Leeds target interim manager after move for Andoni Iraola fails

Leeds seem increasingly likely to make a short-term, interim managerial appointment until the end of the season as it becomes clear that Andoni Iraola is unwilling to leave Rayo Vallecano before the summer.

The Leeds board held discussions about potential candidates for that role on Monday, with just about the only certainty being that Alfred Schreuder will not be Jesse Marsch’s successor.

Schreuder was at Elland Road on Sunday to see Leeds lose 2-0 to Manchester United and talked to executives about the vacancy after the match but the former Ajax head coach had flown to England partly to catch up with two old friends in the visiting manager, Erik ten Hag, and Ten Hag’s assistant, Steve McClaren. Schreuder was McClaren’s No 2 for a time at FC Twente.

Schreuder, who lost his job at Ajax a fortnight ago after seven games without a win, was one of a number of managers to have had conversations with Victor Orta, Leeds’s director of football, and his fellow executives over the weekend.

Although the publicity surrounding Schreuder’s appearance at Elland Road cannot have harmed his hunt for a job, it went down badly with Leeds fans who crave a manager with a more impressive CV to succeed Marsch.

A week after the American’s sacking though Leeds have not made the progress they had hoped for in identifying a replacement.

Last week they were rejected by Feyenoord’s Arne Slot and another contender, Carlos Corberán, signed a new contract at West Brom. Leeds have a real interest in three, possibly four, managers but all look unavailable until the summer.

Foremost on that list is Iraola but Leeds are close to accepting he cannot be prised away from the La Liga club until June at the earliest.

With the much-admired Marcelo Gallardo, who