skubala would mind the shop and keep United noses clean. Worst fears were realised on Saturday, however.
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United knew there was an element of risk in allowing Skubala to push on with so much at stake. The trip to Goodison Park could barely have exposed it in a more ruthless fashion.
The Whites got nowhere near Sean Dyche’s Everton. The anger in the away corner’s chants about the board and Orta only rammed home the reality of 19th in the league table with a caretaker boss at the helm and 15 games to go.
The prospect of taking Saturday’s pain into a home match, against the division’s worst team, still without a permanent firefighter at the wheel was surely too much to bear. Had Southampton, fresh from an unbelievable win at Chelsea, drawn first blood at Elland Road, with Skubala still picking his way through fragments of a mess he did not create, the directors’ box is sure to have felt the heat of 30,000-plus supporters.
It could not be allowed to happen. Keeping Skubala in the firing line for one of Elland Road’s biggest matches in recent history would have bordered on negligence.
If the club could not land their top-rung targets then they needed to drop down the list and find somebody, with some semblance of frontline experience in the top flight, to restore some order to this relegation dogfight. They needed a figurehead and someone the team and fans could believe in, could rally behind.
They needed someone quickly too. The Southampton match was only ticking closer and closer. A Thursday or Friday appointment would have allowed no time for preparation and, even as it is, paperwork could yet hold things up for a dugout appearance.
Javi Gracia ticked the boxes needed. Out of work, available quickly and recent experience of Premier League success, with a dash of FA Cup magic dusted on top.
While the appointment has been announced, the club have admitted they still need to wait for the final bits of paperwork to clear if the Spaniard is to make Saturday his debut. The directors’ box will be hoping he makes it to the touchline.
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