Ex-Manager / Head coach: Marcelo Bielsa

[Promotion 2010]

Marcelo Bielsa named Head Coach




New head coach confirmed.

Leeds United are delighted to announce the appointment of Argentine Marcelo Bielsa in the role of head coach.

Bielsa has previously enjoyed success as head coach of the Argentina and Chile national teams, as well as at club level with Newell’s Old Boys, Athletic Bilbao and Marseille.

The 62-year-old has won top flight league titles in Argentina with Newell's Old Boys and Vélez Sársfield, whilst also guided Bilbao to the UEFA Europa League final and the Copa del Rey final, during his time in charge of the Spanish club.

On his appointment, Bielsa said: “I am delighted to accept the role of head coach at Leeds United.

“It has always been my ambition to work in England and I have had several opportunities to do so during my career, however I have always felt it was important to wait for the right project to come along and so when a club with Leeds United’s history made me an offer, it was impossible to turn down.

“I am excited for the challenge ahead and I look forward to collaborating with Victor, Andrea and Angus, as we work hard to achieve great things at this football club.”

Chairman Andrea Radrizzani said: “I am thrilled to welcome Marcelo and his staff to Leeds United.

“He is a coach that I have admired for many years and when the opportunity arose to bring him to Elland Road, we made it our top priority for the summer.

“Marcelo has a wealth of experience and he will use that to create a new culture and a winning mentality at our football club.

“I would like to thank Victor Orta and Angus Kinnear for all of the hard work that has gone into this appointment and I look forward to progressing together.”

Bielsa has signed a two year deal at Elland Road with the club holding an option for a further year.

[auren]

Velkommen til klubben! Håper du får suksess!

Mvh

auren

[Promotion 2010]

Leeds United news: Marcelo Bielsa GRANTED work permit

LEEDS UNITED managerial target Marcelo Bielsa has been granted a work permit.
By JOE SHORT
00:24, Thu, Jun 14, 2018 | UPDATED: 00:25, Thu, Jun 14, 2018

   
Marcelo Bielsa kicks cup after sitting on a hot cup of coffee
Play Video

Leeds United have been in talks with Bielsa for a week now about taking over at Elland Road.

The club have been thrashing out a deal while waiting for a work permit for the Argentine to come to the UK.

And Argentine outlet Varsky Sports claim the work permit has been granted.

According to the report, Bielsa “has got the work permit and will soon be announced as the new coach of Leeds.


“He had already agreed his contract with the club that plays in the Championship.”

[Promotion 2010]

En analyse:


The Importance of Being Bielsa

In the play The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Bracknell exclaims “A HANDBAG?” when confronted with conflicting news. Until that point in the play, she had formed one opinion of the character Jack and had just been made aware of another side to his past.

In much the same way I exclaimed “BIELSA?” when it was confirmed we were in serious talks with him.

I’ve interviewed many people for jobs over my life and never found any one person who is exactly right for the role I was searching for: However, after analysing many pros and cons, I’ve selected very suitable candidates who have worked well in their roles.

The rumblings about Leeds United’s search for a manager reminds me of those processes.

Starting Point
I must confess that my starting point with Bielsa comes from the negative side.

I’m not a great follower of players and managers away from Leeds United and rarely remember names. There are certain events I read about that stick in my mind though and Lazio having a manager who had a row and left before he started is one. Another story that caught my eye, due to its financial nature, was the guy who was sacked by Lille and then sued them for 19 million euros, risking Lille going bust.

At the time both events were merely interesting stories and I soon forgot the names.

Then Ranieri was linked with Leeds United and I did a quick Google search to see what he’d done recently. Up pops Lille again. This time it is in relation to the first match of the season between two giants from management, Ranieri verses Bielsa. Nantes verses Lille. In the event, Ranieri lost to Bielsa but he went on to better success as the season continued, whereas Bielsa’s season fell apart until his acrimonious sacking.

Maverick Coach
Having done some research on Ranieri I was in two minds â€" his age is against him, is he only a short-term coach, did he take over a ready-made team at Leicester etc. â€" but I’d pushed Bielsa to the back of my mind.

Then Phil Hay said he’d heard another name in the fray, Alan Nixon hinted at a maverick coach from Europe. Who they were referring to I didn’t know but I dismissed Bielsa.

So when it became clear Bielsa was in the running my reaction was to exclaim “BIELSA?”.

Hysteria
What I wasn’t expecting was the frenzied, almost maniacal, acceptance of Bielsa by so many vocal Leeds Fans on Twitter and Facebook. Yes, some dissenting voices but an overwhelming caucus just wanting him signed up and in office.

At one point over the weekend I suggested a dispassionate debate but the overall feeling was “sod it, he could be trouble but he’s exciting, let’s give it a whirl”.

Fortunately, the management at Leeds United is taking a more measured view and are taking their time to look at the pros and cons.

