As the Mexican national team look for a new manager, local newspaper La Afición makes a plea today: don’t go after a new Marcelo Bielsa.
It’s not like the Leeds United boss is a bad coach, or anything like that. What columnist José Ramón Fernández Guatiérrez de Quevedo says is that clubs and national teams should stop going after his disciples and letting him have so much indirect influence.
The biggest example he takes is Barcelona. He shows that Gerardo Martino didn’t have a great time at the Catalan side, and the reason why he was signed is only because Bielsa is his main inspiration.
It’s claimed that no matter how little the manager’s contact with Bielsa is, there’s always a big media circus about it. That’s the case of many Argentine managers.
Quevedo points out that many clubs and national teams would like to sign Bielsa, but he’s a difficult man to get. That’s why they often have to go for alternatives and they’re perhaps given too much consideration because of the Bielsa connection and the manager’s recommendation of them.
Now that Mexico are keen on Martino, Quevedo says that they must think of Martino, not Bielsa. Especially because the Leeds United ‘has many disciples, but not many titles’, despite being an ‘excellent teacher’.
