01-03-2022, 12:33 AM
(28-02-2022, 10:09 PM)E.N. Wrote: What are your thoughts on Bielsa, Zaph?
Seems like a real love affair with him and the fans coming to an end. Guess it had been a very bad few weeks though
Genuinely gutted, like probably 99% of Leeds fans. There are a good few around that have said he needed to go because of his unwillingness to change tactics in the face of an awful run of results, but I guarantee that they still adore him and would rather things went differently this season. Even if the season was a bit better than it has been so that relegation isn't an issue, it would have allowed him to leave on his own terms with a proper goodbye from the fans in the summer. Unfortunately there was a certain inevitability to his departure after the Spurs game, it was the latest in a string of games where teams have been able to score for fun against us.
You have to remember that before Radrizanni took over Leeds had had a succession of terrible managers and even worse owners. Then along came Bielsa who, most Leeds fans would admit, was really a bit of an unknown despite his long and sort of illustrious record. What he did was take a bunch of fairly mediocre Championship players and turned them into Premier League players and internationals. And he did it with them playing the best football any Leeds fan can remember seeing in living memory. But even more important is the manner in which he set about changing the club. After the Spygate nonsense at Derby he called his press conference and most fans expected him to quit, but instead he gave his 90 minute Powerpoint presentation explaining why he didn't really need to spy on Derby anyway. Then when he FA hit the club with the bullshit 200k fine, he insisted on paying it out of his own pocket because he felt he was responsible for bringing the punishment down on the club. After that really he could do no wrong, and his elevation to godlike status was confirmed when the club was promoted. There's even a street in Leeds named after him and the city has united in support of the club like I've never seen it before.
He's an incredibly humble and shy man who really has no desire to be in the limelight, but at the same time always has time for fans, particularly kids. He never moaned about referees or the many questionable VAR decisions that have gone against Leeds (that's not being all conspiracy theorist btw, all clubs at the bottom always seem to have that sort of luck go against them), he never complained about not having enough players due to the ridiculous injury situation which has resulted in a 15 year old on the bench more than once and he never looked for a game to be postponed because of Covid at the club. That's just the way he is, he gets on with things and deals with the situation as best he can.
Sorry for the essay, I know you just asked a simple question, but there isn't a simple answer when it comes to Bielsa. He really is unique and it's unlikely we'll ever see another manager like him at a top level club in Europe again, so we enjoyed him while we could. It was a wild and mostly enjoyable roller coaster, I just hope the club can stay up to ensure that what he started continues.