Leeds United has become a labour of love for Marcelo Bielsa

For the Argentinian, managing a professional football team is more than a job. It is a feature of his career that a man globally revered for his coaching style has been drawn not to the best or the richest clubs, but to those with a passionate fanbase.

“Marcelo is a footballing romantic and that’s why he came on this journey,” explains chief executive Angus Kinnear.

When he signs up to a club, he throws his heart into it, committing not just the team, but the community. Even though he is not confident in his English, he is at ease amongst the people of Wetherby, where he rents a modest one-bedroom flat despite earning a salary which could stretch to a very fancy crib.

The interviews he conducted in the aftermath of completing stage one of his Leeds United mission, winning promotion to the Premier League, demonstrated that.

You could have asked him about just about anything, and he would gush forth with praise for his players, his backroom staff, the support staff at Thorp Arch and Elland Road, from cleaners to security men, for the hierarchy that has bent over backwards to grant his every request and about the fans who quickly came to adore him.

His managerial awards, like the one received recently as League Managers Association Championship Manager of the Year, are always dedicated to those who help him on his journey. Like most in his position, he recognises they are reward for a collective not a personal achievement, but he sometimes takes it a step further. For the sponsors, even getting him to pose with his many manager of the month trophies has not always been straightforward.

It is why there is little panic at Elland Road that a man notorious for his unpredictability has allowed his contract to run down. Despite the disappointing way 2018-19 finished, he was quickly persuaded to come back for another crack then. Kinnear believes even had the team missed out on promotion a second time, inevitably leading to drastic cutbacks in his squad, he would have committed to a third campaign in West Yorkshire.

At times during matches he is inscrutable, sat impassive on his upturned bucket, or on his haunches in the technical area. But for those of us fortunate enough to have been able to witness the behind-closed-doors matches during the 2019-20 run-in, it has given us a greater appreciation of the characters of the men on the touchline.

Some, such as Hull City’s Grant McCann were very quiet – too quiet, the critics will say now his team has been relegated, but bawling is just not his style – whilst Sheffield United’s Chris Wilder provided a constant stream of noisy instructions.

In Bielsa’s case, there were explosions of furious activity as he tried, often very politely, to get instructions onto the field – “Ayling, defend please!”

Late in the first half of the 1-0 win against Barnsley he was a frenzy of activity as he tinkered with his formation in a desperate attempt to subdue a Reds side threatening to pull off a shock result.

On that day in particular, as Leeds edged ever closer to the promotion they had been waiting 16 years for, you could feel the tension inside Elland Road. When Bielsa cranked into life, you could hear the stress managers thrive off. It is why, at 71 years old and after probably about three “retirements” Middlesbrough’s Neil Warnock admits he is “addicted” to his job.

If the stresses and strains on 65-year-old Bielsa are very clear, there are others out of sight suffering, too.

Lockdown restrictions kept Bielsa’s wife Laura in Argentina during the run-in, and she and the rest of his family go through the agonies, but only on a matchday.

“Once a week, they share the same stress I feel on the pitch but they are used to it,” he explains. “They have been trained for it.”

For Marcelo Bielsa, though, the agonies are worth it, a labour of love.

“I think he’s fallen in love with the club, I think he’s committed to it,” argues Kinnear. “We hadn’t had a specific conversation but he’s been very, very focused on what we’ve done with the academy, getting that to Category One status, he’s hugely focused on developing the younger players.

“If we hadn’t made it, (into the Premier League) it would probably have been the case that we’d be competing in the Championship with a younger squad and I think that challenge appealed to him.”

Leeds are extremely lucky to have him.

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