Michael Brown has delivered an ominous prediction on Marcelo Bielsa’s future at Leeds United, claiming that there will be plenty of attention on the Argentine in the summer.
The veteran manager has helped transform United into promotion contenders, and despite the fact that it looks as if they will have to rely on the play-offs if they are to go up, his first season in England has still been a huge success.
Speaking on talkSPORT (April 28th, 8.40am), Brown acknowledged this, and when asked whether he thought if Bielsa would attract interest from elsewhere, he was confident and claimed teams lower down in the Premier League would be keeping an eye on him.
He said: “100%. There’ll be teams lower down in the Premier League that’ll be keeping an eye on him if there is a managerial change, we know that.
“I’m not sure anybody in the Championship is going to be bigger than Leeds United.
“The positivity, the change, the mood around the place, and the development of the ground and when you go there, it’s brilliant to see that sort of hype back at Leeds United.”
OPINION
Brown is only stating a fact that will have given many Leeds fans sleepless nights over the past few months. Bielsa is a top, top coach, a manager way too experienced and talented for the second tier in any country. He has done wonders at Leeds this season, and should take immense pride in his work there, but even the most ardent supporter would probably admit that should they fail to go up, it would not be unreasonable for him to move on. Of course they will want him to stay and you get the impression that he is very happy at Leeds, but that doesn’t mean that he couldn’t have his head turned by a decent offer from elsewhere. That’s if he doesn’t walk beforehand. It’s almost counter-intuitive, but Bielsa is such a perfectionist that it wouldn’t be a shock if he deemed himself a failure if they don’t go up and decided to leave the club anyways. It would be crazy, but not necessarily out of the question.