Bringing Mother Teresa to the white-hot heat of a relegation battle

With his Leeds side in the relegation zone and just three games remaining, Jesse Marsch needs all the help he can get to keep them up. The excitable American has proved a welcome addition to the Premier League since stepping into the extremely big boots vacated by the saintly Marcelo Bielsa and has now revealed he would be calling on the combined forces of luminaries such as Mahatma Gandhi and JFK in a bid to motivate his players for their crucial ding-dong against Chelsea at Elland Road.

“I have hundreds of quotes I use at different moments,” mused Marsch, piquing the interest of reporters who realised they were about to be given some juicy quotes to reproduce in their newspapers. “I try to think how they fit with who I am and how we play football. I love quotes, learning from people of the past. Sports figures, historical figures, whatever. The key is understanding what messages to use at the right time. I use things that resonate with me … there are historical figures, Gandhi, Mother Teresa, presidents like John F Kennedy.”

While cynics might dismiss this as hokum, there’s certainly a time and a place for this sort of motivational speaking. However, The Fiver can’t help but feel that the time and place for Marsch to quote some of Gandhi’s fabled peace, love and understanding was at approximately 2.25pm last Sunday at the Emirates Stadium, specifically in the direction of Luke Ayling. Had he said “in a gentle way, Luke, you can shake the world”, the stand-in right-back might have resisted the urge to recklessly plough through Gabriel Martinelli and earn himself a red card that means he’ll sit out the rest of the season on the Naughty Step. His absence could cost Leeds extremely dearly.

Channeling his own Mother Teresa,