Top of the Championship with 30 points from their first 16 games, Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds are still impressing, most recently overcoming Wigan away from home.
The Argentine’s methods, which have been praised by many members of the media, appear to be working, and the Elland Road faithful will be hoping this continues for a long, long time.
However, fans of clubs who have been managed by Bielsa in the past are still waiting for the moment where the dream shatters and the club implodes, as was the case at Marseille after Christmas, and at Lille.
Wherever he goes, the Leeds United manager leaves a trail of either really happy players or really tired ones, as explained by Reims goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, who arrived in the south of France the day after Bielsa walked away from the OM job.
Speaking to RMC Sport, he said: “When I arrived, I wasn’t aware of how he [Bielsa] did things. There was a bit of everything in the dressing room. You had players who were really happy, they were disappointed he was leaving because he’d shown them to the world.
“There were also players who were a bit drained because of his way of controlling everything.”
It is that ‘drain’ that most fans have seen when Bielsa takes over at a club, as Marseille went into the Christmas break top of the league table, but eventually finished 4th, 14 points off league winners Paris Saint-Germain.
As for Lille, nothing ever stuck, and the club found themselves in a constant relegation battle under the Argentine.
However, this doesn’t mean these things will happen at Leeds United, as every club is different, and it’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the season pans out for the Championship side.
Maybe Bielsa has changed his methods…