Leeds United owners need Jesse Marsch’s plan to be foolproof in post-Raphinha era

Leeds seem set to lose Kalvin Phillips and Raphinha and this on top of sacking Bielsa leaves the club’s owners potentially in the firing line.

So the scramble for Raphinha and Kalvin Phillips has begun. Arsenal have already submitted a formal offer to Leeds United for Raphinha (which, according to reports, the club is dismissing out of hand) while Spurs and Manchester United are also said to be interested in signing the winger. Phillips, meanwhile, seems destined to head for Manchester City. But while Leeds supporters will obviously be apprehensive about losing two such influential players with no apparent direct replacements lined up, it feels increasingly as though Jesse Marsch’s rebuild of Leeds is getting underway.

Since winning promotion back to the Premier League in 2020, Leeds have spent a shade over £200m on new players, but the amount that they’ve raised from transfer fees is… nothing whatsoever. Of the top 100 clubs ranked by transfer expenditure between then and now, Leeds are one of just three clubs (along with AC Monza of Italy and Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia) to not have raised a single penny from selling players, but this now seems certain to come to an end.

The last few months have felt like something of a game of Risk for the owners of the club. Their decision to relieve Marcelo Bielsa of his duties at the end of February may have been understandable in some respects, but it seemed to alienate a substantial proportion of the club’s fanbase, and the record of his replacement wasn’t really stellar enough to quell that feeling, even if he did reach his base-line of keeping the club in the Premier League.

There certainly isn’t a refusal to bring in new players on the part of the club. Already this summer, Brenden Aaronson and Rasmus Kristensen have arrived from one of Marsch’s former clubs, RB Salzburg, for a combined transfer fee of almost £35m while Marc Roca has signed from Bayern Munich for £10m. Another name that has been repeatedly linked with a move to Elland Road has been Tyler Adams, another player with whom Marsch is associated from their time together at RB Leipzig.

Of those who’ve already been confirmed, none seem to be anything much like direct replacements for Raphinha and Phillips. Roca is a central defender, Kristensen is primarily a right-back, and Aaronson can play in attacking midfield or on the wing. The latter two were already known to Marsch from his time at Salzburg, so it feels reasonable to…