Marcelo Bielsa has made the massive claim that Leeds United’s first teamers are good enough to play for a top-five French or Spanish club.
The United manager said the players under his disposal at Leeds are just as good as those at the Marseille side he took to fourth in Ligue 1 and the Athletic Bilbao outfit that finished fifth in La Liga.
Asked at his media conference on Monday if there were many players at United capable of playing in the Premier League, the Argentine, as quoted by the Leeds Live blog (12.46pm), replied: “I haven’t analysed the Premier League so I’m not ready to make this kind of comparison now.
“But I can tell you any player that plays for Leeds now, they could play without any problems in the two European teams that I trained for some time, Marseille and Bilbao. I can make this comparison because I know both teams.”
OPINION
Given that he has managed successfully in France and Spain, two of Europe’s five major leagues (along with England, Germany and Italy), this is a huge endorsement of Leeds’ players by Bielsa. Claiming they could slot into the Bilbao side he oversaw for two seasons is especially significant. That side not only finished fifth in the Spanish top flight in his first campaign, but reached the finals of that season’s Europa League and Copa de Rey, both of which they lost. The Marseille team he managed for one season finished fourth in Ligue 1 after setting the early title pace. Both were top sides playing at a very high level. Does Bielsa really think the best Leeds players – Pablo Hernandez, Pontus Jansson, Kemar Roofe and Patrick Bamford – are at that level, never mind Tyler Roberts, Luke Ayling, Jack Harrison and Ezgjan Alioski? We will probably never know. But, talk about bigging up your players ahead of a major game. The Leeds first teamers set to face Reading on Tuesday night should enter the pitch feeling 10ft tall.