The "Bielsa effect" brought Leeds United back to the Premier League 3:18
(CNN) -
'The Damned Utd' was the title of author David Peace's novel about Leeds United and Brian Clough, who ran the club for just 44 days in 1974.
Leeds United is a team with a proud tradition, not least for having named two of the most influential English club coaches.
Clough, who won two European Cups with Nottingham Forest, had succeeded Don Revie, the man who established the England team as one of the powerhouses of English football in the 1960s and early 1970s.
Current Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa is equally influential, perhaps even more globally.
Bielsa is also the man who ended the team's stint in purgatory outside of the English Premier League, guiding the club back to the top flight after a 16-year hiatus.
Bielsa's fair play: he asked his team to let himself score a goal
Leeds United forward and hometown hero Alan Smith (center) is harassed as thousands invade Elland Road after the club's relegation in 2004. (Alan Smith)
Relegation to the Premier League on May 8, 2004 hit the club hard, none more so than Yorkshire-born forward Alan Smith, who made more than 250 appearances for the team.
"When I look back, it was the biggest disappointment of my career," Smith, now 39, told Sports CNN.
You're a product of the hometown and you go through the system.
I've been in the club since I was 10 years old.
"Going from being a 10-year-old boy and finishing in the first team… when you have the maximums of the semifinal of the Champions League and then you have a relegation that affects everyone."
«For me, the most difficult thing to accept is that the club entered and you see people losing their jobs.
People you've known since you were 10 years old who work in the kitchens, the cleaning staff.
«El Loco» Bielsa
When Leeds United descended in 2004 to the other side of the world, Bielsa was approaching his 50th birthday and preparing to lead Argentina in the Copa América.
Some 25 years earlier, the Argentine ended his playing career and quickly found his true calling as a coach.
After leading the club he played for in Argentina, Newell's Old Boys, Bielsa went on a service tour of South America, before being hired by Espanyol de Barcelona in 1998.
It has been said that while at Newell's, Bielsa acquired his nickname, which has stuck with him ever since: "El Loco."
The reason?
After a 6-0 win at the hands of San Lorenzo, a gang of Newell's ultras, or the barra bravas as they are known in Argentina, showed up at his house to demand that he face them.
And Bielsa confronted them, allegedly holding a grenade, threatening to "pull the safety device" if they didn't leave.
A few months after being signed by Espanyol, the appeal of home became too strong and Bielsa took over the national team.
With Bielsa, the Albiceleste reached the final of the Copa América and won the Olympic gold in Athens, the first Argentine gold medal in some 52 years.
Marcelo Bielsa led Argentina from 1998 to 2004, winning a gold medal at the 2004 Olympics in Athens with the team.
Bielsa then took over the Chilean team, before attempting a second chance to coach in Spain, with Athletic Bilbao, where he achieved runner-up positions in the Europa League and the Copa del Rey.
A season followed in Marseille and so far the 2014/15 season in France was the last full season of top-flight football that Bielsa has coached.
He then joined three teams in a row starting with the letter 'L': La Lazio (for two days in 2016), Lille (2017) and Leeds United (2018 onwards).
If Bielsa has never won a great honor with a top European club, he has earned a reputation for inspiring some of the best coaches in the world.
Not only did Mauricio Pochettino and Diego Simeone play for him, but Pep Guardiola once took an 11-hour flight to Buenos Aires and then drove most of about 300 kilometers to talk to him.
Of Bielsa, Guardiola, the Manchester City manager, said: «Winning titles helps to have a job next season but at the end of your life what you remember are not the titles you have won, what you remember are the memories you have and if the manager taught you a lot ».
Former players describe what Marcelo Bielsa was like 4:17
Bielsa's reputation is also based on a meticulous approach to preparation.
When he was interviewed for the position at Leeds United, he allegedly knew how many times all the championship teams had played the 4-3-3, 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 formations.
"Bielsa had this incredible reputation, but could it work in England?" Adam Pope, a commentator for BBC Radio Leeds, told CNN Sports.
And the trick is, he did his homework.
