Leeds United led by Marcelo Bielsa will play in the Premier next season, after Huddersfield Town defeated West Bromwich Albion this Friday (2-1), making it impossible for the latter, second in the Championship table, to reach « the whites’ in the last game he has left. The Argentine coach manages to cure the anxiety of a club that descended 16 years ago.
Leeds United is a great club for the historical wealth of its youth team, for the number of followers, its three leagues and its European finals. He won the last First Division in 1991-92 before the foundation of the Premier. As a sign of their footprint in English football, this season Norman Hunter and Jack Charlton, pillars of Elland Road and members of the world champion team in 1966 have died.
But the fans expressed anxiety – “why do we have to make everything so difficult!” – after winning 1-0 at bottom Barnsley this Thursday. The victory ensured the promotion achieving one more point in the two remaining games. Brentford, third, who also has two games left, could take away the first place, but in that case the WBA would be third and play the promotion semifinals.
The suffering was not just a consequence of the traumatic decade and a half in which the club was on the verge of disappearing, in the hands of often opportunistic managers after the indebtedness contracted by the board at the end of the 20th century. Large loans had been guaranteed with the income that would be received with the classification for the Champions League, which did not arrive.
In 2017, an Italian businessman in the media and sports competitions, Andrea Radrizzani, acquired the club and, after a frustrating start, accepted the suggestion of its sports director, the Spanish Víctor Orta, with a career in Valladolid, Sevilla or Middlesbrough, trying to sign the peculiar Bielsa. He called Argentina and they were to talk the next day.
El Loco had already seen seven United games when he received the second phone call from England. The club offered him the best contract ever signed with a club manager. It would be 6.6 million euros a year for him and his assistants, according to the media. The positive net balance of sales and transfers in these two seasons has been 25 million.
Work well done
Bielsa kept a good part of the starting team, improved the squad with some loans and youth promotions, and launched the tireless machine for physical preparation and repetition of tactical movements that is its hallmark. After the joyous time with the Argentine team at the Olympic Games, with that of Chile and with Athletic, he had suffered abrupt disappointments in France and Italy.
Leeds was a great professional challenge at 64 years old. The improvement of footballers and the spectacle of the rival’s overwhelming by a Bielsa team when it repeats over and over again their combined attacks excited the fans. Posters or graffiti that read “In Bielsa we trust” express since their arrival the absolute faith and trust of the fans in their coach, who the official motto of the United States directs God.
The team was second on April 19, 1919 when, as a result of a shocking mood breakdown, they lost at home to Wigan, who were struggling to avoid relegation. The visitors had been left with 10 in the 14th minute. Bielsa’s Leeds tied one of their three remaining games and lost two, also two in the promotion semi-final against Derby County.
The suspicion – which also haunted Jürgen Klopp – that their teams fall physically or mentally at the end of the season, due to the intensity it demands in training and games, was aired. It has not happened this year, but it does not prove anything, because the break in confinement has given footballers rest. Leeds started hesitantly after the restart but have won all four games in July.
The last one was nail biting, as the fans exclaimed. Gerhard Struber’s Barnsley wasted energy and talent, but fell for an own goal and an inability to finish. Especially in the second half, he overwhelmed Leeds de Bielsa, who had never been seen in these parts putting defenses from the bench to cover holes that Struber created by removing forwards.
The beloved Valencian expert Pablo Hernéndez, whose wisdom would enter the second half at 35 years old, has been essential in some victories this month, he entered this time at 45 ‘and was replaced in 90’. He kicked a rabid kick at a bottle of water when he reached the band, in what must have been the celebration of the triumph and of his long-awaited promotion. It has arrived 24 hours later.
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