Bielsa has one big demand for signing new Leeds deal and it involves Ben White – report
Marcelo Bielsa is set to take a short vacation before meeting with the Leeds United owners to negotiate a new contract.
That’s according to a report from LaRed, who claim that one of the big decisions he has to make is who will replace Under-23s manager Carlos Corberan.
Bielsa also has conditions that he wants to be met by Leeds before he signs and one of them involves Ben White.
As reported in Infobae (via LaRed), Bielsa is said to want to keep his 19/20 Championship-winning side together, including – if possible – Ben White.
The report claims that if White leaves, Bielsa wants to replace him with a player of similar quality – one he believes is capable of playing at the same Premier League level.
The same demand would hold for any other key player who leaves in the summer.
The report claims that Bielsa’s salary will not be an issue.
Leeds fans are desperate for Bielsa to sign a new contract.
Athletic journalist Phil Hay has said he checked with Bielsa’s people over the weekend and that they were very confident that he would sign.
It was always said that Bielsa would have conditions that he would want to be met by Andrea Radrizzani, but we don’t see any of them being deal-breakers.
The interests of Bielsa and the club are aligned and Radrizzani knows how important the manager is to the club. He knows the Leeds fans would never forgive him if he let Bielsa go.
Bielsa isn’t the sort of manager to make unreasonable demands. He won’t want a £100m budget to spend on players and he won’t be looking for financial recompense that’s out of the club’s reach.
Keeping hold of Ben White (the number one priority for Leeds as we see it) or replacing him with someone of equal quality (hard, but possible) is a very reasonable demand.
Leeds built their Championship win on the back of the league’s best defence and White was a huge part of that.
Keeping hold of him might be out of Leeds’ control but replacing him with a player Bielsa wants is entirely possible and we’re sure the club would give him a guarantee of this.
It could be a transfer saga that drags on, though. At least until White’s future is settled.
In other Leeds United news, ‘Wasn’t pretty’ – Phil Hay believes Bielsa must ditch one big-money Leeds player this summer