We’re still waiting to learn who our next manager will be, but the latest candidate to emerge is Bolton Wanderers boss Phil Parkinson.
Andrea Radrizzani said on Tuesday that he understands the frustration of Leeds fans that he is yet to appoint a replacement for Garry Monk, but explained that he is going to be careful to make the right choice, and he will begin interviewing applicants for the job next week.
Names continue to appear in the press, though most of us were unenthusiastic about the prospect of Alan Pardew taking over at Elland Road. A consistent pattern is that he usually starts well when he first goes to a club, but then things start to go downhill from the second season onwards, possibly due to his rather abrasive personality.
Another possibility could be former Brighton boss Oscar Garcia, who was once a contender to take over from David Hockaday in 2014, but understandably he didn’t fancy working for Massimo Cellino. Instead he had a brief spell at Watford, before taking Red Bull Salzburg to two successful league and cup doubles, though with a budget much larger than any other club in Austria.
But now the Daily Mail are claiming that Andrea Radrizzani has taken note of Phil Parkinson’s success in taking Bolton back up to the Championship at the first attempt. Parkinson was previously in charge at Colchester, Charlton and Bradford, and guided the Valley Parade mob to promotion from League Two, and also to a League Cup final and the FA Cup 6th round.
We would need to pay Bolton compensation, but despite promotion they are still under a transfer embargo, and Parkinson would undoubtedly prefer to be able to work for a bigger club without these financial restrictions.
With his record of success in the Football League he could be a better appointment than most of the names that have been mentioned, and a Bolton fan at work told me we "need to keep our hands off”, which is always a good sign. The Mail didn’t manage to produce any quotes to back up their story, but I for one hope there is something in it.