Newell’s Old Boys aren’t going through a great period and that’s led to talk in Argentina about Marcelo Bielsa returning to the club.
The Leeds United manager’s brother has again been speaking to the media and was asked about the chances of a return.
Rafael Bielsa, who used to be Argentina’s Minister of Foreign Relations, made the situation clear and said he wants to make sure Newell’s fans aren’t led to believe a return is possible in the summer… because it’s very much not.
Speaking to La Capital, Rafael explained: “Marcelo cannot go back to Newell’s because he has a contractual problem. I made the contract. If he does not go up to the Premier League, Leeds have the option to keep him. Taking into account the campaign that he’s fulfilling it’s difficult to not keep him. And if he goes up, it is mandatory for both parties to stay. In the contract he signed there is no escape clause that Marcelo put during the time when he was running Espanyol, and appeared the possibility of going to the Argentine team.”
Rafael wants to make sure that no resentment is built up should Bielsa not return in Newell’s hour of need: “I would say, especially not to embitter the life of Marcelo himself, to whom everything that happens with Newell’s hurts a lot, and not to generate unfounded expectations, Bielsa cannot come back for a legal issue. To come back he would be breaking a contract and my brother is not doing that.”
That wasn’t good enough for La Capital, who pointed out that Bielsa could just break the Leeds United contract, after all he wouldn’t be the first manager to not see out his deal.
Rafael then tried again to explain why that isn’t happening: “Yes, but I cannot imagine Marcelo breaking a contract. He never broke one during his career. It was the other way around. For example, with América in Mexico or Lille in France it was because the clubs broke the agreements.
“Who more than me, and I’m his brother, would like Marcelo to come to Newell’s? But I do not see him breaking so many rules. And not for the strictly professional, but for an existential question. The Bielsa family does not break the rules. These are values that are learned as a child, you are taught by your mother, your grandparents and the whole family environment.”
La Capital then pointed out that Marcelo Bielsa had said he’d return to Newell’s if they really needed him, and right now they do.
That still wasn’t enough for Rafael to consider his brother walking out on Leeds United: “But Marcelo, as I told you, because of an existential question, would never break so many rules. His love for Newell’s is already proven.”
Soothing words for Leeds fans who obviously don’t want to see their much loved manager go anywhere.
Marcelo Bielsa | Leeds United manager’s brother on ‘British double standards’.
Extraordinary defence, starring Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, the Marquess of Queensberry and Isaac Newton. https://t.co/lJRrAmTvp8 #lufc #mot
— Sport Witness (@Sport_Witness) March 18, 2019
