We have been on a great journey so far with Bielsa.
Not just the football, but the culture he has created, the attention he has attracted.
We're not even one season in to the top flight and getting disappointed we didn't get a point at Liverpool, or beat Arsenal etc etc, this just a few months after getting excited at beating Barnsley.
Some perspective is definitely needed. We are performing superbly for a promoted team, we've done the right thing in signing a few quality singings rather than 10 mediocre ones and we're showing glimpses of what we're capable of.
I've no doubt that we can perform even better if/when we upgrade the quality further throughout the team.
But, where are we going?
Ferdinand and Jenas were asked would you rather play for the entertaining team that wouldn't win anything or the more dour team that was going to win things.
Unless we have some major upgrades to the players and we address the inefficiency on chances and the vulnerability at the back we might have to accept we'll be easy on the eye but ain't really going to win anything. The reality is Jose and Bielsa have met each other about 5 times now and Jose wins every time.
How do you change this more in our favour?
How do you tinker, when your coach is very fixed in his ways?
I really don't see him changing the philosophy. so that means upgrading teh players and that takes time.
That takes getting used to not winning so many games compared to what we're used to from past 2 seasons.
That takes not only patience from the owners, care over the way the club conducts itself and also ensuring we're showing respect to Bielsa, there have been comments in the past from AR that don't always help that cause.
I think that we're still in a precarious situation financially with match day revenues reduced and large spending in summer and have to be careful we're not seeing the last 6 months of Bielsa with no succession plan and then expensive rebuilding.
Concentrate on securing Bielsa for at least another year, work hard at shipping out dead wood and securing next round of upgrades and sentimentality can't play a part I'm afraid.
I don't want to keep hearing people go on about how great we are to watch even when we're losing 6-2, I want to see that we're entertaining and not on the wrong end of these sorts of results.
Where do we go from here
posted on 3/1/21
Seems to be a lot of assumptions that we'll just get better players over the next 3 years and that Bielsa still with us.
I think at 3 years you always see an impact on attrition rate and whilst I hope Bielsa stays beyond this season, it will be uncharted territory for him.
If we stays, we must spend money to upgrade and I don't know if we have that money nor how long it will take.
If Bielsa leaves, do you really think another manager will be able to get the same out of them?
Hence the question where do we go from here?
posted on 3/1/21
On a personal level all I’m going to do is sit back and enjoy the fact we are playing good entertaining football in the Premier league. Utter amazing after the dross of 15 years.
In terms of the club? Not sure what they can do? Not going to sack bielsa because he won’t commit to 5 year deal. Bielsa is in charge of his own destiny right now.
The academy can’t compete with other top clubs academies yet. The top spenders also have scouts on every kids pitch in England. It’s no surprise that the top clubs are now bringing through the best players as well as buying the best players.
All we can do imo is
1/ stay up season on season
2/reinvest what we can
3/gradually improve the side
If we really want to challenge then the only option is to sell to someone prepared to throw 1billion at the club minimum
posted on 3/1/21
Jonty, I think they need to have a dynamic list of potential replacements so that when Bielsa does go we do not end up with a knee jerk manager like big Sam or Pulis. I think one of the advantages of having a foreign owner and director of football is that they think outside the box and should not just go for a usual suspect type manager.
posted on 3/1/21
I mean surely clubs like
Palace
Burnley
West Ham
Soton
Etc
Have asked the same questions ?
Dosnt matter who you are your not breaking into a consistent European chasing outfit without the 1billion.
Sad as it may be
posted on 3/1/21
comment by Elsbels - Just Some Guy (U21658)
posted 7 minutes ago
Jonty, I think they need to have a dynamic list of potential replacements so that when Bielsa does go we do not end up with a knee jerk manager like big Sam or Pulis. I think one of the advantages of having a foreign owner and director of football is that they think outside the box and should not just go for a usual suspect type manager.
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I would be asking Bielsa who he thinks his replacement should be.
