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MOT View: Bizarre anecdote from Bielsa's brother reiterates obsessive winning mentality
Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa isn’t known as El Loco for nothing.
The Argentine has shown time and time again during his tenure at Elland Road that he is a different breed of manager, and whether it be last season’s Spygate debacle or his insistence on playing Murderball in training, it’s clear that he more than lives up to his “crazy” moniker.
And an anecdote from Bielsa’s brother, Rafael, reiterates just how out there the boss really is.
Referring to a clash between the manager’s former club Newell’s Old Boys and rivals Rosario Central, Bielsa’s elder sibling told Infobae: “Did I believe my brother when he said he’d cut off his finger to beat Central? Totally.
“It was 3pm on Sunday, and we didn’t know if the game would be played because it was raining.
“Marcelo was in a room at the Liceo Náutico de Funes in the dark, with the curtains drawn. It was scary. We started talking about a friend we had, the Cali.
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“He had gone to the United States after doing a martingale, had a finger cut off, or a phalanx cut off to collect insurance. When we mentioned the subject, there was silence, and that’s when his reflection about cutting off his finger to win the match came up.”
This story is absolutely mad, there’s no two ways about it.
What makes it so incredible is that you wouldn’t actually put it past Bielsa to sacrifice his finger for a football match.
If this was any other manager you would mark it down as empty rhetoric, but when it comes to the Whites boss, he is just unhinged enough for you to wonder whether he might actually do it.
And ultimately, that’s what sets him apart.
The 64-year-old is an obsessive winner and is meticulous to an almost unbelievable degree.
Whether it’s the superlative levels of fitness he demands from his players or taking 1,800 tapes of football matches with him to the 2002 World Cup, his dedication is unparalleled.
But it’s also that commitment that has helped to transform Leeds into promotion contenders.
Hopefully, we see the pay-off of Bielsa’s obsession over the next few weeks – and do so without anybody having to lose any digits.
In other Leeds United news, Emile Heskey delivers verdict on Dean Smith decision after comparison with Whites 18/19 goal.