Marcelo Bielsa, we could fall out - The Square Ball 27/5/22
GOING TO THE DOGS
Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman
I have not felt the need to put ‘Widow of Bielsa’ in my
Twitter profile because that sadness is engraved upon my heart. I first heard
the term when I asked Chilean poet Felipe Cussen what life is like when Marcelo
Bielsa stops managing your team, and that was October 2018. We’d had about two
months of Bielsa’s football and I was already obsessed by the dread of being
without him. Since he was sacked by Leeds United, this February, it has been as
difficult to find beauty in life as I feared it would be.
If Bielsa does want to make it easier for Leeds fans to get
over him, though, he’s going the right way about it. Speaking to the BBC before
Sunday’s Champo play-off final against Nottingham Forest, Huddersfield Town
manager Carlos Corberan, our old Under-23s coach, says he’s getting regular
advice and support from El Loco:
“I have spoken to him a lot, we spoke in the last week, we
spent a good time talking,” Corberan, 39, said. “He is someone who always gave
me the best support, and since I began managing Huddersfield he has been giving
me a lot.
“And in different moments, such as in the first year when we
were suffering, and maybe now the team is in a good position. He was watching
our games, he will watch the play-off games.”
I already previewed the Champo play-offs before the
semi-finals and concluded that, while I would like to see Tom Lees in the
Premier League, the look of joy on his face after winning at Wembley would be
too weird, while having Huddersfield coming up would be very inconvenient. They
seem to have quite a good manager, and while I’m not saying Leeds United will
need one of those soon, I’m just saying it might be easier to acquire this one
if he’s still stuck in the lower leagues staring at Terry the Terrier every
day. And if Corberan just so happens to have Bielsa on speed-dial, so much the
better. Nothing would make me happier than having Bielsa remote controlling our
team from South America.
But I don’t think anything could make me more miserable than
thinking about him cheering on Huddersfield Town this Sunday. Sitting down in
front of the TV in a Tesco bag shirt, a blue and white rosette pinned to his
chest, hooting and hollering as Jordan Rhodes scores? This is a man I assumed
to have the highest aesthetic standards in football, and now I’m forced to
picture him roaring his approval as Danny Ward runs the clock down in a corner
of Wembley. I must refer Marcelo to the simple, clear message contained in this
piece of (unrelated) 1970s graffiti: ‘Ban the dog freaks now!’
Unless this is all some elaborate prank. We saw, from time
to time, glimpses of Bielsa’s humour; mainly when delivering the news at a
press conference that Pablo Hernandez had a problem with his groin, but it was
‘only small’. Perhaps Corberan is saying more about these phone calls than is
really there. Maybe, when his mobile rings at 3am, it’s Bielsa telling him,
‘Carlos, I am here studying Huddersfield Town, and I have some tactical ideas.’
Bleary Carlos will ask him to go on, switching on his bedside lamp and reaching
for a notepad. Bielsa will say, ‘Is Andy Booth still playing?’, then burst into
giggles. He’ll add, ‘Have you thought about asking Ronnie Jepson for some
ideas?’, hardly containing his mirth. Corberan is putting the notepad down now,
his mouth settling into a peeved line. ‘No Carlos, no Carlos, hear me out,’
Bielsa coughs, trying to hold down his laughter. ‘If you need a goal,’ he says,
‘Can you get Phil Starbuck in?’