Cons
As I’ve started to hint at earlier, Bielsa comes with a lot of cons.

Salary
Bielsa doesn’t come cheaply! When he was sacked by Lille he sued them for the remainder of his contract to be paid. There was around a year and a half left in his contract and it was valued at £12m.

Yes, that’s an annual salary of £8 million!

Transfers
He also has firm views on player signings and spent, or encouraged Lille to spend, 60 million euros on new players. The resulting financial mess Lille found themselves in got them a transfer embargo last January after his sacking.

Obviously, Lille management was heavily to blame for putting their trust in Bielsa and their money in the transfer market in the belief that “really going for it” would get them into Champions League football and the rewards associated.

However, given that Lille took on Bielsa knowing he’d walked out on Lazio for failing to bring in his transfer targets, this does also perhaps demonstrate the man is “heavy maintenance” in the transfer department.

Director of Football
The revitalisation of Lille, under new owner Lopez, brought Luis Campos to work with Bielsa as director of football. It seems that Bielsa wanted much more control within the club than Campos would allow him and the relationship broke down, well before Bielsa was sacked.

Of course, a failing out between colleagues often happens and Bielsa is not necessarily to blame.

Looking a little further back in time we find that he left Marseille of his own accord but did so because his control over transfers was eroded and he had a reportedly belligerent relationship with club officials.

Sacking
In some ways, it is to his credit that he has walked out of clubs previously rather than being sacked. Only Lille have got to the end of their tether and sacked him.

After this sacking Bielsa sued Lille for his remaining contracted salary and £4m in damages. He claimed he was sacked due to him making an unauthorised visit to see a dying friend. Lille denied that claim and said he was sacked for the poor performances on and off the pitch.

The judge rejected Bielsa’s claim of unfair dismissal, choosing to believe the club. Bielsa lost his claim for £16m and was ordered to pay 300k euros to Lille for bringing such an “unreasonable” case.

Results
Bielsa arrived at Lille to a fanfare of hope and expectation. They are a club that has fallen on lean times in recent years and Bielsa was seen as a new hope of glory.

As mentioned above, the reality was far different. Bielsa started well with a 3 nil defeat of Ranieri’s Nantes but then won only TWO more of his next 12 games.

Pros
Of course Leeds United would not be considering him at all if there were nothing good about him.

Playing Style
Bielsa is famous for playing a controversial 3-3-1-3 formation but does, in fact, vary this to suit the occasion.

There are reports of players being confused by the system but often this comes from players being fielded out of their normal position.

Training
Bielsa is apparently fanatical about training and preparation. This is manifest in high-intensity work in training which he expects his players to continue during matches.

His methods draw praise from players who recognise that they are meticulously prepared for each match both physically and tactically, though some players can suffer burn-out as the season progresses.

Fans
Bielsa demands a fast-moving attacking team with close ball control that is exciting to watch.

Bielsa’s willingness to discuss football at length is welcomed by fans and has gone a long way to creating the cult status he has within the game.

References
There has been much written about the high esteem Bielsa is held in by other successful coaches and I’ll not repeat them here.

Suffice it to say, he’s viewed as an innovator bringing attractive football to fruition that, with the right players, brings success.

Conclusion
I’m not going to come down with a hire or reject conclusion.

The above essay hopefully brings out some of the many pros and cons that the club management team must discuss with Bielsa.

I can’t know what answers he will give, what compromises each side will make, what promises will be given and so forth.

My essay might seem biased against Bielsa but it is not intended to be. When reading up on his recent history it is mainly cons that come to light, whereas you have to go back many more years to find true success on the football pitch, which is what forms his biggest pros.

My conclusion really is that employing a Head Coach is not easy and I’m glad that the club is taking time to do it.

Whatever the outcome, I’ll be supporting the Coach and the Team next season with my normal expectation of some wins, some losses and lots of enjoyment.

Mike Thornton 5th June 2018

[Promotion 2010]

Ryan from from Football Whispers writes in about Marcelo Bielsa and his philosophy tactically.

Marcelo Bielsa may not be a household name among casual football fans, but the Argentinian coach, nicknamed El Loco for his idiosyncratic and unorthodox methods, has inspired a degree of fanaticism among a legion of the game’s idealists.

bielsa-2016

A favourite of football hipsters around the world, Bielsa has also spawned a generation of tacticians who have sprinkled his philosophy with a pinch more pragmatism, and used it achieve greater success than the former Athletic Club and Marseille boss was ever able to.

Having pursued a career as a professional footballer, Bielsa turned out for his boyhood club Newell’s Old Boys. But, having mustered only two appearances for the Rosario side, he realised that he would not cut it as a top-level player, and quit the game at 25 to take up a coaching position in Buenos Aires with the city’s university team.

