Seen as a bold move at the time, Leeds United’s decision to appoint Marcelo Bielsa as their manager is one that ultimately paid off.
The Argentine manager was key to the Elland Road side escaping the Championship after so many years away from the Premier League, failing the first time before pulling it off on his second attempt.
He then stayed for their first season at the top level, only to be dismissed in the next due to poor performances, with Leeds appointing Jesse Marsch to replace him.
The American kept the club away from relegation, and continues to try and improve them in his own way, which will be very different to Bielsa’s.
The currently jobless manager is known for his reliance on video and making his players sit through hours of film, which requires some good analysts.
One of those was Anthony Fulconis, currently at Troyes, who sat down with L’Est Éclair in France to discuss what it was like to work for Bielsa at Leeds.
He said: “It was really intense, in a historical club with a great fan base. The infrastructures are extraordinary, the training centre is humongous, with ten pitches. I learned a lot, in a league with a particular style: tougher, with plenty of loose balls, contacts, aerial challenges. I was in charge of studying the opposition. No, I wasn’t sent to spy on trainings (laughs).
“Marcelo never left anything to chance. If it was the 46th game, you needed to compile the previous 45. At first, the video was 25 minutes long, but at the end of the campaign it was more than two hours. I’d start in the morning at 8 and sometimes finished at 10.30pm with work to do back home.
“Marcelo needs that material to work. With him, all players watch film every day: at the start of the week to rectify what didn’t work in the last game, then you start looking at the opposition.”
The 67-year-old manager was in charge at Leeds for 170 games, winning 81 of those, drawing 30 and losing the remaining 59, during which his Leeds teams scored 274 goals and conceded 238.
