Ex-Manager / Head coach: Marcelo Bielsa

[Hallgeir *]

Dette kunne vært postet i trådene til ex-spillerne Dallas og Forshaw, men det gjelder like mye Marcelo Bielsa, synes jeg.

https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/football/leeds-united/why-leeds-united-veteran-almost-sought-elland-road-exit-before-full-extent-of-marcelo-bielsas-genius-revealed-stuart-dallas-adam-forshaw-4823098

[Asbjørn]

...Bielsa er fortsatt Bielsa     

Dere har vel lest historien om at en 'iberiansk' supportergruppe av Leeds ønsket ham som ærespresident (om det er det rette ordet). Men måten det skjer på er bare veldig Bielsa.

Martin Bland is chairman of Leeds United Iberia, an umbrella group established last year to give representation to fans living across the Iberian Peninsula.
...
And having subsequently set up and grown the Leeds United Iberia network, it was decided by the groups that they should be ambitious with their selection of an honour president. Bielsa's name topped their wishlist and a two-pronged approach was made to the Argentinian.
...
"I got in touch with Stix Lockwood [former player liason officer at Leeds United] just to see if he was still in in contact with Marcelo, which he is from time to time. So I drafted a letter to Marcelo, telling him about the group, asking if he would do the honor of representing us and passed it on to Stix who got it to Marcelo. We backed it up with a written copy that I posted to him at the Uruguayan Football Federation, and to our surprise and shock, got a reply saying, yes, he would be honored to take up the position.
...
"But he wanted a conversation first, just to fully understand what we were looking for and tell us what he needed from his side. So we waited for that to happen, and then out of the blue, about two weeks ago, he rang me at home one morning while I was sitting having a coffee. Immediately, I obviously knew who it was, and he spoke for 16 minutes - it was one of the most incredible moments of my life that Marcelo Bielsa rings me at home. He was very generous about his desire to represent us. And everybody knows that if Marcelo says something, he means it."
...
"Typical Marcelo really - we weren't allowed to publish [news of his honorary presidency] until Leeds had won promotion," Martin told the YEP.

"He said that he said around football, there are many bad people who will take any piece of news and twist it to their own agenda. And what he didn't want was that, in any way, shape or form, anybody suggested that he was interfering in what Leeds were doing, what Daniel Farke was doing. And so we were to sit on it until promotion had run its course, so that nobody could twist the message. He said, until we won promotion and I said let's just wait untill the end of the season.

(dette er utdrag), alt er her
https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk//sport/football/leeds-united/leeds-united-news-marcelo-bielsa-2025-promotion-request-and-16-minute-phone-call-5124263

[stian]

...Bielsa er fortsatt Bielsa     

Dere har vel lest historien om at en 'iberiansk' supportergruppe av Leeds ønsket ham som æresmedlem (om det er det rette ordet). Men måten det skjer på er bare veldig Bielsa.

Martin Bland is chairman of Leeds United Iberia, an umbrella group established last year to give representation to fans living across the Iberian Peninsula.
...
And having subsequently set up and grown the Leeds United Iberia network, it was decided by the groups that they should be ambitious with their selection of an honour president. Bielsa's name topped their wishlist and a two-pronged approach was made to the Argentinian.
...
"I got in touch with Stix Lockwood [former player liason officer at Leeds United] just to see if he was still in in contact with Marcelo, which he is from time to time. So I drafted a letter to Marcelo, telling him about the group, asking if he would do the honor of representing us and passed it on to Stix who got it to Marcelo. We backed it up with a written copy that I posted to him at the Uruguayan Football Federation, and to our surprise and shock, got a reply saying, yes, he would be honored to take up the position.
...
"But he wanted a conversation first, just to fully understand what we were looking for and tell us what he needed from his side. So we waited for that to happen, and then out of the blue, about two weeks ago, he rang me at home one morning while I was sitting having a coffee. Immediately, I obviously knew who it was, and he spoke for 16 minutes - it was one of the most incredible moments of my life that Marcelo Bielsa rings me at home. He was very generous about his desire to represent us. And everybody knows that if Marcelo says something, he means it."
...
"Typical Marcelo really - we weren't allowed to publish [news of his honorary presidency] until Leeds had won promotion," Martin told the YEP.

