Former Premier League striker Demba Ba has tweeted his admiration for Marcelo Bielsa out of the blue, accompanying his kind words with a picture of Romain LaPlanche's book on the Argentine.
Ba has never worked under Bielsa, but is well-connected in French football where the current Leeds boss still wields considerable influence following his time spent with Olympique de Marseille and LOSC Lille.
The book in question, 'Bielsa - Le Mystere', loosely translated as 'Bielsa - The Mystery', tells the story of Bielsa's background and how he arrived into coaching in France.
This is perhaps explanation for Ba's accompanying tweet last night, which read: "The more I know about him the more I appreciate him", followed by two emojis; a football and a brain.
Senegalese forward Ba is currently with Turkish club Istanbul Basaksehir FK, who competed in this year's UEFA Champions League, beating Manchester United in the Group Stage.
The 35-year-old's tweet is unlikely to indicate a move for the veteran striker is in the offing, as one reply comically suggested.
It implied Ba would sustain a hamstring injury every day if he trained under Marcelo Bielsa, owing to the Argentine's immense physical demands on his players in training.
Nevertheless, Ba's comments are the latest from a voice within the football world which indicates just how far-reaching Bielsa's influence on the game extends.
The mark he has left on French football is clearly significant, considering there have been a number of books published about the 65-year-old and his work on and off the pitch.
As a managerial enigma, he piques the interest of those whose career he hasn't even touched, which goes to show how fortunate the current crop of Leeds United players are at this time.
