Marcelo Bielsa has been sacked by Leeds United, and understandably, fans and players alike have been paying tribute to the departing Argentine.
Leeds undoubtedly have a lot to be grateful to Bielsa for. He led them back to the Premier League for the first time in 16 years, and he got the Whites playing some of the most entertaining football in England.
Leeds are so grateful for Bielsa’s efforts that upon sacking him they revealed plans to unveil a permanent tribute to Bielsa at Elland Road, and while that is an incredibly classy touch, does the 66-year-old deserve such an accolade? In our opinion, he doesn’t, at least not yet anyway.
Let’s look at what Bielsa actually achieved at Leeds. He led them to one promotion and a mid-table Premier League finish in three-and-a-half years at the club. A decent stint, but nothing too spectacular for a club that can boast five major domestic honours and a fanbase that still sings to this day about being robbed of a European Cup.
Of course, context is key, you often hear of how Bielsa transformed a mid-table Championship outfit into promotion contenders, and while he did take Leeds from 13th to 3rd in the Championship, as we say context is everything.
Let’s not forget, under Thomas Christiansen, the squad Bielsa inherited were 5th after Christmas in the Championship before spectacularly falling off in the new year, while they also would have secured a play-off place under Garry Monk the season before were it not for yet another late-season collapse. Make no mistake about it, this wasn’t a team that was too far off challenging for a spot in the Championship top six.
Bielsa did get Leeds over that perennial playoff barrier, finishing third in his first season, but look at the two sides that finished above Leeds that year – Daniel Farke’s Norwich actually finished one spot below the Whites the year before, while Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United had largely the same squad that got them out of League One just two seasons prior.
There’s an argument to be made that Wilder, and to a lesser extent Farke, achieved more with Sheffield United and Norwich than Bielsa did at Leeds, and yet, for some reason, they’ve not had ‘permanent tributes’ at Carrow Road or Bramall Lane.
Just because Norwich and Sheffield United haven’t paid tribute to Farke and Wilder isn’t a reason for Leeds to hold off on honouring Bielsa, and many would argue that his achievements in his second and third seasons earned Bielsa the right to be called one of Leeds’ greatest legends.
Leeds would win the Championship in 2019/20, and upon their promotion, Bielsa was heralded for turning this team of plucky underdogs into Champions, but the deck was never truly stacked against the Whites.
It’s often said that Leeds got a team of mid-table Championship players promoted, but two years on from the Whites’ promotion, there’s an argument to make to say that narrative is slightly exaggerated.
That Leeds squad contained Ben White – an eventual £50m player, Kalvin Phillips – England’s current Player of the Year, Patrick Bamford – a former Championship Player of the Year winner, Helder Costa – a £16m signing, Kiko Casilla – a Champions League-winning goalkeeper and Pablo Hernandez – one of the greatest players the Championship has ever seen.
This was a team that should’ve been challenging for the automatic promotion places under any manager, and while Bielsa deserves credit for getting the Whites up as champions, failing to get into the top two would have been seen as a disappointment.
Then came Leeds’ return to the Premier League, a ninth-place finish was brilliant and the Whites deserve commendation for their results and their style of play, but where does that season rank in terms of Leeds’ greatest ever?
In just the Premier League era, Leeds have finished higher than ninth on seven separate occasions under three different managers, while the year before the formation of the Premier League, Howard Wilkinson won the old Division One, yet there’s no Wilkinson tribute to be seen at Elland Road.
Of course, some of that success in the late 90s and early 2000s came against the backdrop of huge spending under Peter Ridsdale that eventually almost caused the club to go bust, but let’s not forget that Bielsa was hugely backed by Andrea Radrizzani as over £100m worth of new signings arrived after their promotion.
Now, we’re not saying that Bielsa didn’t do a good job at Leeds, but at a club as storied as the West Yorkshire outfit, does a manager who led the Whites to one promotion and a mid-table finish deserve a permanent commemoration at the stadium? Well, it’s hard to argue that he does.
Leeds have so many legends who are more deserving of such an honour than Bielsa. The aforementioned Howard Wilkinson led the club to a league title as manager, Eddie Gray has had some sort of affiliation with the club for almost 60 years, Peter Lorimer is the club’s all-time record goalscorer and Lucas Radebe was one of the club’s greatest captains on the pitch and one of their greatest ambassadors off of it.
Marcelo Bielsa should be remembered fondly at Leeds, and this era will be recognised as one of the most entertaining Elland Road has ever seen, but, in our view, Bielsa shouldn’t be at the front of the queue to receive a permanent tribute at the stadium, especially as his good work could quickly be undone in the coming months if Leeds succumb to the very real threat of relegation.
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