"He said that he said around football, there are many bad people who will take any piece of news and twist it to their own agenda. And what he didn't want was that, in any way, shape or form, anybody suggested that he was interfering in what Leeds were doing, what Daniel Farke was doing. And so we were to sit on it until promotion had run its course, so that nobody could twist the message. He said, until we won promotion and I said let's just wait untill the end of the season.

(dette er utdrag), alt er her
https://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk//sport/football/leeds-united/leeds-united-news-marcelo-bielsa-2025-promotion-request-and-16-minute-phone-call-5124263

Han synker ikke akkurat i anseelse blant Leeds-fansen med sånne historier 😊

[Asbjørn]

Gratulerer med 70-årsdagen, Marcelo!
Happy 70 birthday to the GOAT Marcelo Bielsa 🎉
https://x.com/LUFCMOTcom/status/1947175457302118424

[Asbjørn]

...eg slutter aldri å la meg fascinere. Denne nikjærheten, detaljrikdommen, kunnskapstørsten...

"When I arrived, they told me we would play Stoke City. I knew of their reputation, of their style. I went to the library. I found the videos. Not of the current team, no. The foundation. The source. I watched, for two weeks, only the throws of Rory Delap. Every throw. The position of the hips, the rotation of the torso, the release of the ball. The trajectory. I watched the movement of the players, not the ones who received the ball, but the ones who moved away, the ones who created the space. I had to understand the philosophy. The soul of the team. Even if the player is no longer there, the ideas remain. The DNA is a ghost that haunts the club."

https://x.com/Newells_en/status/1961517643606933936

[Asbjørn]

Dette er såå klassisk Bielsa
Marcelo Bielsa sitting on a wall at the Belvedere Stadium to watch Liverpool–Peñarol 🇺🇾

In an era of luxury boxes and billion-euro stadiums, this might be my favourite photo of modern football - humility, authenticity, and pure love of the game

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G00CxuUWsAAQRR3?format=jpg&name=small

[Asbjørn]

Hehe, i fem år nå har Leedsfans vært representert på nesten samtlige Newell's Old Boys-kamper

Sterkt!

We love having Leeds United fans here with us at the Estadio Marcelo Bielsa for Newell's games.
For the last 5 years, there have been #LUFC fans with us at almost EVERY Newell's game.
They come to see the club that Bielsa holds most dear to his heart ❤️🖤

https://x.com/Newells_en/status/2020290720473751563?s=20

[Asbjørn]

...det måtte altså en ung svenske til før noen tok opp tråden med å ha Murderball-treninger i  Championship   

Middlesbrough replicating what Marcelo Bielsa did in Leeds United training - Kim Hellberg reveals more

It has been a fine Championship season for Middlesbrough so far, albeit the Teesside club will hope to respond to their first minor blip for some time after failing to beat Coventry City and Oxford United in their last two encounters.

After replacing Rob Edwards in November in controversial circumstances, as the 43-year-old swapped his fine start in the North East to join Wolverhampton Wanderers, Hellberg's methods have certainly caught the eye of many onlookers, with Boro often dominating matches and, in recent times, certainly putting a plethora of opponents to the sword on the scoresheet.

Perhaps then, it is no surprise that the Swede has revealed that some of the inspiration behind those methods comes from a one-time Championship title winner, whose reputation is also world-renowned.

Speaking to the Daily Mail ahead of Middlesbrough's upcoming clash with relegation-threatened Leicester City at the Riverside in midweek, Hellberg revealed that former Leeds United boss and Elland Road cult hero, Marcelo Bielsa, is the man behind some of the methods and decisions which he looks to implement at the club's Rockliffe Hall training facilities.

