Former Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce is on the verge of being installed as Leeds United manager until the end of the season, according to reports. Leeds are embroiled in a relegation battle and Saturday's 4-1 defeat at Bournemouth looks set to be Javi Gracia's final game in charge of the Yorkshire club, which is outside the Premier League relegation zone only on goal difference.
Spaniard Gracia was appointed in February as successor to Jesse Marsch but has failed to halt Leeds' decline, winning just three of his 11 league games in charge. Leeds have already this morning confirmed the departure of their Spanish director of football Victor Orta.
Allardyce has earned a reputation as a survival specialist having previously guided clubs including Blackburn Rovers, Sunderland, and Crystal Palace to top flight safety after taking over mid-season, although he was unable to keep West Brom in the Premier League in 2020-21, which was his most recent managerial job. If he is confirmed as Leeds manager, he would have just four games to save the club from relegation and would face an uphill struggle given those games are against Manchester City, Newcastle United, Spurs, and West Ham.
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The 68-year-old is a former Sunderland captain having spent one season as a player at Roker Park in 1980-81. He returned to Wearside as manager in 2015, taking over from Dick Advocaat after the Dutchman stepped down.
Allardyce signed Lamine Kone, Jan Kirchhoff, and Wahbi Khazri in January 2016 and they helped galvanise the squad, with Sunderland losing just one of their last 11 games that season. They secured safety in the penultimate match of the campaign with a 3-0 victory against Everton at the Stadium of Light which in the process relegated rivals - and another of Allardyce's former clubs - Newcastle United.
Sunderland fans were looking forward to seeing how Allardyce fared in his first full season with the club but he opted to leave that summer to take the England manager's job after Roy Hodgson departed following the Three Lions' miserable Euro 2016 showing. Allardyce lasted just one game in charge of England, however, before leaving by mutual consent after being secretly filmed discussing with an undercover reporter ways of bypassing FIFA and FA bans on third-party ownership of players.
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