Aside from the romance of having resurrected one of the great sleeping giants of the English game, part of the intrigue and excitement surrounding the arrival of Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United in the Premier League this season is in how it will pit the influential and enigmatic Argentinian coach against some of the finest managerial minds in football.
Many of the world’s most revered managers list Bielsa top among their greatest coaching influences, not least his former charges Mauricio Pochettino and Diego Simeone. His theories on pressing, innovative formations and swift, vertical build-up play were long considered ahead of their time. And no modern tactician owes a greater debt of gratitude to the Leeds boss than Pep Guardiola, who will take his Manchester City side to Elland Road on Saturday.
It was Gabriel Batistuta who first recommended that Guardiola seek the counsel of Bielsa in preparation for a career in management. The Argentinian striker and the now-City boss were ageing team-mates at Roma at the time, in 2003, and Batistuta – who’d played under Bielsa in the youth ranks of Newell’s Old Boys – insisted there was no better learning tree for Guardiola to sit beneath than Bielsa’s.
Teenage Gabriel Batistuta at Newell's Old Boys, where he was coached by young Marcelo Bielsa. pic.twitter.com/S1ErNRluUO
— Football Talent Scout – Jacek Kulig (@FTalentScout) March 5, 2020
Three years later, following the culmination of his playing career, Guardiola, along with a friend, the filmmaker and novelist David Trueba, made a 5,000-mile pilgrimage to meet Bielsa at his ranch near Rosario.
After hours of discussion about football and film, Bielsa turned to Guardiola and, according to Tim Rich’s biography of the Leeds manager, The Quality of Madness, said: “Why do you, who knows about all the garbage in football, the dishonesty of people in the game, want to return to that environment and manage? Do you like blood so much?”
“I need that blood,” Guardiola is said to have replied.
The exchange of ideas that day and the philosophical kinship the pair established has led Guardiola to gushingly enthuse of Bielsa’s influence and innovation ever since.
"He is unique in world football because of the special way he plays. I learned a lot about his style, his final product. He's an incredible person, so special." Guardiola said recently of Bielsa, who, for all his wide-reaching influence and cast of illustrious disciples, counts two domestic titles with Newell’s in the early 1990s and Olympic gold with Argentina in 2004 as his total haul of top-level trophies in 30 years of management.
"Winning titles helps to have a job next season,” Guardiola continued, “but at the end of your life, what you remember is not the titles you have won. What you remember is the memories you have and whether the manager taught you a lot.
"What we remember are the experiences and the memories, the players you have had, the managers you have had. Marcelo is at the top of the list. Absolutely at the top of the list."
Guardiola, as is true of many of the high-profile coaches self-admittedly indebted to the Argentinian, long ago surpassed Bielsa’s modest medal count. And the City boss is perhaps one of only a handful of managers who can claim a web of influence comparable to that of the 65-year-old.
Saturday will be the first time they have met in the Premier League, but Guardiola and Bielsa have faced off before, while managing Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao respectively. The last time they squared off was in the 2012 Copa del Rey final.
Pep Guardiola on Marcelo Bielsa following Leeds’ promotion to the Premier League. #lufc pic.twitter.com/gkXTA2rA1f
— Tom Carnduff (@TomC_22) July 20, 2020
That was Guardiola’s last game in charge of Barca, but despite a slight regression in his final season at the Camp Nou, his side carried greater momentum – and, of course, resources – into the showdown against Athletic.
Bielsa’s Basques had produced thrilling football for much of the campaign, even upsetting Manchester United in the Europa League. But it has long been a criticism of the former Lille and Marseille boss that his teams fade late in campaigns as result of the physical demands of his style. Former United midfielder Ander Herrera, who was on the bench for the Copa del Rey final against Barcelona, in later years admitted Athletic by that stage were “a completely different team than we had been before because, to be honest, we were physically f*****”.
Two goals from Pedro and one from Lionel Messi – his 73rd of that season – gave Barca a comfortable victory and Guardiola a fitting farewell.
Guardiola has achieved so much since his sit-down with Bielsa in 2006 that any time the two occupy opposing dugouts, a master-versus-apprentice narrative just doesn’t fit. Rather, they meet now as two great and revered, if different, doyens of their craft.
And while Guardiola certainly still has resources on his side, with Leeds boasting two wins from their first three games back in the Premier League and eight goals scored, the momentum might just be in Bielsa’s favour this time around.
