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Topics: Leeds United, Marcelo Bielsa, Premier League
Jack Kenmare
Leeds United manager Jesse Marsch has been told he should leave the club at the end of the season, even if he does manage to save them from Premier League relegation.
The 48-year-old American was appointed as head coach on a three-and-a-half-year deal in March following the departure of Marcelo Bielsa, who helped end Leeds' 16-year wait for Premier League status.
He enjoyed some early success with the Whites, including a dramatic 3-2 win against Wolves, but the club are currently sat in the relegation zone with 34 points as they prepare to face Chelsea, Brighton and Brentford in the final weeks of the season.
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Leeds have only picked up 11 points from nine games under Marsch – a total that has come under some criticism from fans, but Stan Collymore believes Marsch is "carrying the can" for Marcelo Bielsa's past failings.
He believes the club were left in an "absolute mess" by their former manager. In fact, Collymore feels Marsch should "pack his bags" and leave Elland Road at the end of the season.
"If I was Jesse Marsch, I’d pack my bags at the end of the season and get myself back to the Bundesliga or a big job in the MLS," Collymore said in his column for The Mirror.
"Because the narrative I’m hearing from Leeds fans right now tells me so many of them have disappeared down the rabbit hole of the cult of personality that I find it, frankly, astonishing.
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"There seems to be absolutely no dissection of the job Marcelo Bielsa did and the state he left their club in. Instead, it’s all, ‘This is really bad from Marsch and we sacked a legend, an icon, for it. Why?'"
Former Liverpool, Aston Villa and Leicester striker Collymore goes on to defend Leeds' current manager.
"Marsch has come in and given your club a fighting chance of staying up, even if ultimately he fails," he added.
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"The idea that, ‘This isn’t for us, this is rubbish’, is laughable because it was properly rubbish when Leeds were losing by threes and fours under Bielsa and had the worst goal difference in the league.
"He did 95 per cent of the damage in that time by not going into games with a system of play which could give his side a chance to get enough points on the board and keep goal difference at a level that, in the squeaky bum time of the season, would mean they could still be competitive.
"He just kept trying to thrill and saying ‘This is the way I play’."
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Collymore added: "Marsch is now having to put them through two sessions a day to try to sow some different thoughts into their minds and it cannot be done, because it was Bielsa’s way or the highway for too long and everyone who grew under the Argentinian is not going to be for learning quick enough in the last few games.
"So it has zero to do with Marsch, who has only done what any other manager worth his salt would have done if they’d come into this situation."
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