Diego Martinez turned down the Getafe job as he awaits a move to the Premier League, La Razon reported of a man who could replace Marcelo Bielsa’s in the Leeds United dugout.
Whoever takes the place of Leeds’ finest manager since the legendary Don Revie will need cajones the size of planets.
Because not only has the mercurial Bielsa scribed his name into Elland Road folklore – transforming the club from Championship also-rans into the ninth-best team in England – he also has a tight-knit squad playing the sort of football few would have dreamed they were capable off, turning Luke Ayling, Liam Cooper and Stuart Dallas into top-flight stars and Kalvin Phillips into England’s Player of the Year.
But it must be said that Martinez has a lot in common with Bielsa – even if there are 26 years and a wealth of coaching experience between them.
Could Diego Martinez succeed Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United?
The 40-year-old Spaniard took over a Granada side stuck in the second tier back in 2018 and transformed them into one of La Liga’s most competitive sides, guiding a team far greater than the sum of its parts to the verge of the Europa League semi-finals along the way.
What’s more, Martinez already has an excellent relationship with a man who will be handed the unenviable task of replacing the irreplaceable, assuming Bielsa strolls off into the West Yorkshire sunset when his contract expires next summer, his upturned bucket laying hauntingly bare.
Martinez and Victor Orta worked together behind the scenes at Sevilla a decade ago.
And, according to Onda Cero, the latter has identified the former as one of the leading candidates to take Bielsa’s place.
It is understood that Martinez, who walked away from Granada in May, recently turned down the Getafe job too, as he waits for an opening in the Premier League.
Martinez was linked with Watford prior to the appointment of Claudio Ranieri but, as reported by The Athletic, no offer was forthcoming from the Hornets.
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