Hailing from an academic background â€" the majority of his immediate family were either lawyers or politicians â€" Bielsa sought to apply his intellect to seek alternative solutions to football’s age-old tactical quandaries. “I am a student of football,” he once said. “I watch videos, read, analyse, but beneath all my technical talk the great principle is not to concede too much space.”

The up-start coach got his big break in 1990, when appointed manager of Newell’s after being promoted from his position as coach of the youth team.

“Tactically it was a radical change,” midfielder Juan Manuel Llop said of the new manager’s approach. “He altered the fitness preparation enormously, he worked set-pieces very thoroughly and paid close attention to all the details.

“The style was very practical. It was a very aggressive style, looking for every man to win his personal duel … along with controlling possession and always looking to go forward and attack.”

As self-confessed subscriber to the paradoxical philosophies of legendary Argentinian coaches César Luis Menotti and Carlos Bilardo, Bielsa built his blueprint by blending aspects of the two men’s styles. He took Menotti’s desire for aesthetically pleasing play and added a dash of Bilardo’s rigid organisation.

The style of Bielsa’s Newell’s was thrilling to watch. He demanded unwavering commitment from his players and set up his side with the instruction to harry their opponents into submission; they would press high and press hard.

Pressing was nothing new, the great Dutch side of 1974 were diligent and tireless in their closing-down duties. But Bielsa used pressing as on offensive weapon. By denying the opposition space in their own third of the pitch and systematically cutting off passing lanes, Newell’s would regain possession in areas from which a swift attacking movement would see them in on goal.

Bielsa describes this tenet of his system thusly: “While the opponent has the ball, the whole team presses, always trying to cut off the play as close as possible to the opponent’s goal; when we get it we look to play with dynamism and create spaces for improvisation.”

In this regard, similarities can be seen in the way Jürgen Klopp built his wonderfully successful Borussia Dortmund team, and how his Liverpool side are currently going about their business in the Premier League. Indeed, the gegenpressing mould is one that will be eminently familiar to Bielsa.

It is also a well-known facet of Pep Guardiola’s philosophy that he instructs his players to press aggressively for six seconds immediately after losing possession, before falling back into their defensive structure.

Before Guardiola took his first managerial role with Barcelona, he flew to Argentina to meet and exchange ideas with Bielsa. The older coach’s theories on passing the ball, pressing and positional fluidity clearly rubbed off on the Catalan.

Bielsa, much like the great AC Milan coach Arrigo Sacchi, believed in “occupying the pitch well”, as he once put it. To do this, he posited that the entire XI should move around the pitch as a unit, with no more than 25 metres between the deepest defender and the foremost attacker; each player’s position was dictated by the position of his team mate. This kind of spatial limitation is also a trademark of Guardiola’s sides, who aim to hold an almost abnormally high defensive line.

With what would become his trademark 3-3-1-3 formation, Bielsa led Newell’s to the 1991 Apetura title, but the coach’s rigorous demands took their toll on the side who suffered a slump for the following two campaigns â€" a tale similar to that of his final months in Bilbao.

After a rethink brought about by some soul searching following a humbling 6-0 defeat to San Lorenzo, Bielsa shuffled his deck, switched some of his key players around positionally, and galvanised his side to win the Clausura title in 1992. To mark his success and influence with the club, Newell’s named their stadium after their former coach in 2009.

The fluid back three system that brought Newell’s their success is not wholly dissimilar to that being used by Antonio Conte at Chelsea, and is getting them great odds on the title at www.bettingoffers.org, or the 3-4-3 or Guardiola’s final season in Barcelona. It was, after all, an adaptable form of 3-4-3 with a diamond midfield; “the scheme always depended on the characteristics of our opponents,” Bielsa explained.

Another innovation of the Argentinian tactician was to set homework for his players, encouraging them to study tape of upcoming opponents, find solutions and present their findings back to the team. This was seen as a way to foster a degree of independent problem solving from his players, engaging them mentally as well as physically.

Of his former charges, Gerardo “Tata” Martino would go on to have success managerially when in charge of Newell’s and the Paraguayan national team. He has also recently spent time at the helm of Barcelona and Argentina.

The most prominent coach spawned by Bielsa’s La Lepras, however, is Tottenham Hotspurs’ Mauricio Pochettino.

Pochettino was a central defender at Newell’s and also played under Bielsa for Argentina. The former Espanyol and Southampton coach espouses many of the philosophical principles he would have learned under his former boss, though perhaps in a slightly more conventional, pragmatic manner. Nevertheless, the high-pressing, the physical demands of his players and the systematic tenacity are all hallmarks of a fully paid-up Bielsista.

Atlético Madrid manager Diego Simeone also worked under Bielsa for Argentina. Although El Cholo’s Atléti often lack the sense of adventure prominent Bielsa teams, work ethic and organisation are traits that have rubbed off on the former Internazionale and Lazio player.

