As the Saints go Marsching In: Jesse Marsch rumored to lead race for Southampton job

I have zero inside information, but can make an educated guess that Leicester at least indicated they were willing to discuss a long term contract… otherwise why would talks have even began, after the Southampton talks broke down for the same reason. Very possible that Leicester fans’ reaction (seemingly very negative) made them go back on that and only offer til the end of the season. I feel bad for Jesse, very unlucky at Leeds, seemingly blacklisted from every English club due to Ted Lasso syndrome. If a 49 year old English manager had the same resume, you better believe he’d get a ton of opportunities.

 

If fan response actually was a factor, then Jesse is in a real bad spot in England. No PL fanbase should be agitating for the appointment of Dean Smith...

 

Really starting to look like Jesse was actually doing some good work with Leeds, although Leeds fans would never admit it. Their GD has gone from -8 thru 20 games under Jesse to -24 in just 14 more matches. And that’s having added McKennie, Wober, and Rutter, most of whom Jesse did not have available. You could argue Adams being out has also had a big effect on the downturn.

Leeds fans complained under Jesse that they didn’t care for good performances, only good results. Well now they’ve got bad performances and worse results, so yeah…. Couldn’t happen to a nicer group of fans (sarcasm).


If Jesse doesn’t end up with the usmnt, it seems possible we could see him back in the EPL before we see Leeds back there. The relegation escape last year and Leeds (further) downturn after he left take some of the stink off the winless streak at the end of his tenure there.

 

An article from The Athletic paints a fair-but-unflattering picture of Marsch's time at LUFC:

A few excerpts for those without a subscription:

On Jesse's staff choices:

Jesse was in trouble all the way back in October:

The article later insinuates that Orta was the only one who prevented Marsch from getting the axe until the loss to Forrest in February.


LUFC staffers were baffled when Marsch was linked to the Southampton job:

LUFC (or possibly just Gracia, this section is worded weirdly) appears to blame the squad's inability to implement Gracia's tactics well on Marsch's pre-season. This seems preposterous to me, but... hey, I'm not a professional soccer player so what do I know:

And finally, while this doesn't relate directly to Jesse Marsch, I found this tidbit really interesting. Despite the fan's opinions and the press' reporting, the feeling inside of the club from both the staff and the players was that they needed to move on from Bielsa:

Meanwhile, down in the comments section, Leeds supporters dismiss this as Radrizanni propaganda and claim that it's smearing Bielsa's good name.

 

It just goes to show you what kind of anti-American, pro-Hispanic/Euro cult these people are in. A lot of them have glowing Bielsa avatars still on social media. His final year they were in worse form than they were even in Marsch's run. But they ignore that, and blame Marsch for everything. He even gets blamed for the dip on Gracia's watch.

Their fans were clamoring for Carlos Corberan, the man who had a negative goal differential at every stop, up until this partial season at WBA. Incidentally, their fans are still gushing for him, in spite of losing 3 of the last 4, to miss the promotional playoffs, when they were a yo-yo club historically. Wonder if that would still be the case if he were American.

 

Yeah, the way Marsch still gets blamed for Gracia's failure is remarkable... I do wonder if any other South American manager would've fostered as much love at Leeds as Bielsa. I'm not enmeshed enough in the politics of England to understand where Leeds stands on the "conservative / liberal" spectrum, but I do know that they fancy themselves a working man's town. Bielsa's ideology plays into the town's identity: he's a big believer that the game is for the fans, and there are tons of anecdotes about him humbling his players in an effort to remind them how much work a fan has to do in order to afford a ticket.

His humble populism that puts the fans first might help to explain why Leeds supporters continue to pine for him when his last 10 matches in charge resulted in a record of 2-7-1 and a GD of -18. And cutting it off at his last 10 in charge omits his massive 0-7 thumping by Man City.

 

I get the love for Bielsa honestly. Having been on Leeds boards they flat out say that before he got there, thr team had no vision for so long and was so dysfunctional and Bielsa made them matter again.

End of the day, Leeds had a great run that just ran out of steam. Unfortunately they've also really struggled to find capable replacements (as a whole).

I'm sure Jesse will get another chance in Europe. The opinion I've seen most is that no he didn't do well at Leeds (duh) and had issues tactically but he was also unlucky and opinion seems to be turning towards Leeds just being a disaster

 

The fans were over Bielsa already. El Loco is a theoretician, he's better at creating top coaches than at coaching himself, I think that is known. Although he tends to have long-lasting positive effects on teams he coaches.

The bit about Marsch being to blame for Gracia sucking is ridiculous. But The Athletic is a bit click-baity, so I wouldn't be too surprised if they're overplaying the anti-American angle some.

From what I read and chatted with the fans, while they were not excited with Marsch, over half were fine giving him a full season, feeling he had earned it. Later they turned on him, but fans always turn on a losing manager, wherever he's from.

 

Bielsa is a philosopher. He doesn't see soccer as a sport, but as a way to give meaning to life. He can imbue the players, the staff, the coaches he trains with a sense of spiritual duty and that can have a long-lasting effect in a club. Or a national team. See Chile after him. Or Athletic.

He has some ideas that make me a bit uncomfortable though. A sense that you need a communion of the players that hints a bit of ethnonationalism. I don't think it's a coincidence he picks clubs like Athletic Bilbao (only players of Basque blood can play for the club), Lazio (I don't need to even mention what they stand for...) and Leeds (with a heavy history of English nationalism they're trying to defuse even now).

 

I think a lot of the quotes from Leeds are honestly people trying to save jobs as there were plenty of quotes after the season last year about how much of a positive change Jesse made and how the team was worn out from Bielsa's training.

And while I've seen, most seem to want to act like Gracia never happened

 

If you think he deserved more time at Leeds, fair enough. It certainly not like they have turned it around since his departure. Still, I don't rate him. Leipzig move on from him quickly when he was their in-house promotion really. I really need to see something from him in the next job, but I do think it will be press to the utmost and nothing else, as it has been.

 

Then why have they went on to give Gracia less heat, even though Jesse was part of keeping them up the prior season, and didn't have them in the relegation zone, while deserving better results, when he got canned? And why are there continued calls for Corberan?

It's not just an individual deification of Bielsa, rather Hispanic/Euro culture in general, especially compared to American. I mean a smaller sub-sect of fans are just downright honest that coaches and players should just go to the other football. Then there's naturally a larger sub-sect that is aware they can't just say the quiet part out loud.

 

Failing upwards

 

Tell me when he's rumored to manage Real Madrid.

 

Marsche Carlo...

 

I hope he gets the Monaco job so he doesn't take the Nats one.

 

https://www.skysports.com/football/...gers-and-jesse-marsch-in-frame-to-replace-him

Linked to Celtic.

 

kind of hoping he would get a job with Bordeaux instead... "Red Bull Bordeaux" sounds too cool....

 

Great to hear. He should continue carving out a role for himself in Europe. Bring on the Eredivisie or Belgium or Championship.

 

No updates in nearly three months, hopefully he's waiting for a plum job to open itself to him by year's end.

 

I'm waiting for the NYRB to take him back and demote Lessesne to assistant again.

 

It's hard to keep track of "real" Marsch stories vs. LUFC fan whinging when searching his name. Despite only being able to tread water in the bottom-half of the Championship after jettisoning "his" players, "his" sporting director, "his" chairman, and himself, he remains LUFC's number 1 scapegoat.