Marcelo Bielsa - What we know so far

[Ellandback1]

Good Morning Folks

What do we know so far?

We know that Angus Kinnear flew to South America last week to meet Marcelo Bielsa and his representative(s) to discuss him becoming the next Leeds Utd Manager.

We have now been told by Messrs Hay, Sobot and Pope (reliable sources) that Leeds are in advanced talks with the Angentine about him taking the hot seat as LS11.

Let's put the pieces of the jigsaw together!

Advanced talk mean that Bielsa must more than a little interested about the vacancy.

This means that certain assurances would have had to be made to him regarding wages, transfer budgets and ambition.

Why else would Bielsa give us a second thought?

Yes, we're a big club, especially by Championship measures but someone with the pedegree of Bielsa would not be short of offers!

Excusing the fact that none of us had heard of Bielsa 72 hours ago, surely it shows massive ambition. I doubt many other Championship clubs could attact him?

Knowing our luck we'll loan Bielsa out to Cultural Leonesa for a season, never to be heard of again.

[1964white]

Good morning Matt

[paddy parrott]

I may be wrong but cannot see him taking over . He might be interested and certainly ticks all the boxes... well maybe not all as he never worked here. But his volatility could backfire not just on him but Leeds as well. And I'm sure his wages could be the main one.

[Norm]

I think this should be merged with the other Bielsa thread.

[Ellandback1]

Good morning Matt

Morning Leon

[Bally]

He may be a good manager I've no idea but surely we want a manager that at least speaks English

[Cjay]

There seems to be a lot of confusion whether his style will suit the division and / or the players we have,  so here is my point of view  based on his time in Bilbao a few years ago.

 

Traditionally Athletic Bilbao have always been influenced by the English game and fans were very skeptical of Bielsa's tactics and general philosophy at first.

 

The group of players he had to work with were average Liga standard with two or three talented players like Javi Martinez, Llorente... signing a load of new players was not an option because of the club's policy to only sign local people.

 

 Right from the first few fixtures the football was very slick with lots of movement but incredibly simple in terms of individual skill. Sometimes it was so quick it was difficult to follow  - consequently the man achieved cult status for his incredible transition of what we're  basically very average footballers. 

 

He's not the kind of manager to demand three or four quality signings to be able to make the team work - he basically implements very clear and simple habits in the players so  they can perform these tasks on repeated occasions during a match to gain small advantages with every movement or with every pass that the team carries out.  it's very direct attacking football.

 

He spends hours studying matches and players so that he can correct repetitive mistakes for the benefit of the team. His genius lies in the way he simplifies complicated concepts so that the players have very clear idea of what they need to do. 

 

 he isn't crazy by any means - the man is a genius.

 

P.S.  don't call him El loco - he fuckin hates it

 

From another forum, Bilbao fan.

[Cjay]

Allegedly talked to Matias Almeyda to so at least we have options.

Think Bielsa could be amazing or awful.

He needs the players to buy into him 100%, the board to bacl him 100%, otherwise it just wont work.

[SG90]

He may be a good manager I've no idea but surely we want a manager that at least speaks English

He will learn it, but it's not like we don't have Orta, Ruiz, Bravo, Hernandez, Saiz, Corberan etc at the club already. His appointment makes a lot of sense when you see who's already here.

[whiteswan]

He may be a good manager I've no idea but surely we want a manager that at least speaks English

Pochettino couldn't speak English when he first came to England Bally, and he aint done too bad at S'hampton and Spurs. We 'll just have to wait and see

[MissSurreyWhite]

Great post Cjay. Thank you.