Jesse Marsch cited Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and John F Kennedy. None, it should be stressed, as an option to fill the vacancy at right-back after Stuart Dallas and Luke Ayling ruled themselves out of the remainder of Leeds United’s battle against the drop with overly violent challenges; Gandhi, that most famous of pacifists, might not have condoned either. The Leeds manager is inspired by a number of historical icons. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, had to deal with the Cuban Missile Crisis. His compatriot Marsch has to navigate the Leeds Relegation Crisis. Kennedy held off Nikita Khrushchev but Marsch could lose out to Frank Lampard.
He is approaching his quest for survival with a methodology that some of his predecessors may not have adopted. Don Revie felt team spirit came from carpet bowls, dominoes and bingo. Howard Wilkinson removed the pictures of Revie’s team. Marcelo Bielsa liked “Murderball” training sessions though, by the end of his reign, it felt as though the casualties were Leeds themselves. Enter Marsch, who has 52 excerpts of books he likes to give players to motivate them, aided and abetted by hundreds of quotes. “I love quotes, I love from learning from people of the past, sports figures, historical figures, whoever,” he explained.
