Pep Guardiola raves about Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa

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Pep Guardiola wants Leeds United back in the Premier League.

Pep Guardiola has told The Manchester Evening News that he would love if Leeds United won promotion back to the Premier League under the ‘special’ Marcelo Bielsa this season.

Leeds look every inch the team that they were tipped to become when hiring the former Athletic Bilbao coach last summer.

Bielsa’s side are top of the Championship and boast a four-point cushion in the automatic promotion spots.

Manchester City boss Guardiola is a huge admirer of the 63-year-old Argentine who he has previously called ‘the best coach in the world’.

And the Premier League-winning manager has reiterated his affection for Bielsa and reveals that his presence at Elland Road has turned him into a Leeds supporter.

He told The MEN: “I think he’s the best because always I try to listen to what the players say about their manager because it’s the real truth. The other depends on the results, and for the guys in charge of the big clubs it’s easier than the other ones.

“We win because we are in the big clubs with the big players. But everyone who works with him is a better player and the teams are better. That’s why he is a special manager and special person. I’m a supporter of Leeds and hopefully next season they can be in the Premier League, it would be good for the Premier League.

“I admire him for being the Argentina manger and being at big clubs and having the humility to go in the Championship going to a historic team like Leeds [to try to] put them on top and back to the Premier League. I wish him all the best.”

Bielsa’s reputation for improving players has potentially never been more apparent than his work at Leeds this season.

He has taken a squad of players who finished 13th in the Championship last term and transformed them into arguably the division’s best team, using mostly what he inherited.

Barring Barry Douglas, none of Leeds’ summer signings have played huge roles in their success so far. Some, like Patrick Bamford and Izzy Brown, have been injured for virtually the whole campaign, while others, such as the recently-departed Lewis Baker and Jack Harrison, have been fringe players for the most part.