He watched each game together with his staff, and found that he not only had the raw materials in terms of the first team, but also the youth team.
Financial rise and fall
Between 1992 and 2001, Leeds won the most prestigious league in the country and built a team that was only 180 minutes away from winning the most important trophy in European football.
But in the infamous words of former club president Peter Ridsdale, who may forever be associated with money spent on goldfish, Leeds United "chased the dream" and then found themselves living a nightmare.
Salvation came courtesy of a new owner, with Italian Andrea Radrizzani buying out compatriot Massimo Cellino in 2017 and convincing Bielsa to take on the role of coach in 2018. The Argentine was Leeds's 15th manager in 14 years.
Bielsa's first season in charge of Leeds United went like a charm until he was caught up in the 'Spygate'.
Before a game against Derby County in January 2019, which Leeds United won 2-0, a spy employee was dispatched to Derby training ground and police were notified.
Within days, apparently, the entire soccer world had an opinion on the matter.
Bielsa gave a press conference in which in addition to apologizing, his detailed PowerPoint presentation of his research on each of the teams in the division caused him to have even more followers of his method, or made people more shocked.
Bielsa ended up personally paying the fine of US $ 258,000 that the English Football League gave him.
The fall from grace was accompanied by a drop in the rankings.
An automatic promotion spot turned into a draw, largely because Bielsa insisted his team let Aston Villa score an unopposed goal during a controversial season-ending game.
In the rankings, Leeds United were eliminated by… Derby County.
Bielsa asks his team to be tied 0:59
But Bielsa didn't stray from Elland Road, as some fans feared.
"All he wants to do is offer a Saturday, a beautiful form of football that his fans like," Pope said.
“He wants to give them a little joy in life, which otherwise might have very little.
“And its raison d'être is to develop young people and provide great football to entertain the masses.
He's a purist.
“He feels that it is his duty to protect the game of the future and the commercialization of football.
Treats him like an amateur.
Money is neither here nor there.
Live humbly.
It's never about him.
He doesn't take credit for anything, but he will take responsibility for everything. '
However, this year, even the coronavirus pandemic could not prevent the club from finally rising.
While there was a strange wobble, Leeds United came up with two games to spare on July 17, and would win the championship by 10 points over runner-up West Bromwich Albion, with the title confirmed with a 3-1 win over… Derby County .
It took 5,914 days for the club to return to the Premier League.
On day 5,915, a street in Leeds city center was renamed "Marcelo Bielsa Way".
"It kind of took the same group of players who ended up in the middle of the table and trained them to greatness in two years," Pope said.
«It is an incredible feat.
I mean, it's a football miracle.
Bielsa has been fully embraced and welcomed into the Yorkshire community by Leeds United fans.
A local hero
Bielsa's modest ways, from renting a small apartment, frequenting the local coffee shop, and shopping at the local grocery store, have made him love for followers who can relate to a man who crossed many continents to change their lives.
On the day the promotion was secured, Bielsa was at her home in Wetherby, where fans inevitably flocked.
Elbows and photos were exchanged, while the technical director tried to explain that she did not speak English.
Not that he has gone totally native, with Bielsa saying that while "I like fish and chips ... I enjoy Argentine steak even more."
For her next stunt, Bielsa leads her Leeds United side to face champion Liverpool in their first match of the 2020/21 Premier League season.
"I wouldn't rule out doing something special in the Premier League at some point with Leeds United, if things continue on this path," says Pope.
“He has far exceeded anyone's expectations with what he has done so far.
He has divine status in Leeds. '
A graffiti mural of Marcelo Bielsa as Christ the Redeemer has been created in Leeds 📸 pic.twitter.com/mA3DLArwMF
- B / R Football (@brfootball) August 16, 2020
There is a huge mural of him.
It is painted as "Christ the Redeemer" on the side of a house in Leeds.
I know we see him in Brazil and he is Argentine but that's how they see him ».
"This guy who has resurrected a football club and team, where they feel like he's their rightful place in the top flight."
SoccerLeeds UnitedMarcela Bielsa