Antar at Pablo bruker mye av det samme med Castillon, men har ikke lest noe om det.
https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/middlesbrough-replicating-what-marcelo-bielsa-did-in-leeds-united-training-kim-hellberg/

[leedslife]

Marcelo tilbake i England for privatlandskamp på fredag.

Leeds fansen samhandler på sosiale medier for og gi han kreden han fortjener. Adonis Storr hiver seg på:

Marcelo,

When you came to manage Leeds United, the false dawns and false starts had become the norm. The brief moments of joy were exceptional respites during the decade-and-a-half away from the top-tier of English football - 'the banter years'.

The club had been unloved and uncared for by many managers and owners on the spiral down the football pyramid.

That is why - when you brought a seemingly inexhaustible amount of competence and passion - it was a revolution.

No one know what to expect before that first game of the season. And like before every first game of every new season, we all held our collective breath.

So when Mateusz Klich stabbed home that shot against Stoke on that sunny day in August 2018 - the Elland Road roar that preceded was an exclamation of disbelief as much as joy.

What followed was the best football any of us might ever see our team play in our lifetimes.

What many of us would give to go back and live it all again.

And how did you do it? Because you care.

You care passionately about every small detail, every small moment - because you know that even the tinniest component of a football club, is part of the foundation of the whole.

So you adjusted the position of electric sockets on the walls of Thorp Arch; a dirty boot print in the hall never happened again; and the players picked up rubbish for an hour, because their integrity and understanding of what the fans have to do pay to watch them, was as important to you, as their physical strength.

You watched a season's worth of games for every one of our opponents, studying them meticulously until you knew every strength, every weakness, and what tactical changes they would make depending on the game state.

You cared. You cared so much that your passion almost has its own gravity; it draws people in - and makes them care too.

You turned a mid-table Championship squad into a mid-table Premier League side - no one else could have done that.

But more than that - you turned #LUFC - one of the most hated teams in the UK - into what some pundits at the time called "everyone's second team" - by virtue of the most unbelievably exciting brand of football.

Every press conference was a philosophical lecture. You lambasted modern football, football authorities, the press, agents and everything else that makes a mockery of the beauty of this game.

But you always praised the fans, you always praised your players and you never, ever took credit.

And while others jumped at the opportunity to lap up the applause for the fruits of your labour, you never puffed proud. Embarrassed, you even had to be goaded into lifting the Championship trophy.

You have left every single manager that followed in your wake an impossible task. Your shadow lingers still.

You will be loved forever in this city in West Yorkshire of which your face and words adorn murals 10ft tall.

And we'll never forget how your lessons of hard work, love and passion and belief and hope, transformed our club.

Even when the entire establishment tried to prise you off that pedestal they had so begrudgingly put you on - during the spy gate scandal - you simply dismantled the narrative with a tactical masterclass we will never the see the like of again.

And you did it all in the most disarming way, while turning sport into art, and uplifting this community.

You have personally changed the trajectory of my life, and those of countless others I know. Thank you does not feel enough for the appreciation and gratitude we all feel. But it will have to do.

Vamos Bielsa, Vamos Leeds Carajo! We will never forget what you did for us!

Gracias Marcelo!

For en gave den mannen er til fotballen.

[Asbjørn]

Henry Winter om Bielsa
(intet revolusjonerende her men fint at andre enn den dedikerte fansen 'ser' det)

Marcelo Bielsa stirs incredible love. Leeds United fans are planning to give their former head coach a warm welcome when his Uruguay side play England at Wembley tomorrow. They don't forget the excitement – and promotion - El Loco's team brought them. His former players talk of how much the Argentinian helped them. "He taught me everything," Gabriel Batistuta once said. Coaches from A-listers like Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino to rising stars like Kim Hellberg credit Bielsa as an inspiration. "Best manager in the world," Guardiola once observed of Bielsa. They know the substance amidst the mystique of this remarkable maverick manager.

