How ‘easy target’ Jesse Marsch can win over the Leeds United fans and succeed ‘icon’ Marcelo Bielsa

When the sacking of your predecessor prompts fans to head to the training ground for one final, tearful, embrace you know you have big shoes to fill.

Such is the task Jesse Marsch has signed up for as the latest manager of Leeds United. In succeeding Marcelo Bielsa, he is not just replacing a manager, he is following an icon, a legend, a beloved, revered figure.

Not since Chelsea split with Jose Mourinho for the first time in 2007 or Tottenham moved on from Mauricio Pochettino in 2019 has a Premier League club willingly parted ways with such a popular, seemingly untouchable manager.

Cushioned by Roman Abramovich’s wealth, Chelsea continued to do just fine. On the flipside, Spurs are on their third permanent manager since deciding Poch was expendable.

From a purely footballing sense ditching Bielsa looks justified. Leeds are in free fall, shipping goals at an alarming rate and staring down the barrel of a relegation dogfight that, under the Argentine, they looked ill-equipped to survive.

Bielsa’s achievement in taking Leeds from Championship purgatory to thrilling Premier League resurgence has rightly been celebrated. It is also correct to state just how much he got out of a modest squad and how badly Leeds have been affected by injuries. But that doesn’t mean Leeds were wrong to sack him.

In his place they have chosen a man with no Premier League experience and an American accent — always an easy target for the doubters.

Any pundits harbouring reservations about Marsch’s credentials were probably also among those claiming Bielsa had been found out and paid the price for his stubborn refusal to change his ways.

But the Argentine, himself untested on these shores when he pitched up at Elland Road, proved the traditionalists wrong