Mighty Leeds Weblog

LOST IN CHARGE Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman The problem with sending Jesse Marsch out of Elland Road is that he takes with him the credibility that, following promotion in 2020, should have ensured Andrea Radrizzani’s ownership was written gratefully into Leeds United history. Choosing a coach to follow Marcelo Bielsa was always going to be the key test of what Radrizzani, Angus Kinnear and Victor Orta brought to Elland Road, and with the grintastic group photo they gathered for with their new man in March, they put everything on the line with him. Now he’s gone, in circumstances that feel familiar. For Jesse Marsch read Thomas Christiansen, and read a doomed repeat of the strategy Victor Orta and Andrea Radrizzani screamed their way out of in summer 2018. The idea in summer 2017 was that the board wanted a manager who would grow and improve alongside the team, developing young players who would become worth big transfer fees in the process. So they identified Thomas C...

DESERVE WHAT'S OBTAINED Written by: Moscowhite • Daniel Chapman From out of the fog this was some Arsenal we’ve seen before, in Leeds United’s last season in the Premier League in 2003/04, when the Gunners came to Elland Road and won 4-1 in the league, 4-1 in the FA Cup, saving a 5-0 beating for Highbury in April. Leeds fans were just shrugging by that point, as Thierry Henry scored four, sprinting through a defence of Stephen Caldwell and Michael Duberry, a midfield featuring Lucas Radebe and Dom Matteo unable to protect them. A side with Champions League class had been dismantled: Martyn, Ferdinand, Woodgate, Dacourt, Bowyer, Kewell, Keane, Fowler, all gone in two seasons. Too many in too short a time for any team to cope with. The present Leeds team have lost as many first team players in a couple of weeks and a 4-1 defeat to Arsenal was inevitable and historically too tidy. (Arsenal won by the same score at Elland Road in September 2002, when Leeds were still good in theo...

Marcelo Bielsa will prove a hard act to follow when the time comes for the Argentine to leave Leeds United. By Flora Snelson Bielsa has set a very high standard for Whites bosses to come, both on and off the pitch, delivering Leeds’ long-awaited promotion to the Premier League and earning the respect of the city and the global fanbase. But Elland Road has not always been blessed with such talent and dignity. We’ve worked out the club’s best and worst managers over the last 30 years, ranking them in order of win percentage. Included are every manager who’s taken charge of the Whites on a matchday since 1991, caretakers and all. 1 - Marcelo Bielsa - 51.7% 77 wins in 149 games officially makes Marcelo Bielsa the best Leeds United manager of the past thirty years. To the majority of Whites fans, Bielsa was something of a non-entity when he arrived at the club in the summer of 2018. He soon found his way into the hearts of the Elland Road faithful for his humble ways and enterta...