'Rubbish' - The trick Leeds United have missed and new boss first port of call: David Prutton

This is a team that can compete in the Premier League and we have said that all across the board and all along from the start of the season. A manager carries the can for performances but deep down it's the players that should shoulder the biggest burden of responsibility because this is a team that should not be messing around just outside the Premier League's bottom three. This is a team that should be more than holding its own.

Under-21s boss Michael Skubala is in interim charge and he has got a hell of a good squad to work with and players that I think can flourish in the Premier League. But it's a case of looking around for who is about in the club's managerial hunt.

If you are trying to shoe-horn or crowbar somebody out of one club then there is compensation to think about. Then there is also coming in during mid-season to consider. I think they missed a trick with Sean Dyche, regardless of what you think Sean Dyche is like. I think they missed a trick there.

There will be purists and people spouting nonsense about the way he plays. Rubbish, he can keep teams in the Premier League and that is Leeds' first port of call. But that's a very hypothetical situation because he's gone to Everton now so it doesn't matter.

With the managers that have been spoken about, God knows. I have no clue. When people talk about La Liga and Dutch football, I don't know, I don't have enough hours in the day to know how good the coach of Feyenoord or Rayo Vallecano is.

God knows, so from that point of view there is an element of the unknown but there was an element of the unknown with Jesse Marsch. Will people see a team or a coach at Feyenoord or a coach at the team fifth in La Liga and say they don't fancy them at Leeds? I don't know.

Whoever comes in needs to be given patience but time isn't on their side because the end of the season will be here before we know it. There are people out of work such as Steven Gerrard and Ralph Hasenhuttl but what is the reaction? Is it a case of both got biffed because they were deemed to be going in the wrong direction?

But what can be deemed to be old hat and tiresome at one club can be seen as innovative and brand new at another club. That's obviously the very nature of what football is and you see it with footballers in ones that seem to be banging their head against a wall with one club then go to another place and end up ripping trees up and looking like the business.

Whoever comes in, like any form of transfer, is an absolute gamble. Carlos Corberan was mooted in some quarters and Carlos knows the lie of the land at Leeds and what it is like to be successful at Leeds.

I think he would have been a replacement that people would have got their heads around relatively quickly but obviously that door has been shut with him signing a new contract at West Brom. Genuinely, when you sit down and think about it, the answer is God knows. We all thought Marcelo Bielsa was going to be there for ever or figuratively forever because of what football is.

Leeds made a change and got Jesse in and got what they wanted, which was a team that stayed in the Premier League. Then they chucked a load of money his way then biffed him a couple of weeks after the end of the transfer window.

I think the first port of call is someone that can get a club to safety and whether that means someone in the interim and then going again in the summer I don't know, I genuinely don't know. Leeds are fourth favourites to go down behind Everton, Southampton and Bournemouth but Wolves are not out of it and neither are Leicester or Forest even though we look at what they are doing as well.

There are so many teams that are in it which is good for Leeds because it's not that straight shoot-out and I don't think it's a straight shoot-out between them and Everton for the third and final relegation place. West Ham are also not out of it by a long chalk and there are several teams that are still in it.

You can see how pressurised it is down on the south coast with Southampton and Bournemouth but that fillip that Everton have got with Sean Dyche walking in the building will spur them on a fair way. And we will just have to see who walks through the door at Leeds and whether Skubala sticks around having seemed to get a tune out of them at Man United. I am there at the game against Man United on Sunday and I am so intrigued to see what they look like and what the atmosphere is.

It's always a very special game anyway, let alone given the resurgence of Man United and given that Leeds find themselves treading water. But if Leeds are fourth favourites to go down then if you are Leeds fan right now I think that's brilliant. As long as there are three worse teams than them at the end of the season then happy days.

In between where they finished in that wonderful end to that first season and last season's finish is possibly somewhere where Leeds should exist. But the Premier League is utterly unforgiving so if they do end up going down then any team that ends up in the bottom three deserves to go down by virtue of the fact that you have got 38 games to be able to see yourself safe.

If you have not done it by the end of the season then you deserve to go and there will be no tears shed for the three teams that go by anyone other than their fans. That's just the way it is. There's a huge sigh of relief if you are one of the ones that ends up above the dotted line but Leeds have got time.

They are in a position now where they are outside of the bottom three and they need to make sure that they build on that breathing space and stay clear of the bottom three. Whether it's a short sharp breath or a long, huge lung-filler they just need to make sure that come the last kick of the last ball that that's where they are.