Leeds United legend Marcelo Bielsa has come in for some criticism from Luis Suarez over his management style in recent days.
Bielsa is currently in charge of the Uruguayan national team which is where he has crossed paths with Suarez, including at the Copa America during the summer.
Suarez has since announced his retirement from international football having been a bit part player under Bielsa and has launched a pretty scathing attack on the former Leeds boss in recent days.
Bielsa has always been renowned for his stand-off approach when it comes to his relationship with players, but clearly this did not go down too well with Suarez, who claimed the Argentine would not even greet the players with a ‘hello’ in the morning.
Suarez also shared how Bielsa once told the squad not to greet supporters in New York, something which the former Liverpool and Barcelona striker said he defied. Real Madrid star Federico Valverde has also backed up Suarez’s claims.
Raphinha on working with Bielsa at Leeds
Bielsa once labelled Raphinha as Leeds’ best player in every possible capacity during their time together at Elland Road, with the Brazilian undoubtedly benefitting from working under him.
At the same time, there is clearly some element of truth to what Suarez said as it was also well documented at Leeds that Bielsa would keep his relationship with players purely professional.
Patrick Bamford and Kalvin Phillips both discussed what Bielsa was like on a podcast last week, but unlike Suarez, only had positive things to say about him.
Bamford even backed Bielsa for the England job after Gareth Southgate’s exit from the role in the summer, showing just what sort if impact he had on the players at Leeds.
And now in an interview with GE Globo, Raphinha has given his own thoughts on Bielsa, admitting they did have difficult times together, but that he is only where is now because of the former Leeds boss.
He said: “In my opinion, I think everyone has a difficult side to deal with, they have a very complicated side to dealing with people or situations.
“I guess, in my opinion, everyone is different. Everyone has difficulty managing something at a certain point. I don’t know what happens in the Uruguay team, what I know is what happened to me in Leeds.
“I had good times and bad times with him, naturally, like a big family, for example. I was with a lot of people inside the house, naturally conflicts will happen, good times and bad times will happen.
“I believe that within football, in a club, in a national team, it ends up being the same. There are moments that are good, there are moments that are not so good.
“Personally, I had my good moments and my bad moments with him, but I can only be grateful for everything I am today, for almost everything I am today. Where I am today was thanks to him.
“I just have to thank him for everything I experienced with him in these two years. It was a year and a half that I lived with him. We had our frictions; we had our fights. Some uglier than others, but we had a lot of good moments too. As I told you, I think that inside your house not everything is roses.”
- READ MORE: ‘Electric’ Leeds player shares training footage from Dubai as work continues away from Elland Road
What Suarez said about Bielsa in full
As mentioned, Suarez was not afraid to hold back when talking about Bielsa at the Copa America. Via the Daily Mail, here is everything the 37-year-old had to say.
He said: “There were situations at the Copa America that hurt me, but I didn’t say them for the sake of coexistence. Many players held a meeting to ask the coach to at least say good morning to us, but he didn’t even say hello.
“Bielsa gives a conference and talks wonderful things about people, and in New York there was a day when he asked us not to stop to greet people and I stood up and I told him that we were going to greet people anyway.’
“I had a five-minute chat with Bielsa, speaking as a group leader, and at the end he only replied, ‘Thank you very much. Tomorrow, I ask people not to take it out on the players if something goes wrong. Bielsa has separated the whole group, even in the way they train.”
Receive a digest of our best Leeds content each week direct to your mailbox
