Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino has revealed how Slaven Bilic’s lone opponent for the West Ham job has been a total inspiration in his on managerial career.
Marcelo Bielsa was on the shortlist of two when the Hammers decided to let Sam Allardyce go but he missed out when the Davids opted for the Croatian.
In fairness there were good reasons for that because Bielsa is one of the most unpredictable characters in the game, demonstrated when he quit Lazio just two days after taking the reins last year.
And he left Marseilles a year earlier after a series of collisions with the club’s board.
However. Pochettino makes it clear that at a straightforward footballing level Bielsa is his personal ‘untouchable’ telling L’Equipe he was totally inspired by the man.
Explaining he said: “Firstly, because no-one can do it like him. There are people who tried to benefit from his knowledge by being around him, others have tried to copy him but a copy is never as good.
“You can’t make a good a copy of a Dali, Picasso. Many would describe him as that, others perhaps not.
“I would say he’s an exceptional being, is absolutely no fool, who’s gone for it – and done it – alone, and has been a source of inspiration for numerous coaches.”
Given time and players that want to be improved Bielsa will create a brilliant team, when you look at managers like Bielsa they generally work better with young hungry players because those players are willing to embrace change and don’t think they know it all, I have read a fair bit about him and his unconventional training methods, I would love to see him at our club but I do not think now is the time because it would take too long to get the players adjusted and also he doesn’t speak English very well (or at all) according to reports. Lille are still in a transition under him and we should wait and see how that goes but next season would definitely be the right time, one thing is for sure we could sell a lot of the older players and he would bring through the youth as well we could invest in a lot of younger players. When you look at the squads of the managers he has influenced their tends to be a lot of younger players because they have the energy levels to play that style.
Agree 32 Beilsa is a true coach & developer. Big on training first I’ve heard of Payet thing tho.
But Beilsa would get out squad in shape.
Be a great fitness coach #2 love to have him doing first team Fitness & training…. Handball coach isn’t working
I saw ‘The Debate’ on Sky the other night – with Guillem Balague and Craig Bellamy (God knows why he’s on it!) and Guilleme credited Bielsa with being Poccetino mentor and the man who got him onto the Management ladder.
… also he sounds like the type of guy you’d go to if we were relegated and virtually had to start from scratch. A real long-term project, completely at odds with what the Dave’s are about!
Gold and Sullivan need someone for today, who can work with what we’ve got – send for Red Adair!