Sky Sports’ Spanish football expert Guillem Balague believes that Marcelo Bielsa will have people falling in love with him at Leeds United if he is hired to be the next manager at Elland Road.
Sky Sports reported on Monday that Leeds are in advanced talks with Bielsa, 62, as the Yorkshire giants aim to find Paul Heckingbottom’s successor in a quickfire fashion after he was sacked on Friday.
The Argentinean manager has picked up quite the reputation in his career for being unpredictable, but he has also been dubbed as an outstanding coach, attracting praise from the likes of Mauricio Pochettino, Pep Guardiola and Diego Simeone.
Balague has claimed that Bielsa will leave Leeds fans drooling over him if the Elland Road faithful are patient and really try to take to his style of football.
“If he goes to Leeds, it’s the kind of journey you are all going to learn from,” he said to Sky Sports. “It needs a proactive approach from the fans. They will go to watch the games but they will need to understand what he is trying to do to really appreciate it.
“Once they get to that stage where they understand it, and they see that electric football I have talked about, people will fall in love with him and the team.
“I think it is a brave decision and I hope it happens because it will be a fascinating experiment. The combination of the creative Latin American way of playing football with the determination and work ethic we associate with the north of England could work well.”
OPINION
Bielsa will be somewhat of a coup for Leeds if Andrea Radrizzani and Victor Orta are able to coax him to Elland Road. His CV shows that he has managed Argentina, Chile, Athletic Bilbao, Marseille, Lazio and Lille. Having spent so much time managing in the top-flight across Europe and with some of the world’s biggest international teams, he should find it a breeze at Leeds. A manager like him is exactly what the club needs at the moment. He is very far from being a ‘yes man’. Bielsa is someone who will really enforce what he wants on the players and the hierarchy, and Radrizzani and Orta must make sure that they back him and offer him what he needs to get this club promoted. It could take a couple of years, but there has to be an element of patience. There is also the worry that Bielsa could hit his self-destruct button at any moment. He wasn’t nicknamed ‘El Loco’ for nothing.