It appears that it’s now all but official: Andoni Iraola will not be joining Leeds United as Jesse Marsh’s replacement.
The Rayo Vallecano was always the number one target for Victor Orta, and efforts were made to try and lure him away from the Spanish side, in vain.
Marca have an article on the matter on Thursday afternoon that states that despite the fact the manager ‘was open to leaving for Leeds’, his ‘desire not to leave Rayo by force’ is what ‘ended up prevailing’.
The outlet explain Iraola ‘was on the shortlist’ of the Elland Road side, and the way he plays would have fit ‘like a glove’ in the Premier League.
In fact, Leeds ‘were willing to pay the termination clause’ in his contract, which is said to have been of around €8m.
The manager, down his end was ‘attracted to the project’ on offer in Yorkshire and by the idea of managing in the Premier League.
However, he ‘did not want to pay the clause’ himself (Leeds would have given him the money to do it), which is what needs to happen, as that would have given ‘the impression that he was leaving the hard way from a club in which he has managed to consolidate himself’ as a manager.
Rayo, down their end, made it clear they would need the clause to be triggered to allow their coach to go, ‘slamming the door on any possibility of losing their manager four months before the end of the competition’.
Basically, ‘except for an unexpected U-turn by either party in the next few hours’, Leeds will already be looking at other options to replace Jesse Marsch.
