Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa has so far managed two clubs in France, Marseille and Lille.
The Argentine was in charge of Marseille for the 2014/15 season, while his stint with the latter was less than six months in 2017. A few of his former Lille teammates did not enjoy his managerial qualities and have publicly talked about it in the past.
Marseille’s Maxime Lopez has now joined the list to criticise the Leeds boss and while explaining it in detail, he also touched upon his decision to turn down an approach from Liverpool in the past.
The 21-year-old signed his first professional contract with the Ligue 1 side in 2014 and that same summer, Bielsa arrived at the club. He then had an opportunity to join the Merseyside club, but he turned it down to continue at Marseille.
Lopez gave an interview to Marseille’s official Youtube channel and spoke about the Leeds coach and the Reds while looking back at his career.
“It was very hard because I had just refused Liverpool, and I said to myself, ‘f**k, but why I’m not going there actually …’ I felt like everything was falling apart, I was not playing, not even in CFA. I played with the U19s.”
This isn’t the first time Lopez has spoken about turning down Liverpool.
Back in 2017, he revealed in an interview to L’Equipe that he’d travelled and even met Steven Gerrard, with the Premier League side telling him he could ‘have Coutinho’s spot in five years’.
Instead, he decided to stay put and continue his development in a familiar environment, which, looking at Liverpool’s team these days (they probably wouldn’t play him), might have been the wiser choice.
