Leeds United may have their eyes on a foreign coach to replace Paul Heckingbottom, according to Yorkshire Evening Post reporter Phil Hay.
The reliable journalist claimed on his personal Twitter account that while he is unsure of rumours surrounding former Leicester and Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri, he has heard murmurs of someone else from overseas that could potentially replace Heckingbottom.
It is understood that the former Barnsley boss, who took charge at Elland Road in February, is currently on holiday but his future at Leeds is certainly not set in stone as meetings before his break “weren’t especially productive”.
he’s still on holiday and we’re still waiting to see how it pans out for him. Club could go either way on this. Meetings before he left weren’t especially productive
— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) May 27, 2018
different foreign coach has been mentioned to me. Not saying who because I don’t know if it’s got legs. As for Ranieri, honestly not sure.
— Phil Hay (@PhilHay_) May 27, 2018
OPINION
As Leeds’ Championship season finished a few weeks ago, it seemed as though Heckingbottom’s future at the club was safe. However it now seems that couldn’t be further from the truth with unsuccessful meetings held before he went off on holiday. Andrea Radrizzani made it clear that he doesn’t want to follow the trend of past Leeds owners by sacking and replacing managers more often than he should, but Leeds’ form nosedived under Heckingbottom and they may have just been better off keeping Thomas Christiansen. Victor Orta’s poor recruitment has not helped either manager, but it seems that the Spaniard is safe from the axe for the time being as Radrizzani focuses more on who is managing the squad. If it’s not Ranieri then it will be interesting to see who the foreign coach is. Filippo Inzaghi has recently been linked, but it’s hard to see the Whites wanting someone with such little experience.