Leeds United are back in the Premier League after winning the Championship for the second time in five years.
Indeed, Leeds are back in the big time, this time under Daniel Farke, half a decade on from earning promotion under Marcelo Bielsa.
Bielsa was a legend at Leeds, and, in some ways, fans of the club still haven’t quite got over the Argentine.
Indeed, Leeds were urged to re-hire Bielsa at one point after his sacking, and while Bielsa didn’t see eye-to-eye with everybody, he did some incredible things for Leeds.
Speaking on Ben Foster’s Podcast, Patrick Bamford has been discussing Marcelo Bielsa’s sacking, and he shared an interesting story about what happened the very next day.
What Marcelo Bielsa was doing the day after being sacked by Leeds
Bamford spoke about his trip to see Marcelo Bielsa the day after Leeds decided to sack him.
The striker says he went to Bielsa’s house the day after he was sacked, and he was shocked to see the Argentine sat watching football with his analysts so soon after leaving his job.
“He just walked out, kind of shook hands, had a hug. And then I went the day after, and I was praying that he hadn’t flown already. And I went to his house, and I just knocked on the door, and I went to say thank you, obviously, because of everything he had done,” Bamford said.
“And he was in there with two of his analysts, one of the women who looks after all the news stuff. And he was watching football, analysing it. And I was just like, you know what, fair play.
“It took ten minutes to sit and talk to me, but I interrupted him working. And I was like, wow, you’ve literally just left the club two days ago.”
Marcelo Bielsa’s career since leaving Leeds
Bielsa didn’t stop working after leaving Leeds, analysing games the day after his departure from Elland Road.
The Argentine took a year out of work after leaving Leeds before becoming the manager of Uruguay.
Interestingly, Bielsa’s record for Uruguay isn’t actually that brilliant, winning fewer than half of his matches since getting the job.
| Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay record | |
| Games | 26 |
| Wins | 11 |
| Draws | 10 |
| Losses | 5 |
Bielsa is one of the hardest working men in football, there’s no doubt about that, but, sadly, towards the end of his time at Leeds United, things started to go awry.
Bamford’s comments here show just how committed Bielsa is to the beautiful game, and there may not ever be another manager quite like him.
