Brentford 1-2 Leeds United: The humbling
This season was a humbling for many people at Leeds, but Raphinha knew what he owed, and to whom, and how to pay us back.
This season was a humbling for many people at Leeds, but Raphinha knew what he owed, and to whom, and how to pay us back.
Leeds United were brave, in 2018, hiring Marcelo Bielsa to change the club's culture. But Premier League paranoia was too powerful in the end.
Some players get a moment like this once in a career. Most right-backs get them never. But Leeds United's return to the top has been punctuated by days of Ayling dragging us there.
Marcelo Bielsa's obsessive practice of his life's work gives football the true seriousness it needs for us to remember that it's only a game.
Marcelo Bielsa should be a football club owner's dream. Can you help him? No. He is here to help you.
Marcelo Bielsa, of course, will never give up, and that's why they say he's going to lose his job.
That season Leeds proved that real life isn't like Football Manager, and you can't just set a European search for 15+ potential and throw a team together, not least because what you get in real life are not avatars, but real people who crave real German sausages.
Bielsa always says two challenges face Leeds in the Premier League. When up against richer and more accomplished opponents, Leeds have to force them to play worse. And when other teams try to force Leeds into playing worse, Leeds have to maintain their own game.
Imagine being the first person to greet him after his retreat. They might have thought this madman would never stop talking. 'So what you're saying is, Marcelo,' they might interrupt in a breath-long pause after a night's talk has run on into breakfast, 'Maradona was a good player?'
I was nervous as a sixteen year old going to games, when I didn't know the unwritten rules, and I was nervous now, walking down under the station and over the river, not sure if the rules were still the same after eighteen months.