"Told.." - Journalist drops surprising behind-scenes Leeds claim, fans will be gutted - opinion

Leeds United agreed a deal with Jesse Marsch a week prior to Marcelo Bielsa’s dismissal.

That’s according to a surprising claim made by Ben Jacobs, with the CBS journalist revealing in a post on Twitter that Andrea Radrizzani and Victor Orta had agreed a verbal contract with the 48-year-old coach before Leeds’ 4-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday.

Jacobs goes on to suggest that the former New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Salzburg and RB Leipzig manager was in line to replace the 66-year-old Argentine at the end of the current campaign, however, following the club’s recent run of poor results, a decision was made to fast-track the American’s appointment at Elland Road.

In his post, the journalist said: “Told Marsch now in Leeds and LUFC had lined up a verbal agreement at least a week before the loss to Spurs. Reason Leeds have moved so quickly was because they’d sounded Marsch out for a summer move. Unclear if Bielsa was resigned to leaving at end of season but it looks like a May change was agreed regardless of form under him. Appointing Marsch now is just fast-tracking a board plan.”

While it is true that Leeds’ recent results have not been good enough, with the Whites ending February with a record of one draw and three losses, as well as conceding a whopping 14 times in the same period, considering just how much Bielsa had done for the club in his near four-year stay, the fact that the Argentine was not given the opportunity to finish the current campaign is sure to have left fans gutted.

Indeed, while Marsch could well prove to be a good appointment in the long run, in a poll recently ran on Football FanCast, the vast majority of Leeds supporters made it clear that they felt Bielsa should have been given the