In the more recent part of his career, Bielsa bent his system slightly to conform to the demands of the modern game. At Athletic and Marseille, a version of 4-2-3-1 was much more commonly used than anything akin to the 3-3-1-3 of Newell’s, or any of the back three-based formations he used with Argentina.

But while in charge of Chile from 2007-2011, Bielsa’s trademark system produced a thrillingly cavalier side which brought the best out of key players such as Arturo Vidal, Mauricio Isla and Alexis Sanchez.

His successor in the role as Chile coach, Jorge Sampaoli, was an avid disciple of Bielsa and used many of his ideas to win two domestic titles and a Copa Sudamericana with Universidad de Chile, before guiding La Roja to their first ever Copa América in 2015. He is currently flying high in Spain with Sevilla, using a Bielsa-esque, high-energy 3-4-3.

Though Bielsa’s trophy haul is modest â€" just three Argentinian titles in total and an Olympic gold medal with Argentina in 2004 â€" the influence he has had on the modern game is undeniable.

Bielsa described his philosophy as being composed of four basic tenets: focus, mobility, rotation and repenitización â€" a musical term meaning something akin to improvisation â€" all of which have formed the basis of seemingly any aspiring coach to have come into contact with him.

Though winning was always the aim, style was of almost equal importance. With a nod to pragmatism and a commitment to aesthetics, Bielsa inspired a unique following within the football world; the method behind El Loco’s madness proved beguiling.

[Eriksen55]

Velkommen til klubben. Håper på mange år med suksess.

Bør vel få bra med ros og klapp på skuldra Orta også. Uten han, ingen Bielsa. Han har et sinnsykt nettverk som vi nå ser at klubben tjener på.

[Promotion 2010]

A Marcelo Bielsa pre-season and how he creates a band of brothers

Leeds are hoping to confirm the appointment of the Argentine in the coming days
BY JOE MEWIS
19:00, 13 JUN 2018UPDATED19:11, 13 JUN 2018
GettyImages-145224082.jpg
Bielsa leaves no stone unturned
Leeds United are reportedly nearing a deal with Marcelo Bielsa which will the Argentinian become the clubs new manager.

The widely-respected 62-year-old would replace Paul Heckingbottom in the Elland Road dugout, after the former Barnsley boss was relived off his duties on June 1.


With the likes of Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino both hailing the former Argentina and Chile boss as huge influences on their respective careers, the appointment would be a huge statement of intent from the Championship side, who have also drawn up an ambitious list of transfer targets.

Leeds United will likely step up these transfers negotiations once the new manager is on board, but should Bielsa indeed get the nod then there will be big changes at the club.


Bielsa is legendary for his meticulous preparation and the Leeds United squad will undergo a very different pre-season under the Argentine.

We've had a look back at how Bielsa has previously approached his pre-season campaigns to see what Leeds could be in store for later this month.

An early return
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Bielsa reportedly wants his side back a week early
Leeds United's pre-season was scheduled to begin on Monday, June 25 with the playing squad returning to Thorp Arch for 'three weeks of intense training', according to the club's official website. And that was before the Bielsa speculation began.

But reports suggest that should Bielsa land the job then he will expect his players back this Monday - a week earlier than scheduled in order to get going early under the new manager, with a steep learning curve awaiting the Leeds squad.


"The first two days were tests and after that it was hardcore," said Lille winger Anwar El Ghazi told the BBC about Bielsa's time at at the French side. "We trained at 10am and second training was 6:30pm."

The 62-year-old demands extremely high levels of fitness from his players, so the extra week could be vital.

No going home
During his tenure at Lille, Bielsa demanded that the club built 20 stripped-down, back-to-basics bungalows at their Domaine de Luchin training complex for the players to stay in.

Marcelo Bielsa attends the friendly Marseille vs Chievo Verona on August 2, 2014 in Le Pontet alongside Jan Van Winckel
Bielsa makes huge demands of his players(Image: BERTRAND LANGLOIS/AFP/Getty Images)
"We eat here, we sleep here and we do everything here," El Ghazi continued.

"They're small bungalows, just a bedroom, air conditioning and electricity, that's all. If you want to take a shower you go to the changing room and we have a room with Playstation and table tennis.

"The coach said we had to be a family together and when you're eating together, sleeping next door to each other, you become a family. We are like brothers now."

Given the infrastructure at Thorp Arch, where every piece of spare land has been sold off to housing developers over the past decade and the club's desire to leave in the future, this is not a realistic proposition this summer, but who knows what his plans for next summer are?


Intense video study
The tales of Bielsa's fondness for video analysis are part of the Argentine's folklore.

One Christmas he was asked how he would spend the break, answering that he would do two hours of exercise and then spend 14 hours watching videos. He can apparently watch two games at a time, so that's a lot of information.

