THE CRAZY ONE IS ON HIS WAY!
Swansea turn to Bielsa ... who once greeted fans with a grenade
It WAS the first day of the 2015-16 season in France and Marcelo Bielsa had decided it would be his last. His Marseille team had just lost 1-0 to Caen and the Argentinian coach was giving his post-match press conference.
He went through the motions of analysing the game that had just taken place and then announced to stunned reporters: ‘I’ve finished my work here, I’m going back home.’
He didn’t mean he was done for the day, he meant he was done for good — resigning and returning to Rosario in Argentina, where Swansea chairman Huw Jenkins headed this week in an attempt to fill the vacant manager’s post at the Liberty Stadium.
If he appoints El Loco (the crazy one) it will win Swansea plenty of admirers for daring and ambition. Jenkins will also be taking a massive gamble.
this is a man who was still a rookie 37- year- old manager at Argentinian club Newell’s Old Boys in 1992 when they lost a Copa Libertadores game 6-0 to San Lorenzo and a group of the club’s hardcore supporters went to his house to protest to him personally about the defeat. He allegedly opened the front door to them holding a grenade and said he would pull the pin if they did not clear off, before chasing them down the street.
Bielsa’s abrupt departure from Marseille this August, following a fall-out with the board, was typical of a career that has seen him labelled a genius and a liability in the same season.
As head coach of Chile, his team were a joy to watch at the 2010 World Cup before going out to Brazil in the last 16. But the hyper-intensity of his 3-3-3-1 formation has struggled to last the distance at club level.
He makes teams fearless and they often fly through the first half of seasons, but the demands of his style leaves them frazzled for the run-in. that was the case at both Marseille and Athletic Bilbao.
Marseille were top of the French league going into the winter break of the 2014-15 season. But their early success was based on a relentless pressing game — which many believe was fathered by Bielsa — and players suffered in the second half of the season.
they finished 14 points off eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain and out of the Champions League places. Marseille president Vincent Labrune called it ‘collective suicide’ as the team lost high-scoring games and slid down the table.
Bielsa’s experience in Bilbao was similar. they reached the Europa League and Spanish Cup finals in 2012 but performed terribly in both: beaten 3-0 by Atletico Madrid in the former and 3-0 by Barcelona in the latter. Players had nothing left to give and the fatigue seemed to run into the next season.
BIELSA is 60 but his energy levels are as high as they were when he was an uncompromising defender for Newell’s Old Boys, who he eventually coached to two league titles.
When he is not taking on fans or on the training ground, he is engaging with directors to make sure they stick to every promise made. Woe betide Jenkins if he successfully hires him on the basis of a vow that he then reneges on. Anyone at the club could be in the firing line as he takes responsibility for everyone from kit-man to hired contractor.
He aggressively confronted a construction- site manager at Athletic Bilbao’s training ground redevelopment in 2012. He later apologised in a 20-minute press conference monologue which soon descended into a rant about the fact that he had returned for pre-season to find the works carried out on the Lezema complex unfinished and poorly executed.
He said: ‘I checked the work that had been carried out. It had been poorly done and knowingly poorly done too. I was indignant because I have to take responsibility for the working conditions of a squad that is worth more than €300million. this is like fraud or robbery.’
Bielsa walked away from Athletic just as he did from Marseille: without a trophy. But he left players feel- ing that they had been on a rollercoaster football education and he left supporters talking about some of the best performances they had seen from their team for many years. Athletic knocked Manchester United out of the Europa League 5-3 on aggregate in March 2012, in what were widely recognised as two of the season’s outstanding European performances. He also has the stamp of approval of Pep Guardiola on his c.v — for many people that more than makes up for the lack of a single European trophy.
Back in 2006 when Guardiola was embarking on his managerial career he sought out Bielsa in Rosario. the idea was to have a brief chat over morning coffee. He ended up staying long into the night, gathering as much information as he could from the man who he described then, and still very much believes is, a football genius.