Marcelo Bielsa has been speaking in his press conference ahead of the Premier League clash between Leeds and Arsenal on Saturday.
When asked about the prospect of being sacked following the 7-0 defeat to Manchester City, Bielsa reacted strongly – with the help of his translator.
What’s the story?
Well, the 66-year-old remained calm in terms of his body language, but gave an answer which suggested he was a bit fed up with the journalist who asked about his job.
Football Daily quote Bielsa as saying: “Do you think I’m so vain that I don’t think I can be sacked? Do you think that after suffering a 7-0 defeat that I can discard instability. All I do is fight.”
In truth, it was a bit of a silly question to ask following a 7-0 defeat, especially to a manager as humble and graceful as the Argentine.
Bielsa was unlikely to ever give a different answer.
He is self-aware, and realises that even he, a man with God-like status at Elland Road, is not bulletproof when it comes to life as a Premier League manager.
Marcelo Bielsa should leave Leeds on his own terms
In our view, Leeds should never sack Bielsa – he deserves to determine his own fate based on everything he’s done at Elland Road.
The man with murals of himself painted around Yorkshire has worked miracles at Leeds, doing so while playing an attractive style of play which took the Whites from Championship mediocrity to ninth in the Premier League.
Ultimately, we feel that Bielsa is the type of man who would resign if things got too bad, rather than wait for his P45 and a compensation payout.
Furthermore, his contract expires in June anyway, as he tends to only sign one-year deals wherever he goes.
In that respect, if Leeds continue to struggle in the Premier League but survive, we wouldn’t be surprised to see Bielsa hand the reins over to someone else.
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