Jesse Marsch in contention for Premier League vacancy

Brendan Rodgers was sacked by Leicester City last weekend following a 2-1 loss to Crystal Palace. The Foxes could turn to Jesse Marsch to help rescue them from relegation.

Jesse Marsch is also wanted by many fans to be the next head coach of the U.S. men’s national team. However, he does not seem ready to switch to international soccer just yet. U.S. Soccer is also still without a sporting director or general manager, so interim head coach Anthony Hudson is expected to be in charge for the foreseeable.

Leicester is currently 19th in the Premier League and is in desperate need of someone to rescue them from going down. According to the Daily Mail, “Rafael Benitez, Jesse Marsch, Ralph Hasenhuttl and Adi Hutter are all contenders for the job.”

Should Jesse Marsch join Leicester?

Jesse Marsch showed in his first year at Leeds United that he can keep teams in the division. Although, his second year at the Yorkshire side did not go according to plan and he was sacked in February this year.

Not long after departing Elland Road, Marsch was heavily linked to replacing Hasenhuttl at Southampton but walked away due to the length of the contract offered. This seemed a bit odd as if the manager did not get results for the Saints then he would be sacked anyway.

Marsch may have been holding out for the right job and this could be Leicester. The Foxes may not have as good a team that won them the league back in 2016. However, they do still have Jamie Vardy, current England international James Maddison and Youri Tielemans who scored the winning goal for the club in the 2021 FA Cup final.

Leicester has been on a downward curve since the COVID-19 pandemic. This has been partly due to how the business of their owner Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha was affected. He is the chairman of King Power which is a Thai travel retail group that has suffered the results of people not being able to go abroad when many countries were under lockdown.

Who else is in contention for the job?

Benitez is a big name and of course, won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005. However, he struggled in his most recent job at Everton. The Spanish coach has been in charge of some of the biggest teams in the World which also includes Real Madrid, Inter Milan and Chelsea but may not be the right man for a club in a relegation battle.

A wiser choice could be the appointment of Hasenhuttl. He was at Southampton for four years so has experience in relegation fights in the division. The Austrian is a strong candidate for the job.

Hutter is another man from Austria who has been linked with the job but he has never managed in the Premier League. Hutter’s experience has been across Europe with Red Bull Salzburg, BSC Young Boys, Eintracht Frankfurt and most recently Borussia Monchengladbach. He would be somewhat of a left-field choice for the Leicester vacancy.

The replacement for Rodgers needs to be someone who can keep Leicester in the league. Marsch has shown that he can keep a team in the division whilst at Leeds. This puts him in a strong position for the vacancy but the manager showed when turning down Southampton that he will only choose the right job.