When Leeds United officially gained promotion to the Premier League, no one thought they’d be boring.
After all, with Marcelo Bielsa at the helm, there is never a dull moment, with their two opening games of the new season a testament to that.
A 4-3 loss to Liverpool was followed by a 4-3 win against Fulham, and Leeds have made it clear they will be problematic for most, if not all, teams in the top tier.
It all comes down to the Argentine and his way of approaching the beautiful game, with many of his previous players singing his praises on a near daily basis in the press around the world.
The latest to do so was Dimitri Payet, who played under Bielsa at Marseille for his one and a bit season in the south of France, in an interview with RMC Sport.
While he was full of praise for the now Leeds manager, letting everyone know how much of an impact he had on him, the playmaker also revealed the one time he got on the wrong side of his head coach during a training session.
“‘You congratulate him when he’s done nothing during training? He only did that and you congratulate him!’. He sends everyone back to the dressing room. We played on the Sunday, we were the Friday, and he tells me: ‘You can go, you can go on holiday, we won’t need you on Sunday’. It’s crazy, but that’s him.
“It was a wake up call, even if I was playing well in games and was having a great season. Even during training, I wasn’t allowed to do any less. I got two extra days of holiday (smiles)”.
This kind of story does nothing to dispel the myth surrounding Bielsa, often nicknamed El Loco, which Payet agrees with.
He said: “Yes, loco, but it’s not derogatory, because he likes it. He has this in his blood. He eats, sleeps and drinks football. Loco in that sense. I remember him after a game, he was sat by himself at a McDonalds with his computer and his Marseille training gear. That, that’s crazy”.
