Andrea Radrizzani decided to sack Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United in February 2022 and, almost four years on, admits he regrets the decision to do so – but explained why he had to.
It is the summer of 2018 and Leeds are falling by the wayside, stuck in Championship mid-table obscurity under Paul Heckingbottom. After a trip to Myanmar, Victor Orta and Radrizzani make a play for Bielsa.
A trip to Buenos Aires alongside Angus Kinnear is a voyage of hope, but when they arrive, Bielsa is armed with video evidence on how he will get the best out of The Whites. In his first game, Leeds outplay Stoke.
Play-offs in the first season, Championship title winners the second, ninth in the Premier League in Leeds’ third season. At that point, the Leeds squad had reached a ceiling and further investment was required.
Andrea Radrizzani is the reason for Marcelo Bielsa’s downfall
Bielsa deserved a big splash of cash in the transfer market after guiding Leeds to ninth. Leeds fans had begun dreaming of European football under the lights at Elland Road again. But the cash didn’t arrive.
Only Junior Firpo and Dan James signed that summer, while Jack Harrison’s three-year loan spell was finally turned permanent. Around £50m was spent on three players, one of whom was already at Leeds.
Leeds struggled to cope in Bielsa’s fourth season, his second in the Premier League, due to a lack of funding. Yet, Radrizzani says the reason he sacked Bielsa was because the players looked exhausted.
Yet, it was Radrizzani who decided not to back his manager in the summer of 2021, after all the hard work Bielsa had put in. The players were tired, but investment in new signings would have eased exhaustion.
Andrea Radrizzani’s view on decision to sack Marcelo Bielsa
Speaking over the weekend, Radrizzani admits his decision to sack Bielsa was “probably wrong” but tried to defend his decision to do so, not mentioning the fact that he did not back the Argentine properly.
“I regret I sacked him, but in that moment, it was a rational decision to try and keep Leeds in the Premier League. I could see the players were exhausted mentally and physically. We were losing many games.
“It was one of the toughest decisions of my life, which was probably wrong because what Marcelo did was bigger than just results. But it was the rational approach to a problematic situation,” Radrizzani said.
Ultimately, Bielsa was hung out to dry. He didn’t get the support he needed or deserved. Radrizzani says he tried to solve a “problematic situation” by sacking Bielsa, but he caused the situation in the first place.
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