As often in the passionate love stories, it is better not to know the end. Begun there is only one year, the romance between Olympique Marseille and Marcelo Bielsa ends with loss and crash. “Disappointed” by management of the club who wanted to renegotiate some points of his new contract, the Argentine tactician – who traded since early June a contract extension with OM – preferred to slam the door without warning. On the evening of the first game of the season, a 1-0 defeat against Caen at the Velodrome, it leaves its workforce, its management and the Marseille public in shock.
The resignation of Bielsa, brutal or -it, has nothing really surprising. Considered by many as a “tactical genius”, the legend also owes much to his (many) shots and splinters taken spout with management of the clubs he coached. Able to plant everything and everyone within hours, Bielsa is not his first attempt and OM is not the first club to suffer from uncontrollable “El Loco”.
Too late to taste feast of “El Loco”
1992. Marcelo Bielsa is a living god for Argentinian fans of Newell’s Old Boys, the club of Rosario, his hometown. Under the direction of Bielsa, perfectionist and enthusiast commando methods, the club has won two titles (Argentine champion in 1991 and 1992) and leaves a final loss – but heroic – Copa Libertadores (South American equivalent of Champions League) against Sao Paulo.
My wife is pregnant and there are complications. I told him to call his parents if there would be a problem. You can not use the phone if you need them for a more extreme situation than this, “joked Bielsa his players during a training camp.
The master tactician at odds with supporters and thinks he can get away with anything vis-à-vis its staff and the club management. Passionate motorcycle, he, at the time, purchasing a massive Harley-Davidson, he struggles to climb every evening in his apartment, for lack of a secure place to park his vehicle. His neighbors then call him “El Loco” (“crazy”), a nickname taken soon with affection by throughout the city, largely supporting its cause. But guess what, Bielsa and his bad temper will get the better of his passion with the club Rosario, as reported by the “Guardian”.
Wishing to celebrate their second title of champions Argentina, players ask permission to go to a wedding. Magnanimous, Bielsa accepts but imposes his players to return before 1am. The given word is not respected and “Old boys” bringuent until dawn. Huge anger Bielsa requiring exemplary sanctions on the part of the club against the players. Faced with the refusal of the management, the coach resigned and cowardly the defending champions. Too bad for them.
Guadalaraja The Atlas also had a rough
Crowned with its results at the head of Rosario, Argentina puts his cooler in 1993 in the Mexican club Atlas Guadalaraja. Club Infrastructure Transformation, pulse a new mentality, the coach enhances the depth and endows the club Atlas one of the best training centers of the South American continent. Quickly, insists that the club Bielsa takes the reins of the first team. The Argentine finally agrees rétropédale but a few months later by claiming to want to occupy again the training center. The Atlas does not budge in Bielsa and eventually leave the club in high season, not without having obtained the head of his physical trainer.
But the Mexican club was not quite the end his sentences with “El Loco”. Recalled in 1997 to head the first team, then in full drift in the league to eight games remaining in the season, Bielsa resigns … the same day of his presentation press conference.
It matures enormously decisions but at the same time, for someone as demanding any power struggle with his staff or its officers can change from one minute to the next, “summed up to” 20 Minutes “Thomas Goubin biographer Argentina coach.
The passage of Marcelo Bielsa to Espanyol also remained in the memories. After freelancing at Velez Sarsfield in Buenos Aires, Argentina coach landed in Europe in 1998 and took control of the Catalan club On paper, the association is beautiful but cut short. Bielsa leaves Espanyol after six days … only to take over the selection Argentina, its goal always. An episode that recalls the Marseille psychodrama, although in the case of Espanyol, the departure of “El Loco” for the motherland was actually provided in his contract.
Announced for several days as a starter for Mexico, Bielsa, who categorically denied Saturday evening in contact with the Mexican federation, would however have already refused to take over from Miguel Herrera on the bench selection National, according to the Mexican sports daily “Record”. A decision that maintains the mystery about his future.
There is no assurance at this time to see Bielsa and ice on the edges of land for the current season, as Argentina seems unpredictable. After his failure to command the Albiceleste in 2004, “El Loco” recounted taking a rather surprising decision:. To withdraw three months in a convent
When I left my position as coach, I locked myself in a convent. I brought books. I had no phone or television. So I read a lot. I do not think I’ve met anyone who reads much as I do about football. It lasted three months. I started to talk to me alone. I think I was getting really crazy. “
It’s like that, Marcelo Bielsa.
Lucas Burel
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