TEAMtalk understands Leeds United will sack manager Javi Gracia today (Tuesday) as the Spaniard and his coaching staff have already left the club’s training ground, while The Athletic have revealed director of football Victor Orta is set to be axed too.

Gracia has come under severe pressure at Leeds amid his team’s poor recent performances and results. They have not won in five matches, having lost four times in that run and conceded an astonishing 18 goals.

Earlier on Tuesday, it emerged that Leeds had identified two potential candidates to take over from Gracia and try to save their season. One is former Whites star Lee Bowyer, who has been out of work since his departure from Birmingham last summer.

The second is Sam Allardyce. He is known for his ability to save teams in relegation fights, although he was unable to do that with his last club, West Brom.

The Leeds coaches and players were due to take part in training on Tuesday morning. However, TEAMtalk has been told that not long after reporting for training, Gracia and his team have left the club’s Thorp Arch training base.

Leeds have opted to sack the former Watford boss and his coaching staff and will announce this decision soon.

Gracia will be followed out of the door by Orta. As per Phil Hay of The Athletic, the Leeds board have decided to part company with their director of football as well.

They held crucial talks with Orta on Monday and have now decided that a new chief needs to come in and take the club in a different direction.

Leeds lose patience with Victor Orta too

While the 44-year-old was praised for bringing in Marcelo Bielsa, who went on to become a legend at Leeds, he has been criticised for several other important decisions.

That includes the appointments of both Jesse Marsch and Gracia as well as the signings of Jean-Kevin Augustin and Georginio Rutter. Leeds got into a long legal battle with RB Leipzig over Augustin’s brief time at Leeds, while Rutter cost a club-record £35.5m last summer but has barely played of late.

Whichever manager comes in, they will have a huge task on their hands to keep Leeds up. The West Yorkshire side occupy 17th spot and are only out of the relegation zone on goal difference.

They could be dragged into the bottom three over the next two weeks as they have tough matches against Manchester City and Newcastle coming up.

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