Giovanni van Bronckhorst was put forward for the Leeds United job by Victor Orta prior to the backlash against Alfred Schreuder this season, according to The Athletic.
After Jesse Marsch was sacked on 6 February the Whites went through a fortnight of failed attempts to replace him before eventually settling on Javi Gracia, who himself has now been replaced by Sam Allardyce to truly illustrate the dysfunction of the season.
Former Ajax boss Schreuder was spotted at the 2-0 defeat by Manchester United on 12 February and online fan fury helped put paid to his chances of getting the job, but it has now emerged that compatriot Van Bronckhorst, sacked by Rangers on 21 November, was another name put forward by the now-departed Orta at the time.
According to Adam Crafton and Phil Hay in The Athletic on Monday (8 May): “Gracia was one of several out-of-work candidates suggested by Orta to see Leeds through to the end of the campaign, along with the former Dutch international Giovanni van Bronckhorst and his compatriot Alfred Schreuder.”
Orta ultimately sacrificed his job when refusing to go along with Gracia’s sacking, after he had backed Marsch against removal multiple times earlier in the campaign.
Stepping on rakes
It is all easy to say with hindsight, but sacking Marsch just after the close of the January transfer window, amid disagreements behind the scenes between orta and Andrea Radrizzani hasn’t exactly worked out.
The American was putting together a miserable long winless run but at the time it seemed off to remove him at that stage, having just backed him again in the market, and now it looks reckless not to have done so a month earlier if not during the World Cup.
The lurch from one candidate to another, all of whom were unavailable or unwilling at that point, laid bare a lack of coherent planning which has only continued up until now, with three games left to save the season.
Had Van Bronckhorst’s candidacy emerged over Schreuder it is unlikely that fans would have been jumping for joy with the 48-year-old having lost his job at Ibrox after presiding over the worst Champions League group stage campaign in history, but he may have got a more positive reception than his countryman thanks to a run to the Europa League final last season.
It turned out to be moot in the end as Gracia took over a delivered a long-awaited win, but the wheels came off his reign fast than his predecessors.
The former Dutch captain and World Cup finalist presumably didn’t enter into the thinking to replace the Spaniard for the late, late rescue job that has been handed to Allardyce, with Orta leaving anyway.
But his name is just another footnote in a wild campaign at Elland Road that seems to have encompassed most managers in European football in one way or another, and still might end in relegation.
In other Leeds United news, a second behind-the-scenes exit has emerged as multiple figures continue to be added to the Whites exodus.
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