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Another day, another trip down the “who is Leeds United going to hire now” lane, with denials, rumors, and outright falsehoods being spread on Twitter. Ranieri’s agent says that “he’s had no contact” and isn’t in the running for the job at Elland Road. Even Alan Pardew, despite being the bookies’ favorite, apparently isn’t in the running either.
I've made enquiries about Pardew at the Leeds end. Been told unequivocally that he isn't being considered.
— Phil Hay (@PhilHayYEP) June 7, 2017
But why are almost all of the candidates from the UK? Even the “foreign” ones, like Juande Ramos or Claudio Ranieri, are men that have managed in England before. Why would a newcomer to England and football ownership limit himself to only looking at managers with history in England?
So far, Radrizzani has hired Ivan Bravo and Victor Orta to run the football operations at the club. Bravo made his name at Real Madrid before moving to run the Aspire Academy in Qatar, which Radrizzani really admired and brought him aboard because of the work he did there. Victor Orta made his name at Sevilla before moving first to Zenit St. Petersburg and then back to La Liga at Elche CF before coming to Middlesbrough. Orta has even hired a scout from Sevilla, Dani Salas, to move to Leeds.
Why would Radrizzani break with his apparent philosophy of looking at Spain, or people that were successful in Spain, to suddenly hire an also-ran Premier League manager? It’s shocking that Sam Allardyce and David Moyes haven’t been favorites so far, but the week is still young.
David Moyes has gone from being compared to Sir Alex and Arsene Wenger to destroying United, Sociedad and Sunderland in the space of 4 years
— Pogboom (@CruiseFootball) May 22, 2017
Rather than look to England for potential candidates, why not look at some up and coming managers from La Liga? We floated the name Mauricio Pellegrino after his work at Deportivo Alaves this past year, and names like his will be more likely to be named than another failed English manager.
Radrizzani appears to be wanting to bring a more “continental” feel to the club with the appointment of a Director of Football, and it only makes sense to bring in a manager who is comfortable with this set-up. It also makes sense that he would try to bring in someone who Orta may be comfortable with, since the two of them will be charting the future at Elland Road for the foreseeable future.
So when you see a bunch of names like Pardew or Allardyce or even Sean Dyche bandied around on Twitter ask yourself, why would the new ownership look to them? The new people in charge have look to Spain for all the other positions, so why not manager?