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Bielsa puts in countless hours of preparation
And he expects his players to also go the extra yard, so the likes of Kalvin Phillips, Kemar Roofe and Liam Cooper will have to set aside plenty of time to spend in front of the telly, where the conclusion to this year's Love Island will have to wait.

Manchester City's Benjamin Mendy played under Bielsa at Marseille and gave an insight in Bielsa's demands of him - and some of the mind games he plays in order to get the most out of his squad.

"He made me devour videos like never before," the left-back told Onze Mondial.

"To begin with he put me in front of the videos and I'd fall asleep. But he was happy! I was shocked.

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Benjamin Mendy says Bielsa is 'too good'
"After a while I stopped sleeping and told myself 'go on, I'll watch two minutes of this thing after all.'

"After that he talked to me, I talked to him and we'd go over moves together. He told me, 'see, that's why I let you sleep. You slept, you slept, you slept but the day you decided to watch you got interested on your own. If I'd pushed you to watch you wouldn't have been interested'... Marcelo is just too good."

The under-23s won't be ignored
Bielsa was appointed by Lille shortly after the 2016-17 season finished and called a special post-season training for the club's younger players, watching the action with his notebook and pen.

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The youngsters will not be ignored at Thorp Arch
From the moment his appointment was confirmed the French side's various youth teams all switched to a back-three to ready themselves for the tactical switch was about to be introduced.

Bielsa will want his side up for pre-season friendlies
Forest Green's The New Lawn will be the venue for Bielsa's first game, should he land the job. A far cry from some of the stadiums in which the veteran has previously managed, but if you go by Lille's pre-season results from last season, the team should be up for the challenge.


French side Reims and Rennes plus Italian outfit Atalanta were some of Lille's opponents, with Bielsa's side winning three, drawing one and losing one of their five pre-season friendlies.

Bielsa set up his side in either a 3-3-3-1 or 4-2-3-1, with one style of play dominating all five matches: pressing. Get ready to hear that word a lot.

Bielsa's dealings with the media
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Bielsa during his first press conference at Lille(Image: DENIS CHARLET/AFP/Getty Images)
Before this busy summer gets underway Bielsa will meet the media for the first-time.

As in France, it is likely he will need a translator, at least in these first few months. But the challenge facing him at Lille, where he took over at an under-performing mid-table side, does offer some similarities with the job at Leeds.

Leeds United transfer news LIVE: Updates on Marcelo Bielsa as Neil Redfearn lands Liverpool Ladies top job


“I arrive at LOSC with plenty of enthusiasm,” he said at his unveiling. “The expectations placed on us are not small.”

And they won't be small at Leeds United either.


https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/pre-season-leeds-united-bielsa-14775362.amp?service=responsive

[palle]

Kjenner små gysninger (positive sådanne) gjennom kroppen etter bekreftelsen. Herrefred, dette kan bli moro!

Spennende å se hvor lang tid det tar før negative innlegg kommer ramlende 

Det blir kanskje ikke i dag, dog..

PålK

[Bromancer]

Velkommen til klubben. Klipp nesehåra.

[Bjorn]

Velkommen til klubben. Klipp nesehåra.

Dagens! 

[Torpe-do]

Så då vart det endeleg bekrefta..

Eg anar ein storm i vente.

Forhåpentlegvis ein storm av god fotball! 

Dei mest spanande nyhetene på aldri så lenge! Er sjukt spent på å sjå korleis dette slår ut på spelarlogistikken!

[Promotion 2010]

Henry Winter, chief Football writer i The Times

Amazing appointment by #lufc  Hope it works out. Bielsa was a visionary at his peak. Meticulous preparation, teams with relentless work-rate and attacking. If the old magic is there, and the players respond, Leeds could be box office.

[Promotion 2010]

Bielsa:

"When a club with Leeds United’s history made me an offer, it was impossible to turn down. I'm excited for the challenge ahead and I look forward to collaborating with Victor, Andrea and Angus as we work hard to achieve great things at this football club.”

[B_Ød]

Full backing fra min side!!!!

MOT!!!!!!!!!!!

[Blank_File]

Hadde egentlig mista troa på at dette kom til å gå. At de har klart å lande dette er intet mindre enn utrolig rått. Vi kunne ikke drømt om noe mer! Håper vi får spillere som matcher nå.

[DenHviteYeboah]

Jeg gir meg ende over! Målløs!
For et signal, dette er vanvittig

[Bjorn]

Jeg gir meg ende over! Målløs!
For et signal, dette er vanvittig

Bare det ikke bare blir med signalet da. Vi må ha resultater. Fansen har en lei tendens til å surne fort om det ikke går veien. Spennende å se hva han får til de neste ukene nå. Blir en bra sommer tenker jeg! 

[Promotion 2010]

EN DOKTRINE ER DET VI FÃ...R:


The cult of Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United - a romantic match made in heaven?

