The Spain international is familiar with the Leeds United boss and vice versa.
With the Championship season on hiatus, this is a good chance for Leeds United to identify transfer targets this summer.
The COVID-19 outbreak has grounded football in England until April 30 at the earliest and there’s similar chaos in other European leagues as the virus continues to decimate the continent.
Leeds have a seven-point cushion in the automatic promotion places with nine games left and, pandemic or not, Marcelo Bielsa and Director of Football Victor Orta should be looking at targets, in the assumption that they’ll be a Premier League team for the 2020-21 campaign.
This is a strong United team, but they’re going to need a lot of reinforcements in the summer if they’re to mix it with the big boys – and one target could and should be Mikel San Jose.
The 30-year-old spent two years playing under Bielsa with Athletic Bilbao, where he is set to be released as a Bosman [Transfermarkt].
San Jose can be used in a number of central-midfield roles – as well as centre-back – and that versatility might endear him to the Argentine, who likes his mutli-purpose players.
At 6’2, the seven-time Spain international also has plenty of physicality and although he might not play ahead of, say, Kalvin Phillips, it’ll be a long season and depth is going to be vital, especially with the amount of injuries that Leeds have picked up since Bielsa arrived almost two years ago.
With over 300 appearance in Spain’s top flight, San Jose is also quite an experienced player and one that made 38 outings as a Bielsa-led Bilbao reached the Europa League final in 2012, losing to Atletico Madrid.
The veteran coach knows him well and considering he’s absolutely free, maybe it’s worth looking at.
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