Then I would be getting them in to work jointly with him for a season, then he/she is ready to go.
I'm loving what we've been through but genuinely anxious about what comes after this most unique of coaches.
posted on 3/1/21
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gian_Piero_Gasperini
He sounds perfect 🤣
posted on 3/1/21
Let's not get too hung up about the medium to long term future.
All I'm really concerned about at the moment is the short term and 3 points against B.H.A and the fact that Kalvin will be missing when he has been immense just lately.
Let's cross bridges as we meet them - as I've said before the MB situation and replacement will be being mulled over and analysed like nothing else within the offices at Elland Road, Radz has proven to be anything but stupid.
posted on 3/1/21
comment by The Very Rev Wilko (U21072)
posted 42 minutes ago
Let's not get too hung up about the medium to long term future.
All I'm really concerned about at the moment is the short term and 3 points against B.H.A and the fact that Kalvin will be missing when he has been immense just lately.
Let's cross bridges as we meet them - as I've said before the MB situation and replacement will be being mulled over and analysed like nothing else within the offices at Elland Road, Radz has proven to be anything but stupid.
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Have to disagree re AR, his comments last time around re Bielsa weren't the smartest.
posted on 3/1/21
comment by A14... ( ليدز_يونايتد )You gotta love it!! (U2805)
posted 23 hours, 8 minutes ago
We don’t really need to be going anywhere, just stay as we are. We are (largely) beating the teams that we should be completing against to be an established mid table team and losing against top teams who have either invested heavily or have a different class of quality with established players.
I would be happy with a mid table finish for the next 3 season and improve the squad slowly. Not sure what people are expecting. We been waiting for 16 for this and now we are here and people are quickly jumping to the next panic-button strategy - why???
I expect us to get 1-2 hammerings (Man U game) this season and a few lessons (today’s game)..... controlling my expectations here
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Spot on. This is our first season back and we are more than holding our own. Every promoted side goes through this rite of passage. Against Spurs, our limitations were exposed. We could have had 5 more defenders in the box and Son would still have scored. It was just a shame our strikers had lead in their boots. But that is the difference between them and us. I would not criticize the players. They are magnificent this season. Inexperience at this level is not a crime. We will have better days, but what a joy it is to be back where we belong.
posted on 3/1/21
comment by A14... ( ليدز_يونايتد )You gotta l... (U2805)
posted 11 hours, 47 minutes ago
comment by Stoopo (U4707)
posted 20 minutes ago
comment by Jonty (U4614)
posted 1 hour, 4 minutes ago
Not sure anything is obvious with only a few months left of Bielsa contract, complete uncertainty about fans return and finances.
In an ideal world we know we have Bielsa fir 3 more years, normal times with more sustainable finances but these are obviously not normal times.
With Bielsa’s lack of desire to rotate we don’t really see the U23s come through and with never seeing him at a club for long enough we don’t know if that is his aim or just has U23 on bench and poveda coming on because he just has no other senior players.
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We should know now that Bielsa and contracts are not that important as far as he’s concerned. In pretty sure the club will be working on one and offer it at the right time for everyone.
The rest is unavoidable and we are all in the same boat really. Those clubs with huge income streams are probably suffering just as much as those with less income. They have massive overheads to service.
The club appears to be in good hands and hopefully things will improve Covid wise once the vaccine kicks in.
I can’t see the club talking contracts with MB until we are safe. That would be the time to look at where we are going and what he wants to achieve at the club. If we do go down then I can’t see him staying.
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If we go down?? Is it me or are you guys looking at the wrong league table. Sheff u are 100% down.... WBA are 80% gone.... leaves 1 place. We are comfortably beating teams (largely) half of the league - I’ll put my mortgage on it we’ve done enough already to know we’ll cross 40 point mark
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Nothing is certain until it’s certain. I think we will stay up easy but who’s to say we won’t go on a bad run and lose the next ten games? Three points for a win can change things very quickly.