The stakes could hardly be higher for Jesse Marsch as he begins his rescue attempt at Leeds.
Marsch has been confirmed as Marcelo Bielsa’s successor at Leeds and the American former RB Leipzig and Red Bull Salzburg coach has been thrown in at the deep end.
Not only is Leeds’ Premier League future up for grabs, but those of their two most-coveted stars Kalvin Phillips and Raphinha.
Relegation back to the Championship after just two seasons in the Premier League would be disastrous for Leeds.
Not only would it undo all the good work of the last four years, it would almost certainly spell the end of Raphinha and Phillips' Leeds careers.
Raphinha quit Rennes, despite the Ligue 1 side being in the Champions League, in October 2020 to move to Elland Road because he saw Leeds as a step up.
The Brazil winger is ambitious and he will not want to play in the Championship, especially in a World Cup year.
Raphinha has already attracted interest from the likes of Liverpool, Manchester City, West Ham and Bayern Munich and Leeds’ relegation would spark a fight for his signature this summer.
Leeds are in talks with the Samba star over new terms and want to insure his value should he want to leave in the future.
But this strategy would be severely undermined if they went down and they would be forced to cash in on Raphinha.
Leeds would also face a fight to hang on to Phillips and the England midfielder, who is almost ready to return following hamstring surgery in December, is coveted by West Ham and Manchester United.
Phillips turned down interest from Burnley and Aston Villa to stay with Leeds in 2019 after they missed out on promotion in Marcelo Bielsa’s first season because he could not bring himself to leave his beloved Leeds.
But he will have to let his head rule his heart if Leeds are relegated because of the impact it would have on his career.
Phillips has established himself in Gareth Southgate’s England squad, but he could find his position under severe threat ahead of the World Cup if he is playing in the Championship next season.
That’s why it’s so important that Marsch engineers an escape act.
His appointment is a huge gamble by Leeds and he will have to learn about the unique demands of the Premier League on the job.
Marsch had great success at Salzburg and won the Austrian league and cup double in successive seasons, but he lasted just four months in the Bundesliga at Leipzig.
There were extenuating circumstances and Leipzig were in transition following the departures last summer of coach Julian Nagelsmann and stars such as Ibrahima Konate and Dayot Upamecano.
Marsch, 48, met the Leeds players for the first time on Monday and he must hit the ground running in his first match against Leicester on Saturday.
His first objective will be to shore up the leakiest defence in the Premier League and Leeds have conceded 60 goals this season, including 17 in their current run of four successive defeats.
Leeds have huge confidence in Marsch and director of football Victor Orta has been tracking him since he was at Salzburg.
He feels the former US international is similar in style to Bielsa and can build on his foundations.
Leeds do not want a reboot and instead want Marsch to tweak what Bielsa has done to get them winning again.
That is his first objective and not only do Leeds feel he can achieve this, they believe he can turn them into European challengers.
He has signed a contract until June 2025 and as much as the club’s hierarchy loved Bielsa, they found it hard to plan long-term when there was always a question mark over his long-term future.
Now they, and the rest of the footballing world, will find out if their instincts about Marsch are correct.
