‘I didn’t expect to be here’: Michael Skubala, Leeds’ accidental manager

M ichael Skubala was not joking when he suggested Sean Dyche might struggle to recognise him were they to bump into each other in the street. “I’ve met Sean a couple of times,” said the Leeds caretaker manager. “But he probably doesn’t remember me.”

He and Dyche should be rather better acquainted by the end of Saturday afternoon’s Premier League fixture at Goodison Park, where the latter is hoping his new Everton side can leapfrog Leeds and, for the moment at least, escape the bottom three.

It promises to be an intriguing tactical duel between the alpha male Dyche and the former England futsal coach who readily acknowledges he is very much an accidental manager.

Although there were times during Dyche’s Burnley tenure when he and Everton made eyes at each other, Skubala was never meant to leave his role as Leeds’ Under-21 manager to fill in for the sacked Jesse Marsch, quite possibly until the end of the season.

“I didn’t expect to be here to be honest,” acknowledges the 40-year-old former PE teacher who knows that decent results at Everton and at home against Southampton next weekend would secure him the post until June. “I’m happy in my Under-21 role. Rightly or wrongly, I have no planned route in coaching. I just enjoy the job. I’m doing from day to day and try to get the best out of players.”

Nonetheless Skubala has been “relishing every minute” since the “white smoke” that the Leeds owner, Andrea Radrizzani, had promised would waft over West Yorkshire failed to materialise and at least three potential successors to Marsch ended up remaining in their managerial roles.

With Chris Armas, Marsch’s former assistant, having been at Leeds barely a fortnight, the articulate, intelligent Skubala duly found himself promoted