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?’

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