LUFCTALK

Funny you should mention radio as I'm sitting here waiting for Tim Vickery's opinion on the possibility of us hiring Bielsa.
He's about to appear on the Hawksbee and Jacobs Show on talkSPORT for his weekly round-up of South American football and they've already said they're gonna cover the story today with him.

I'll post what he says when he's on ..

Looks like Steve Bruce could be coming available.

Tim Vickery on talkSPORT, talking about the Bielsa to Leeds rumours :

- We're chasing him. Not signed anything yet - he's waiting for some info from South America.

- He says Bielsa is very, very difficult to negotiate with (should be fun for Orta !).

- He worries that it may be a little bit late : so many other teams are pressing high these days.


Only the briefest of mentions, really, so we're none the wiser.

rigger wrote:Tim Vickery on talkSPORT, talking about the Bielsa to Leeds rumours :

- We're chasing him. Not signed anything yet - he's waiting for some info from South America.

- He says Bielsa is very, very difficult to negotiate with (should be fun for Orta !).

- He worries that it may be a little bit late : so many other teams are pressing high these days.


Only the briefest of mentions, really, so we're none the wiser.

Cheers for the update anyway Rigger, useful summary. As I thought, our speculation on whether he's a good fit may be a bit premature. Hope this doesn't turn into a protracted saga that stops us actually getting any players in.

Phil Hay
@PhilHayYEP
the serious negotiating has only been going on in the past week. There’s a lot to iron out, including transfers. Bielsa has been doing analysis of the current squad.
10:51 am · 8 Jun 2018

If we get Bielsa, he is going to put the kind of demands on the club that we have not seen from a manager since the premier league days.

This has to be a good thing because we have been chronically underfunded ever since then. If he ends up not coming, then we will be getting more of the same I would say.

Proper coaches are not going to drop into this division without some assurances.

MOT1964 wrote:Phil Hay
@PhilHayYEP
the serious negotiating has only been going on in the past week. There’s a lot to iron out, including transfers. Bielsa has been doing analysis of the current squad.
10:51 am · 8 Jun 2018

So, it would seem that this is actually still a long way off from being done. The longer this goes on the more worried I'll become. Not because it's Bielsa (still unsure about him) but he might end up thinking this isn't the job for him. We certainly, IMO, need someone in before the players report back for pre-season.

I think we'll be hearing some news on players leaving before hearing the manager news. I don't know why that is but I think negotiations are due for over the weekend as well. All seems a bit odd to me TBH

rss1969 wrote:If we get Bielsa, he is going to put the kind of demands on the club that we have not seen from a manager since the premier league days.

This has to be a good thing because we have been chronically underfunded ever since then. If he ends up not coming, then we will be getting more of the same I would say.

Proper coaches are not going to drop into this division without some assurances.

This is all reminding me of when Howard Wilkinson took over as manager. He wasn't even first choice but he still insisted on certain matters and clearly that was a wide reaching thing too, almost a complete overhaul of all the club and all playing staff, scouting, development etc. For all the unsatisfactory stuff Orta has done, he has had major impact on Thorp Arch and the reserve/youth set-up, so maybe Bielsa won't need to be as involved as Wilko was. This is just me thinking out loud, as usual I've little clue really.

Not sure if it was mentioned earlier in the thread, but Sporting CP could be throwing a spanner in the works. They want Bielsa too.