Ian Harte issues verdict on whether Leeds CL semi-finalists could beat Bielsa’s side
Former Leeds United full-back Ian Harte has claimed that his Whites side would have beaten Marcelo Bielsa’s current team.
The Irish defender was part of David O’Leary’s 2001 Champions League semi-final XI, and played 268 times for the club between 1995 and 2004.
And while he believes that a clash between that classic side and Bielsa’s Championship leaders would be “very interesting” he has also claimed that he and his teammates would have had the edge.
Speaking to Football League World, he said: “What would be interesting would be that team Leeds had in the Champions League going up against the Bielsa side.
“Oliver Dacourt in the midfield, Lee Bowyer, Harry Kewell, Mark Viduka, Jonathan Woodgate, Rio Ferdinand, Gary Kelly, Danny Mills – that team against Bielsa’s team would be very interesting.
“I’d love that, I think we’d beat them, honestly.
“David O’Leary was amazing during the time we had. I’ve no idea what we’d have been like under Bielsa, but under David O’Leary it was brilliant.”
As mouthwatering as any clash between Bielsa’s boys and O’Leary’s European heroes would be, it’s hard to argue with Harte’s assertion here.
Of course, this is all purely hypothetical, and comparing two teams from two hugely different periods of English football is, in many respects, like comparing apples and oranges.
But that Leeds side from the turn of the millennium was a special, special team.
Reaching the last four of the Champions League is a huge achievement, whichever way you look at it.
Beating the likes of AC Milan, Lazio, and Deportivo La Coruna are the kind of results that we have only been able to dream about for the past decade and a half or so.
Bielsa’s men are impressive, and if they can secure a long-awaited return to the top flight this season it would certainly stamp their name into the history books right up there alongside O’Leary’s squad.
But until they’re back competing with Europe’s elite, Harte and his teammates will continue to hold the advantage.
Here’s hoping that if we come back to this debate in a few years time, that gap has been closed entirely.
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