“Paris is worth a mass.” It was those apocryphal words, used on Monday by somebody close to Marcelo Bielsa, which erased all doubt about Bielsa’s intentions. For Paris, read Leeds United; different empires, different men but the same romantic appeal.

Updated: 09:37 Friday 15 June 2018
Published: 07:57

The quote harks back to the 1500s and the reign of Henry IV of France, who converted to Catholicism in the hope of ending a bloody, religious civil war. Conversion, he supposedly said, was a small price to pay if it allowed him to govern the country and run it as he pleased. Paris is worth a mass.

Marcelo Bielsa.
Marcelo Bielsa.
Bielsa, from the point of his first conversation with Leeds, knew what he wanted and expressed himself frankly. Conversations about contracts and work permits were torturously painstaking and often aloof but on training methods, recruitment and his own levels of authority, Bielsa made ears burn. He knew in advance about the set-up at Thorp Arch and had analysed the club’s squad minutely. He watched every one of this season’s games and other key matches involving rival clubs in the Championship. It will go like this, Bielsa said, as football dominated finance.

Leeds were coming for him, not the other way round, and his reputation, his value and his aura gave him all the cards to play. As discussions and paperwork went back and forward, Bielsa kept himself in South America and embarked on a series of lectures at football conferences in Mexico and Uruguay. There was no rush to leap into United’s arms but all the while he was privately open to compromise and minded to do what was necessary to make the job at Elland Road his. Paris is worth a mass.

Bielsa accepts offer to become Leeds United head coach

It surprised Leeds to find him so receptive when contact was first made. The initial conversation took place before the club dismissed Paul Heckingbottom on June 1 and left Heckingbottom hanging by a thread. His position as head coach was already precarious but Bielsa’s willingness to talk and talk at length was another nail in the incumbent’s coffin; proof that another way could be found and that Heckingbottom’s quintessential Championship management could be replaced with a more flamboyant, sexy blueprint; a coach depicted as the godfather of modern, intellectual football.

Victor Orta, Leeds’ director of football, knew Bielsa of old and did the early spadework to establish a meeting with Andrea Radrizzani, the first leg of an exhausting relay in which paperwork and phone calls bounced back and forward. Angus Kinnear, the club’s managing director, travelled with Orta to Argentina late last month and, after four days of discussions, established that Bielsa’s demands were financially viable. He will earn between £2m and £3m, nothing like the £8m-a-year he was paid by Lille in his last job, but Leeds in all their 99 years have never committed to a higher wage for a head coach.

So what drew Bielsa to England and murderball in the Championship? A 62-year-old who speaks no English and has lived his long managerial life in more salubrious environments than the EFL? For the past few weeks those involved in the process of hiring him, on both sides, have spoken of one thing: romanticism. This, in a sense, is a veteran coach returning to his roots; retreating from Lille, Marseille, Athletic Bilbao and the bright lights of international football to rediscover his first love, Newell’s Old Boys.

Bielsa walks on water at Newell’s, the club in Rosario, Argentina where he was born and where he began coaching in earnest in the 1990s. His siblings are politicians and architects but football caught his imagination and he fashioned a short playing career at Newell’s. As manager, Bielsa took them in hand, delivered trophies and gave the club a lease of life. The job inspired his ferocious work ethic and tactical mind, bringing about the birth of 3-3-1-3 and engendering the innovative, daring ideas which coaches would flock to emulate. “It’s impossible for me to love another shirt more than that of Newell’s,” Bielsa once said. In 2009 the club reciprocated by naming their stadium after him.

Leeds, 7,000 miles away, pull at the same string: a proud but downtrodden club who have wasted years looking for enlightenment. They will not name Elland Road after Bielsa but there is infinite esteem to be found here for whoever drags Leeds off the Championship roundabout. The club appealed and England appealed and there was never any disagreement about money. Bielsa only wanted to satisfy his fanaticism for employing his principles of coaching and to make sure that Leeds would give him the freedom.

David Prutton: Bielsa’s an exciting choice for head coach at Leeds United

This appointment will still cost the club, as the appointment of Bielsa has cost other clubs in the past. It became apparent to Leeds that Bielsa was seriously interested when the demands about players and methods of working began coming their way. He wanted an earlier start date for pre-season, giving him time to drum his philosophy into their squad, and asked for modifications at Thorp Arch. Bielsa has done this before. At Lille he persuaded the club to build 20 apartments at their training ground to allow players to work there, recover there and sleep there. “Hardcore,” was how winger Anwar El Ghazi described Lille’s pre-season. Even before Bielsa’s appointment was finalised, United’s squad were told to prepare themselves for three weeks of double sessions. They can expect to spend the next month living in each other’s pockets and to find Bielsa fully versed in the mess which this season became.

