In the days before Marcelo Bielsa joined Leeds United the club’s sporting director Victor Orta gathered a group of players together and warned them a whirlwind was about to blow through their football club.
They were about to experience a style of management and coaching the like of which they had not seen before.
Orta wasn’t wrong. Bielsa, the great Argentine from whom coaches such as Pep Guardiola and Mauricio Pochettino have taken so much, transformed Leeds on the back of ferocious training intensity, micro-managed tactical plans and a type of man management that was at times closer to sergeant major than it was football coach.
Marcelo Bielsa is rightly remembered in Leeds as a transformational boss with a huge impact
But the Argentine would have been a terrible fit at Everton, who are set to appoint Sean Dyche
Bielsa took Leeds back into the Premier League for the first time in 16 years. For one season there, Leeds flourished and during his time in England the 67-year-old established himself as one of Elland Road’s most transformative coaches.
In the city they still talk of him reverentially and that is quite right. But Bielsa would have been a terrible fit for the modern Everton. The chances are, had he accepted the job last week, he would have taken them down.
Bielsa joined Leeds in the June of 2018. Leeds had finished the previous Championship season in 13th. The squad he inherited was desperate for success.
Players such as a young Kalvin Phillips and other gifted but under-achieving footballers such as Jack Harrison, Luke Ayling, Stuart Dallas, Liam Cooper and Patrick Bamford would have done almost anything to play Premier League football.
And, so, to Bielsa they gave everything they had. The Leeds players committed themselves to thrice-daily training sessions.
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Bielsa took Leeds back into the Premier League for the first time in 16 years in 2019-2020
They slept between sessions in the rudimentary dormitory he had built — described by one source as having all the comfort of a field hospital.
They endured the lack of one-on-one communication from Bielsa, the lack of praise. They stopped eating out at night because they knew they would be weighed every single morning before training, without fail.
They gave Bielsa their lives and in return the South American — after one play-off disappointment in season one — gave them their dream.
But this would not have worked at Everton. Had he taken the job on Merseyside, Bielsa would have found himself with neither of the two fundamentals he was granted at Leeds: time and total and utter devotion and malleability.
That is not to imply criticism of the current Everton squad. It is just that they are Premier League players and, for better or for worse, that makes them different. All players will adjust to new coaching, a new voice. Often it is welcomed.
But he needs time to succeed and at struggling Everton that is not a commodity he would have
Toffees owner Farhad Moshiri (pictured) is set to appoint Dyche in a bid to avoid relegation
But Bielsa pretty much asks footballers to become new people overnight. To live, think and play in an almost slavish fashion. On Merseyside he would have had about five days to implement that process, not to mention the ultra-aggressive, high-risk pressing football he has played everywhere he has been.
Everton play Premier League leaders Arsenal at home on Saturday. Then it is Liverpool away. Do you see now where I am going with this?
Bielsa turned Everton down for the right reasons. Forty years of coaching brings a certain amount of self-awareness and Bielsa knew his methods had no chance of transforming Everton overnight.
He is not that kind of instant impact manager. The Everton back four that played at West Ham eight days ago had a combined age of 121. For some dogs (of war) it is just too late to learn new tricks.
Leeds and Marcelo Bielsa between 2018 and 2021 represented the perfect storm. The right man at the right time. At Everton, there is absolutely nothing to suggest that would have been replicated.
Why Weghorst is a wily pick
Wout Weghorst’s CV reads like a geek’s tour of European backwaters. Emmen, Almelo, Alkmaar, Wolfsburg, Burnley. (Sorry Burnley).
So when Manchester United took the Dutch striker on a six-month loan the move was dismissed as small-time. Here, though, is the logic behind Weghorst’s switch to Manchester.
United know they need a striker (hence interest in Harry Kane) but ones available to them in January were players like Cody Gakpo — signed by Liverpool but considered not yet ready by United — and Memphis Depay, who would have been expensive and has failed once at the club before.
Manchester United signing Wout Weghorst (right) on loan is a sensible and shrewd move
So rather than waste a ton of money, United have taken a footballer who brings Erik Ten Hag’s squad a different option and some depth.
Weghorst will not be at United beyond May but is a round peg in a round hole and his signing buys United time to find the player they really do need long-term.
Turn up your nose if you like but this is shrewd work by a club not recently known for it. It’s not unambitious, it’s sensible.
At the City Ground on Wednesday, Nottingham Forest’s Sam Surridge scored against Manchester United, and the father and son in front of me lost themselves in the moment.
The goal scored by Nottingham Forest striker Sam Surridge (pictured) against Manchester United in the League Cup semi-final was disallowed by VAR, killing a moment of joy and delight
The lad must have been about seven and, held high by his dad, punched the air three times before landing the biggest of kisses on his old man’s cheek.
Top-level spectator sport is all about these explosions of joy and spontaneity and escapism. We have all been there. Except it doesn’t always work like that these days.
So as Forest’s goal was ruled out by VAR and the adrenaline drained from that lad’s veins, it made me ponder once again whether those who campaigned so vigorously for its introduction, those bores who droned on endlessly about fairness and technology, are truly happy with what they have given us.
Pep Guardiola says Mikel Arteta is being criticised for his touchline behaviour because people are jealous of Arsenal’s league position. Wrong. Arteta is being criticised because he looks like an idiot.
Anthony Gordon has scored as many Premier League goals this season as he has skipped training days. Three. So Everton have done well to get £45million out of Newcastle.