Javi Gracia signs for Leeds and there are already six Spanish coaches in the Premier

The Spanish Javi Gracia, a former Valencia coach, will be the next manager of Leeds United, the Premier League club confirmed on Tuesday.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
21 February 2023 Tuesday 15:27
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Javi Gracia signs for Leeds and there are already six Spanish coaches in the Premier

The Spanish Javi Gracia, a former Valencia coach, will be the next manager of Leeds United, the Premier League club confirmed on Tuesday. Thus, the English competition will have up to six Spanish coaches on their benches: Pep Guardiola (Manchester City), Mikel Arteta (Arsenal), Unai Emery (Aston Villa), Julen Lopetegui (Wolves) and Rubén Sellés (Southampton), and now Javi Grace at Leeds.

In a statement, the Elland Road club announced that it has reached an agreement for a "flexible contract" with the Spanish coach, 52, at the expense of him obtaining his work permit. In this way, Leeds is confident that Gracia can sit on the bench in the next day of the Premier, next Saturday against Southampton in his own stadium.

Gracia has experience coaching in the Premier League, where he managed Watford for a year and a half, with whom he reached the final of the FA Cup in 2019, which the 'Hornets' lost to Manchester City. Leeds highlights in its statement the affection that Watford fans still have for the Spanish coach, who led the club to its best ever classification in the Premier and to its second final of the 2019 FA Cup.

Gracia He was also a coach at Osasuna, Málaga, Rubin Kazan, Valencia and took over from Xavi Hernández at Al Sadd, when the man from Terrassa signed for Barcelona. He has not trained since he left the Qatari club in June 2022.

The search for a new coach for Leeds has not been easy, after the rejections of Andoni Iraola, from Rayo Vallecano, Arne Slot, from Feyenoord, and Carlos Corberán, from West Bromwich Albion. Faced with this situation, the 'Whites' have been led in recent games by Michael Skubala, Chris Armas and the Spanish Paco Gallardo. Gracia, who has already stepped on Elland Road to meet the facilities and the team, finds a Leeds in a worrying state. The 'Whites' are in nineteenth position, two points from safety.

Gracia is the last to join the illustrious list of Spanish preparers who run in England. The Spanish presence on the Premier bench touches all the sticks, from Guardiola and Arteta, who are fighting for the title, to Sélles and Gracia, who will compete not to be relegated, and Lopetegui and Emery, whose objective is not to suffer more than necessary and finish in the middle of the table.

Guardiola is the longest-lived of all and landed in Manchester in 2016, while Arteta arrived at Arsenal in December 2019 to replace another Spaniard, Emery himself.

The Spanishization responds to a general internationalization of the Premier on its benches in recent decades. Whereas in the 2000/2001 season there were barely three managers from outside the UK and Ireland (Arsene Wenger, Gerard Houiller and Claudio Ranieri), now thirteen of the twenty are "foreign".