Lille, though, is a cautionary tale for anyone assuming that Bielsa is a golden ticket to the Premier League. The most unique appointment Leeds have ever made is laced with risk, embracing a maverick and volatile man who has burned out spectacularly in the past. Bielsa, who quit Lazio in 2016 after two days in charge having accused the club of failing to keep up their end of the bargain on transfers, was the pick of new Lille owner Gerard Lopez last summer, at a cost of £8m a year. Lille threw more than £50m at their squad and invested in infrastructure at Bielsa’s request but were strangely lifeless under Bielsa. Results turned against him quickly and devotion to his philosophy allowed no room for pragmatism. As one journalist put it: “There was no prospect of their coach altering his principles just to have square pegs fit in square holes.”

Bielsa was suspended in November and later sacked after flying to Chile to visit an ill friend in hospital. Lille classed it an unauthorised trip away. The Argentinian took action against the club and claimed an eye-watering sum in compensation, well in excess of £10m after six months in charge. That legal case is ongoing and according to reports in France he lost the last round of it in March.

Volatility and an unpredictable streak come as part of the package. He has nurtured certain players, upset others and seen squads wilt over time from the high-octane demands of his football. He rarely sticks in one place for long. In 2015 he resigned from Marseille without any warning, one game into the new season. “I’ve finished my work here,” he told a room of incredulous journalists. “I will return to my country.” An interpreter was then told to read out sections of his resignation letter, received by Marseille’s hierarchy minutes earlier. ‘El Loco’, the crazy one, lived up to his nickname. Leeds cannot say there weren’t warned.

But there is brilliance in Bielsa’s methods, an imagination which showed itself in his two years with Athletic Bilbao and their run to the Europa League final. Manchester United were picked off in the process, made to look pedestrian as Bilbao raised their flag over Old Trafford in 2012. Though largely undecorated, he spawned what Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino called “a generation of coaches who were his disciples”, the most prominent being Pep Guardiola; coaches who believed in Bielsa’s free, attacking football, his devotion to style and, most importantly, his own mind. He might open doors to players at Tottenham and Manchester City, and potentially Arsenal where he has separate connections, as his devotees welcome him into the English game and make him at home. He will find some of his disciples here. Leeds are not investing in a coach. They are investing in a doctrine and a culture; the cult of Marcelo Bielsa.

[GeirO]

Supert og velkommen skal du være, frelseren Marcelo!

Veldig spent på handlelista han har i lomma, håper det er mer enn brød og melk der......

[Promotion 2010]

I nyhetene:

https://amp.theguardian.com/football/2018/jun/15/leeds-united-appoint-marcelo-bielsa-head-coach?__twitter_impression=true


https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/6427317/leeds-united-make-bold-bid-to-land-volatile-super-coach-marcelo-bielsa/amp/?__twitter_impression=true


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-5847403/amp/Marcelo-Bielsa-takes-Leeds-Elland-Road-madhouse-findsits-chief.html


http://www.goal.com/en/amp/news/crazy-meet-crazier-can-bielsa-bring-the-glory-days-back-to/1l7wk3ysx5tg81ie6nv1fohnhe

[Promotion 2010]

MARCELO BIELSA: THE FACTS BEHIND THE MAN

MARCELO BIELSA: THE FACTS BEHIND THE MAN
1. On the 21st July 1955, Marcelo Alberto Bielsa Caldera was born in Rosario, Argentina. At the time, Raich Carter’s Leeds United had just finished 4th in Division Two with new £600 signing Harold Brooks named top scorer for the season with 16 goals.

2. Coming through as a defender at his childhood club Newell’s Old Boys, Marcelo made the step up to the first team which boasted future Argentine World Cup winners, Américo Gallego and Ricardo Giusti. He played 25 times over the course of the 1977/78 season, before going on to feature for Instituto and Argentino.



3. In 1990, Marcelo replaced José Yudica as first team coach of Newell’s Old Boys. Making an instant impact with a side including Mauricio Pochettino, Gerardo Martino, and Eduardo Berizzo, he led the club to two league championships in two years, whilst also guiding Newell’s to the 1992 Copa Libertadores Final, where they narrowly missed out on penalties.

4. Marcelo’s success at Newell’s led the Argentinian club to rename the ‘El Coloso del Parque’ to the ‘Estadio Marcelo Bielsa’ in 2009. Club secretary Pablo Morosano remarked “This is a gesture towards a person who did a lot for the club and today carries its name with pride around the world”



5. After winning a third championship in Argentina with Valez Sarsfield, and managerial stints in Mexico and Spain, Marcelo was named Argentina’s national manager in 1998.

6. Bringing together a team featuring Gabriel Batistuta, Diego Simeone, Juan Veron, Javier Zanetti, and Hernan Crespo, Bielsa’s Argentina sailed through qualification for the 2002 World Cup, with 13 wins and one loss. The side’s dominance across South America led to Marcelo being named the 2001 IFFHS World's Best National Coach.



