Shock Leeds United, Daniel Farke twist emerges - 49ers eyeing ex-Rangers boss | OneFootball

Despite gaining promotion to the Premier League, reports suggest Daniel Farke could be sacked by Leeds United as they line up replacements.

Leeds United are reportedly showing interest in former Rangers boss Giovanni van Bronckhorst, former Benfica coach Roger Schmidt as well as Real Madrid assistant Davide Ancelotti, son of Carlo, as they seek to prepare for the Premier League.

Despite having gained promotion to the top-flight on Easter Monday last week following Burnley’s 2-1 defeat of Sheffield United a couple of hours after Leeds’ hammering of Stoke City by six goals to nil a Elland Road, reports emerged that the Whites may still sack manager Daniel Farke.

It has now been reported that Leeds chairman Paraag Marathe is travelling to England from San Francisco to hold talks with the former Norwich City boss over his future, despite the German having two years left on his contract.

Now, after previous links to Como boss Cesc Fabregas, it has been reported by The Guardian that the Yorkshire giants have made ‘initial soundings’ to Van Bronckhorst, Schmidt and Ancelotti with doubts over Farke’s ability to successfully coach in the Premier League.

Farke has previously won the Championship on two occasions, both with Norwich City, but oversaw Norwich’s relegation from the top-flight in 2020 before then being sacked mid-way through their return to the Premier League in November 2021. He is the manager with the longest losing streak in Premier League history with 15 successive defeats during his tenure as Canaries boss.

Leeds’ search goes to the continent

Three new candidates have emerged as potential replacements for Farke but it is something of note than none of those three candidates have Premier League experience, whilst one is yet to have any experience of being a manager in his own right.

Van Bronckhorst, a former Netherlands international who did play in the Premier League for Arsenal, started his managerial career with Feyenoord in 2015 and did win the 2016/17 Eredivisie title as well as two KNVB Cups and two Johann Cruyff Shields before a short stint in China with Guangzhou R&F in 2020.

He returned to the United Kingdom with a move to Rangers in November 2021 and lasted a year in charge of the ‘Gers due to disappointing results domestically but he did lead them to the final of the 2021/22 UEFA Europa League, where they lost to Eintracht Frankfurt on penalties in Seville.

He was appointed Besiktas boss at the start of this season but was sacked in November having managed just ten victories in 20 matches across all competitions with the Istanbul giants.

Davide Ancelotti, on the other hand, did play in the youth academy at AC Milan but didn’t make any first-team appearances for the Rossoneri before retiring from his playing career in 2009 at the age of 20.

Since 2016 he has been his father’s assistant coach at Bayern Munich and Napoli, as well as Real Madrid, and was also his assistant in the Premier League at Everton between 2019 and 2021.

Perhaps the standout managerial among the three would be Roger Schmidt. The 58-year-od German had a low key playing career before working his way up through management.

He took charge of Delbrucker in 2004 before spells with Preussen Munster and Paderborn and then arriving in Austria at Red Bull Salzburg in 2014. From Salzburg he moved to German giants Bayer Leverkusen and spent three years at the BayArena before, like Van Bronckhorst, a spell in China, coaching Beijing Guoan for two seasons.

Since 2020 he has re-established himself as one of the brighter coaches in European football with PSV Eindhoven and then managing an excellent Benfica side, whereby he won the 2022/23 Primeira Liga and reached the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League with the Lisbon giants.

Leeds still pushing for the Championship title

Leeds have gained automatic promotion to the top-flight but they remain locked in a battle with Burnley to actually win the title, so the off-field rumour and conjecture is unlikely to be overly helpful in their hunt for that success.

Farke, aiming for his third second-tier title during his career in England, leads his Leeds side into a clash with play-off contenders Bristol City at Elland Road on Monday after Burnley demolished Queens Park Rangers by five goals to nil at Loftus Road on Saturday.

Leeds’ goal difference remains much better than the Clarets so if they win their final two games of the season then they will be champions, as was the case in the 2019/20 campaign under the management of cult hero Marcelo Bielsa.

Burnley finish their season with a game against play-off chasing Millwall at Turf Moor this coming weekend, whilst Leeds go to Home Park to face a Plymouth Argyle side that are basically relegated, albeit not yet officially mathematically due to how poor their goal difference is but the Pilgrims are finishing their season with a bit of a flourish having won three of their last four matches.