In a Q&A session with the Yorkshire Evening Post, Angus Kinnear has disagreed with Marcelo Bielsa’s view on the return of fans to football in England.
It’s been almost nine months since we saw fans in stadiums in this country, and Bielsa has been vocal about the fact that he feels the staggered return of supporters across the tier systems in the UK is unfair.
However, Kinnear sees it quite differently, and while he respects the manager’s view on the matter, he thinks that it was more important to get the ball rolling in the right direction.
“We fully respect Marcelo’s opinion on how it may impact the sporting integrity but for the league as a whole and the health of British football it was just more important that we got fans back in some capacity.
“I have absolute faith in Marcelo and the team to overcome any small imbalances that may be caused by Chelsea having a small number of supporters there.”
It’s hard to really comment on who is right on this matter, because we haven’t seen the impact the return of fans will have on teams.
Having 2,000 home supporters in the ground may give the teams that are lucky enough to be in tiers one and two the lift they need to improve their form, or it may have no impact at all.
Bielsa clearly feels that it will give some teams an unfair advantage, while Kinnear feels that the bigger picture is more important at the moment, and that may be indicative of the differences between the two men’s jobs.
Kinnear is of course more concerned with the finances and the stuff behind the scenes, while Bielsa’s primary focus is what happens on the pitch.
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