Speaking recently on The Extra Ball podcast, Leeds United managing director Angus Kinnear provided an update on the contract situation of Marcelo Bielsa.
Having overseen a third-place finish in his first season in charge of the club, before going on to finish a resounding 10 points clear of second-placed West Bromwich Albion in the 2019/20 season and, in doing so, securing top-flight football at Elland Road for the first time in 16 years, it would be fair to say that Marcelo Bielsa has been a success as Leeds United manager thus far.
However, despite his impressive achievements in a relatively short space of time, there is some uncertainty surrounding the Argentine’s future at the club, as his contract expired at the end of last season and he is yet to pen a new deal.
And Kinnear appeared very relaxed about Bielsa’s new deal, suggesting that the two parties are very close to agreeing on a contract.
He said: “We are really close. This is the challenge, is that he’s so fixated on the preparations for next season that the contract plays a secondary role. We would like to announce it, but every meeting – Victor [Orta] and I meet with him pretty much daily at the moment – and every meeting is more around changes he wants to make to the training ground, the players that we’re looking at, how we’re going to develop the U23s, how we’re going to backfill Carlos’ [Corberan] role, and then we might get a little bit to the contract at the end.”
Are you confident Bielsa will stay at Leeds this summer?
Yes
No
TIF Thoughts…
While these would appear to be reassuring comments regarding the future of Bielsa at Leeds, there is the slight impression given off that these comments could be a diversion tactic from Kinnear, as, one would assume, a contract for the manager would also play quite a large part in ‘preparations for next season’.
However, at present, we will simply just have to wait and see exactly when, or if, Bielsa does decide to sign on the dotted line with Leeds.