Marcelo Bielsa has spoken about potentially becoming the next manager of Athletic Club.
In quotes transcribed by AS, the former Leeds United manager revealed why he wants to return to the Basque club. If Iñaki Arechabaleta is elected as the new club president on Friday, Bielsa will return to the club for his second spell.
“It’s a very big responsibility to manage a team like Athletic, and even more so for me, as I’ve been there and know what it’s all about. After I was informed of the interest in mid-March, I wanted to weigh things up to see if I was the right person. In March and April, I was watching the team, they were playing well, I liked what I saw. I understood that the best thing for Athletic was for the coach who was in charge to continue because I felt that the project was not finished, it had room for growth and development. Until the end of the league season, I hadn’t made a decision and, after Marcelino left, I thought I would give a positive answer.”
Bielsa believes that the current squad has room “for individual and collective evolution”. He also spoke about the LaLiga matches he has watched to get up to speed with Spanish football. In addition to the first team games, he has also watched all 38 reserve team matches.
“From what I saw, it’s very necessary to get into Europe, if we haven’t made it it’s not for lack of ambition, there are resources to achieve it,” he continued.
Bielsa added that at “Marseille, Lille and Leeds there was a very important change in my way of training because the evaluation and measurement of loads appeared as a very valuable resource. My time at Athletic made me start to think that there were things I had to perfect in order to improve the method of preparing the players. At Leeds, we were the team that ran the most in Europe”.
Bielsa, 66, previously managed Athletic between 2011 and 2013.
GSFN
