Darren Bent responds as Durham puts Leeds boss Bielsa in frame for Celtic job
Adrian Durham has suggested that Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa would be a good fit to succeed Neil Lennon as Celtic manager.
The Northern Irish coach stepped down from his role with the Bhoys on Wednesday with his side a staggering 18 points adrift of bitter rivals Rangers.
Durham and former England international Darren Bent were discussing possible replacements for Lennon on talkSPORTdrive at 5pm, and Durham suggested that Bielsa could be an option that the Hoops could look to explore.
Durham said: “Bielsa, how about that? That’s the level that Celtic will be looking for. What about Bielsa?”
The 65-year old coach is out of contract with the Whites this summer, and though owner Andrea Radrizzani is keen for him to stay at Elland Road, Bielsa only works from year-to-year.
Responding to Durham’s claim, Bent argued that Celtic didn’t have much chance of landing the Argentine before suggesting Rafa Benitez instead. He said:
“I don’t think Leeds would let him go and I don’t think he’d want to go anywhere,” Bent said. “Leeds are very exciting at the moment, he won’t want to go anywhere.
“You can forget [Carlo] Ancelotti, that’s not going to happen. Rafa Benitez… he walked the Championship with Newcastle. Rafa, out of all of those names, would be my pick.”
Project too enticing to depart
With all of the positive progress Leeds have made under Marcelo Bielsa, it would be a huge shame for him to leave now.
Bielsa’s time in England has an expiry date – he never settles too long and his family are back in Argentina, so he’ll eventually leave Leeds.
However Leeds need to do the best they can to keep him at the club for the foreseeable future, and Celtic aren’t an attractive enough project to tempt Bielsa away.
Bielsa has done superbly to take Leeds as far as he has in such a short space of time, and we all want to see how much further he could take the club with more time at the helm.
It’s a long-term project and we’re convinced that Bielsa is here for the long term.
Celtic might be in a similar state to Leeds in a few years’ time and we bet they would love someone like Bielsa to take a similar interest in them.
We can say with a lot of certainty, that just isn’t going to happen.
In other Leeds United news, Alan Shearer has put ‘superb’ Raphinha and Patrick Bamford in his Premier League team of the week.