His trophy collection is relatively small; titles in the 90s at Newell's Old Boys and Velez Sarsfield, Olympic glory with Carlos Tevez, Javier Mascherano and Argentina in 2004 and that EFL Championship with Leeds in 2020. Bielsa's influence on football cannot be defined by silverware. He's more than a manager. He's a philosophy made flesh, a commitment to high-energy football. His attacking approach, meticulousness and dedication is worshipped by fans, players and coaches alike.

English football misses a dash of Bielsa. The depicting of English football as a flair-free, dead-ball dead end is obviously over-stated. The more hysterical headlines lamenting the decline of individual talent, and the focus on set-pieces, overlook the presence of Eberechi Eze and Cole Palmer and the emergence of exciting young English talent like Max Dowman, Rio Ngumoha and, longer term, JJ Gabriel at Manchester United.

The more legitimate argument is that English football is developing talent but needs to have the belief amongst coaches to unleash it more. Bielsa would. He made Kalvin Phillips believe. Patrick Bamford won his only England cap, against Andorra in 2021, while a player transformed physically and tactically under Bielsa.

⚽ ⚽

Fans feel a strong connection with Bielsa. They love the controlled chaos of his football, the drama, the swarm. They also feel Bielsa knows how they feel. Bielsa famously instructed his Leeds players to pick up litter at Thorp Arch for three hours. The time was deliberately chosen. It was how long it took for the average Leeds fan to earn the money to afford a match ticket to Elland Road. Bielsa wanted his players to appreciate the work put in. Whatever effect it had on the players, the fans loved it.

(artikkelen er sikkert lenger, men da må det abb. til...)
https://www.henrywinter.football/p/bielsas-magic-and-method-behind-the?r=3osxpq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

[Asbjørn]

...det kommer nok mer om dette. Men Bielsa har altså hatt sin pre match press conference før morgendagens møte med England:

During his pre-match press conference on Thursday, Bielsa was asked why he has not been back to West Yorkshire since his emotional exit in 2022.

"I haven't returned to Leeds mainly because the feeling of nostalgia is a feeling that sometimes one is resistant to address. And, I experience everything related to my time at that club with nostalgia, I see it as one of the most beautiful memories that football gave me," Bielsa answered.

Bielsa was then asked if he had a message for the droves of travelling Leeds fans eager to get a glimpse of him in the flesh again at Wembley.

"I want to be brief, but express what I think" Bielsa continued in typical fashion. "The power that English football has in the world, for me, it is based on the fans.

"The structures, the organisations have relied on the unconditional love of the fans to build a great league. But, this English league wouldn't be what it is, if it weren't for how its fans feel.

"And, I have experienced that. If there's one thing, four years following my departure at Leeds, that caused me to no longer be at Leeds, which I always understood, it was that I conceded 14 goals in one week.

"It's very difficult to survive that, isn't it? During these four years with a marked frequency and regularity, I always received messages from the Leeds fans. I think it has nothing to do with me, but it has to do with the British fan. The way he loves his club, which for me, is the heart of the Premier League."

Interestingly, Bielsa finished his press conference with a comment on the commercial nature of football. But, he notes how none of that can impact the love from the fans.

"[Premier League fanbases] survive any commercial attempt. It seems that the industrial development of the Premier League is what makes it great," Bielsa said.

"And for me, what truly makes it great is that there is no commercial structure that can overshadow such a strong feeling as the one the fans feel for the badge."

https://www.leedsallover.com/uruguays-marcelo-bielsa-recalls-beautiful-leeds-united-memories/

[stian]

Det er ikke vanskelig å forstå hvorfor Bielsa får en spesiell posisjon hos fansen i klubbene han har vært i. Han må være en av ytterst få managere som faktisk som faktisk får selvstendige fans utover relasjonen til selve klubben.