Former Leeds United manager Simon Grayson believes the Premier League strugglers remain a ‘huge attraction for anybody’ while taking up the potential appointment of West Brom boss Carlos Corberan, speaking to talkSPORT (6 February, 3pm).
Maybe the Baggies new what was coming.
According to the Daily Mail, West Brom are already planning to offer Corberan a new contract, a matter of months after the Spaniard took over from Steve Bruce and turned a side with relegation fears into genuine play-off candidates.
Perhaps they predicted that, with Jesse Marsch hanging by a thread at Elland Road, it was only a matter of time being Corberan was installed as the favourite to take his place. Then again, there were no crystal balls required here.
Corberan, after all, spent three years working alongside Marcelo Bielsa in West Yorkshire, before making his name as one of the game’s brightest coaching talents at Huddersfield Town and West Brom.
And, inevitably, 90Min report that Corberan is already the early ‘frontrunner’ to take over at Leeds with Marsch’s sacking – in the aftermath of Sunday’s 1-0 defeat at Nottingham Forest – now officially confirmed.
Will Carlos Corberan replace Jesse Marsch as Leeds United manager?
“Look, I totally agree (that the Corberan links make sense),” says Grayson, who mastermined Leeds’ famous FA Cup triumph over bitter rivals Manchester United in 2010.
“What they tried to do (after Bielsa’s exit) was to get somebody who plays in as similar way; high intensity, getting the ball back as quickly as possible. Carlos has done that for many years alongside Bielsa.
“That would probably be the one that everybody would talk about, because it’s all aligned together. Whether they can get him, whether he wants to leave West Brom…
“Leeds is a huge football club, and a huge attraction for anybody who is in or out of work.”
39-year-old Corberan guided Huddersfield into the Championship’s top-six against all the odds last season. He is under contract until 2025 at the Hawthorns. And, with a return to the top-flight up for grabs, West Brom will not let their talismanic tactician go without one hell of a fight.
“You can tell me that there are rumours this week. Another week the rumour disappears,” Corberan told the Birmingham Mail recently, distancing himself from any distractions. “My focus is my work.
“In front of me at this club, there are many challenges. We will have moments where things are going well and we are winning games. And there will be difficult moments. This is the work of the coach, to face the difficult moments we have.
“This is my focus. I am very pleased to be working here. I’ve said before that these things cannot change.”
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