Bielsa responds when asked if he wants Berardi to stay at Leeds next season
Marcelo Bielsa has refused to give away whether or not Gaetano Berard will be offered a new contract to extend his stay at Leeds United.
Berardi, 31, was due to leave Leeds at the end of last month but in order to see out the season, he signed a short-term extension to ensure he could play the rest of the club’s promotion bid.
However, on Sunday, the one-time Swiss international was stretchered off the pitch in the win at Derby and it has since be revealed he’s suffered a serious ACL injury in his knee.
It now remains to be seen whether Leeds will let Berardi leave or offer him a new deal to keep him while he’s injured in the hope to having him back at the end of next season in the Premier League.
Bielsa was asked if he wanted him to stay ahead of the clash with Charlton and although the Argentine hailed the defender’s importance to the squad, he failed to discuss his contract situation.
“Berardi, for all of us, he’s an example,” Bielsa said in his final pre-match press conference of the season on Tuesday, as quoted by LeedsLive. “Don’t think the fact I say he is an example, I don’t value his football ability. The 30 minutes he played in the last match was one for the best displays he had in two years.
“In the social life of the team, he is very important and I imagine Berardi is the person you ask what we should do. Sometimes I considered asking him, when I had doubts.
“Of course my job is make decisions and I had more doubt than certainty. More than once I had this feeling to take advice from him.”
What’s happened to Berardi has put a real dampener on Leeds’ promotion and title-winning celebrations in the last few days.
Berardi is an Elland Road hero who has played a massive role in helping the club return to the Premier League without playing that many games under Bielsa.
It is hard to say what will happen with the defender.
Football clubs are essentially businesses and it would not make much sense, from a business point of view, to offer a new contract to someone who might be unavailable for nine months.
However, the moral thing to do would be to extend his stay by offering him a new contract.
Can Leeds afford to pay for someone who won’t be paying? We’ll have to wait and see on that one but we won’t be shocked if the unfortunate defender is cut loose.
In other Leeds United news, Phil Hay has tipped Leeds to sign this Brentford star.