Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa has an endless amount of admirers and followers within football.
From Mauricio Pochettino to Pep Guardiola, the Leeds boss commands respect from some of the game’s most high-profile figures.
And it appears as if a former cult hero at Elland Road is also a massive supporter of the engimatic Argentine coach.
Pep Clotet spent a year working as Garry Monk’s assistant in West Yorkshire during the 2016-17 campaign.
Even when Monk quit the club to join Middlesbrough, ruining his reputation among the diehard Leeds fans, his Spanish assistant retained the fans’ support for the most part.
Clotet is no longer an assistant and is now managing SPAL in Italy, having previously managed Oxford United and Birmingham City.
And the 44-year-old has namechecked the Leeds boss as one of his major inspirations.
He told Tuttomercatoweb: “If I have to mention someone in particular I would say Marcelo Bielsa, the man who had the biggest impact on my way of seeing football. I’m talking about the work as much as the method.”
Bielsa has proven himself an absolute revelation since moving to Leeds during the summer of 2018.
In his first season, the 66-year-old masterminded a playoff place for United – who finished 13th in the Championship the term before he arrived – and in his second year, the Whites were back in the Premier League after a 16-year absence.
After winning promotion, Bielsa, who earns £153,000 per week, helped Leeds to a ninth-placed finish in the Premier League which reiterated his reputation as one of Europe’s finest coaches.
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