7. 2004 saw Marcelo lead Argentina to a Copa America Final against Brazil, before The Albicelestes won their first ever Olympic Gold a month later, with Carlos Tevez’s 18th minute strike securing a 1-0 win over Paraguay in Athens.

8. August 2007 saw Marcelo take up his second national post, as he set about transforming the Chile national team. Historic wins against Argentina, Paraguay, and Peru, were followed by Bielsa’s Chile qualifying for the 2010 World Cup after missing the previous two tournaments.



9. The 2010 World Cup in South Africa saw Marcelo cement his legacy in Chile, as he led La Rojas featuring Claudio Bravo, Arturo Vidal, and Alexis Sanchez to the knockout stages before being stopped by Brazil.

10. Following up his successful spell with Chile, Marcelo set about becoming a hit in Spain, as he took over from Joaquín Caparrós as Athletic Bilbao coach. His first season at the club saw the club reach the 2011/12 Europa League Final, beating Paris St Germain, Manchester United and Sporting CP en-route.



11. In addition to reaching the Europa League Final, Marcelo also navigated his Athletic Bilbao side to the Copa Del Rey Final, where they faced Barcelona in front of over 54,000 at the Vicente Calderon.

12. After a second season at Bilbao, Marcelo took his popular brand of football to Ligue 1 after being appointed Head Coach of Olympique de Marseille, where he’d develop a team around the likes of Imbula, Mendy, Lemina, Ayew, Batshuayi, Payet, and Gignac, leading them to a 4th place finish.



13. Following a short stint at Ligue 1 side Lille OSC, Marcelo Bielsa today became Leeds United’s first manager born outside of Europe.

[Sydhagen]

Dette er den sykeste ansettelsen på nivå to i hvilket som helst land i hele verden, ever! 

Nå venter jeg bare på klassesigneringene som skal følge opp denne ansettelsen.
Er rimelig sikker på at Bielsa ikke hadde signert uten sånne forsikringer.

[Bjorn]

Dette er den sykeste ansettelsen på nivå to i hvilket som helst land i hele verden, ever! 

Nå venter jeg bare på klassesigneringene som skal følge opp denne ansettelsen.
Er rimelig sikker på at Bielsa ikke hadde signert uten sånne forsikringer.

Eller så liker han å jobbe med potensialet i spillere.. Nå har jeg ikke lest meg opp på hva han har gjort før på den fronten, men tenker at filosofien hans også kan fungere på eksisterende spillere. Om han er så god som det sies, så bør han klare å få ut mer av dagens stall, med litt justeringer såklart.

[samadhi]

Endelig. Nå er vi i gang.

Aldri kjedelig å være Leedssupporter om sommeren og i år bli ikke no unntak.
Spennende uker fremover nå 

[Promotion 2010]

[Promotion 2010]

[Sydhagen]

Jeg merker jeg har litt mer troen på det nå enn når Heckingbottom ble ansatt. 

[Promotion 2010]

[AndyMathie]

Min favoritt trener gjennom tidene har tatt over mitt kjære Leeds United. Om det er et ekteskap laget for å gå til himmels eller om det er det motsatte er selv jeg usikker på, men en ting er sikkert, dette er den største mannen som noensinne har trent Leeds United.

Han spiller akkurat enn sånn type fotball jeg elsker. Høyt press og knallhard jobbing. Det var jo sånn jeg mener det var under O`leary i den første tiden når Leeds ble et lag som kjempet om tittelen i Premier League hver sesong. Om han kan klare å få igang dette maskineriet så går det til himmels.

Om spillerne derimot ikke forstår budskapet hans og ikke klarer å gjennomføre hans type fotball kan det fort gå motsatte veien.
Er ikke sikker på at dagens mannskap kan klare det. Noen untak har vi som jeg er sikker på kommer til å nyte godt av Bielsa. En som kommer til å skinne neste år pga Bielsa er Alioski. Alioski og Bielsa tror jeg passer vanvittig godt sammen. Det sammen tror jeg om Ronaldo Vieira. Han også kommer til å skinne neste sesong. Det samme tror jeg om Ekuban. Og så har vi noen bankers som Ayling(men han hadde vært god uansett kem som kom inn).

Når det gjelder de andre spillerne vet jeg ikke om de har det som skal til for å spille under Bielsa. Føler at her er det mange som må motbevise meg. Det blir ekstremt spennende.

Tror at vi må signere 6-7 førstelags spillere som går rett inn å forsterker laget. Dette må være Bielsa spillere som tåler hans type fotball. Ekstremt viktig blir denne sommeren. Nå har vi fått mannen på plass, nå MÃ... vi få resten på plass!

[GeirO]

Veldig spent på tre i forsvaret. Krever mye og mange som har prøvd har mislykkes. Men kanskje de hadde dårligere coacher.......selv har jeg trua på systemet.