Future Leeds United Managers Will Be Cursed By The Legacy Of Marcelo Bielsa - Forbes 11/2/23

Zak Garner-Purkis

Sensing it might be a while before they can do it again English journalists gorged themselves on anti-American humor to bid farewell to the Premier League’s sole US coach Jesse Marsch.

References to hapless sitcom character Ted Lasso were aplenty as Brits mocked the ‘Yank’s’ sacking by Leeds United.

His departure was hardly surprising given the club's seven-game run without a win and position of third from bottom in the Premier League table.

An intense, energetic character who often bounced with excitement as he delivered his post-game assessments, his final interview in the wake of a 1-0 defeat by Nottingham Forest showed the strain.

"We are struggling to turn performances into results. We have been in this place for a while. It's frustrating,” he said wearily, deep lines across his brow, ”I've got to find ways to change that feeling and find ways to help our team to get the results we think we deserved.”

Leaning on the subjective concept of what is deserved in soccer is always dangerous territory, so it was little surprise his employers took a different view.

Few tears will be shed for Marsch amongst the Elland Road faithful who never really took to the American.

Cries of “Jesse Marsch get out of our club” had rung out from supporters long before the board decided to take action.

There was, however, a degree of sympathy for one challenge the American coach faced entirely out of his control; who he succeeded as manager.

When Marcelo Bielsa arrived at Leeds United in 2018 few would have predicted the impact he would have.

Undoubtedly a coach with exceptional abilities, he had gained a reputation as someone who was incredibly difficult to work with.

Bielsa's tenure at his previous two positions, at Lille and Lazio, could be measured in days and hours, the job before that, at Marseille, lasted a year.

On every occasion, from the two days he spent in Rome to the 12 months in the South of France, there had been some disagreement with the hierarchy.

But if anyone at Leeds United had doubted whether Bielsa, whose nickname is ‘El loco’ or ‘crazy,’ was as demanding as the stories suggested, his decision to whip out architectural drawings of the club’s training ground during their initial discussions showed them he was.

Indeed, as the recent overtures by Bournemouth and Everton to hire Bielsa have shown, a team doesn’t choose the Argentinian manager, he tells them.

Even amongst Bielsa acolytes, although there was a consensus it was an exciting prospect, few were predicting a period of sustained success.

“It is also possible that the appointment has come too late. Bielsa is now approaching 63, and his last job - a spell in charge of Lille - was not a success,” South American soccer expert Tim Vickery warned at the time.

“What Bielsa proposed once came across as revolutionary. It may be the case that football has now largely incorporated his concepts of intense pressing and that Bielsa no longer has novelty value.”

The fact Bielsa had a policy of just signing one-year contracts, having been burned in the past with promises that hadn’t materialized, was also a concern.

A sense he could suddenly depart in the manner he disappeared from Lille or Marseille never really left the club.

But what followed was remarkable.

Bielsa turned a mid-table Championship team, lacking direction or any real top players, and transformed them into a side that looked like it belonged several levels up.

Some serious misfortune at crucial moments of the first campaign contributed to them missing out on promotion narrowly, but the next year they blew the division away and won the league with ease.

An equally impressive first season in the Premier League followed with the team’s energetic attacking approach winning over fans well beyond Yorkshire.

Whoever managed to reinstate Leeds United to its rightful place in the top division would have likely won the hearts of the club’s supporters, the difference with Bielsa was he did so much more than that.

He created a Leeds United identity based on beautiful ambitious soccer, a style that took risks no matter the opposition.

It was hard not to admire a team that could beat reigning champions Manchester City but also lose 7-0 to them.

Historically, Leeds United was known for achieving success in a manner that was effective but not necessarily pretty.

League-winning sides managed by Don Revie were defined by the aggression of Billy Bremner and Norman Hunter, its ferocious approach was famously labeled by Brian Clough as ‘cheating.’

But Bielsa managed to channel that enthusiasm into something attractive, a pressing style that felt perfectly with the Leeds United culture and at the same time was unique.

How could the people of Yorkshire not fall in love with that?

Then there was his eccentrically down-to-earth personality, he lived in a modest property in a small town, did video analysis work in a local coffee shop and rode his bike to the training ground.

This was a man absorbed into the community with ease.

As Marsh’s reign came to an end, the Lillywhites’ supporters continued affection for his predecessor was mocked in some corners of the British media.

"The American never stood a chance of winning over the good folk of Yorkshire, where they still worship Marcelo Bielsa as one of their own,” wrote Mark Irwin in The Sun.

“Dour, monosyllabic and communicating via a series of grunts, what was it that so endeared Bielsa to the Leeds supporters?

“Because even though Bielsa Ball was taking their team back to the Championship at a rate of knots, they were still inconsolable when he was replaced by Marsch a year ago.”

Of course they were inconsolable, this was the man who not only elevated the club back to the Premier League, he reinvented Leeds United.

Future managers should beware, it will take a lot for them to come close to his legacy.