Opinion | How Marcelo ‘El Loco’ Bielsa is working his inimitable magic in restoring Leeds United to the top of English football

Athletic Bilbao were leading 2-0 against Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United at Old Trafford when Ander Herrera spoke to his coach, Marcelo Bielsa.

“Bielsa wouldn’t let us stop,” Herrera said. “We thought he wanted to close down the game. No, Bielsa wanted a third and a fourth. He could live with conceding a goal from a counter attack because that meant we’d have been attacking. He’s a football romantic. He thinks that football should be a spectacle.”

Athletic won 3-2 playing prodigious football. Bielsa, the 63-year-old Argentine from Rosario, the city of Lionel Messi and Che Guevara, is an inspiration to Pep Guardiola and has travelled far and wide in football coaching. A hero at Newell’s Old Boys in his home city, he took them to the title and Copa Libertadores title. Newell’s stadium was renamed after Bielsa in 2009, the place his sides played great, unorthodox football and 3-3-3-1 formations.

Bielsa is in England for the first time. He’s made quite an impression at Leeds United, one you first see on a billboard by a railway bridge as you approach Elland Road, where his grandfatherly face is used to sell season tickets.

“Former manager of The Argentina National Team, The Chile National Team, Athletic Bilbao and Marseille” accompanies his photo.

It’s a concern to Leeds, whose Italian owner Andrea Radrizzani, 44, thinks the £93 million annual difference between television revenues for Premier League and Championship clubs is too big and that the relegated teams have a huge advantage thanks to their parachute payments.