Bielsa award equals club record haul

MARCELO BIELSA has become the first Leeds United manager since David O’Leary to win three Manager of the Month awards.

The Argentine picked up the Championship prize for the month of July thanks to Leeds’ perfect record, adding to the awards he won in August 2018 and November 2019.

Bielsa also took the League Managers Association’s Championship Manager of the Year award, in recognition of his and Leeds’ achievement in finishing top of the division and securing a place in the Premier League.

Leeds put together an almost flawless July, winning all six of their fixtures as the season moved into its most crucial and tense stage.

It was made all-the-more impressive by the Whites’ mixed restart to the season in June.

A disappointing 2-0 defeat at Cardiff and a shock 1-1 draw at home to strugglers Luton Town introduced nerves and concern that things might go awry once again like they did in 2018/19.

But a 3-1 win at Blackburn put Leeds back on the front foot and they romped home in the end.

A 5-0 battering of Stoke City, a hard-fought 1-0 win at Swansea City and an even tougher game against Barnsley that ended with the same scoreline, put Leeds on the brink of glory and results elsewhere pushed them over the line. But even after West Brom and Brentford both stumbled to hand Leeds promotion and the title respectively, there was no let up from Bielsa’s men.

They swept aside Derby County before finishing off by routing Charlton Athletic.

Their 18-point July haul left them 10 points clear of secondplaced West Brom and helped Bielsa beat Swansea’s Steve Cooper, Fulham’s Scott Parker, Luton’s Nathan Jones, Stoke’s Michael O’Neill and Barnsley’s Gerhard Struber to the award.

No Leeds boss has picked up three monthly awards since O’Leary earned his third Premier League prize in April 2001, leaving another piece of history on offer for Bielsa should he sign a contract extension at Elland Road.