Marcelo Bielsa is very close to signing a new contract with Leeds United as he focuses all of his energy on making the team ready for the Premier League.
Chief executive Angus Kinnear told The Square Ball’s podcast he was meeting with Bielsa and director of football Victor Orta on a daily basis to discuss United’s future.
While the club is not yet in a position to announce Bielsa is staying, behind the scenes the Argentine is working at full tilt on their Premier League odyssey.
“We’re really close,” said Kinnear.
He added: “This is the challenge. He is so fixated on the preparations for next season the contract plays a secondary role.
“We would like to announce it, but at every meeting, Victor and I meet with him pretty much daily, it’s more around the changes he wants to make at the training ground, the players we’re looking at, how we’re going to develop the under-23s, how we’re going to backfill Carlos [Corberan]’s role and then we might get a little bit to the contract at the end.”
Kinnear knows the going is slow, but has confidence Bielsa will eventually sign with no differences between the parties on the principles of the contract.
“It’s a slow process, but all I can take is there’s nothing from a commercial perspective, there’s no difference between him and the club,” he said.
“We’re aligned on all the principles and all I can take is his focus on getting ready for the new season is his priority.
“That’s good enough for me, at the moment.”
Bielsa’s two-day spell as Lazio boss is an extreme example, but the Argentine does have a record of brief stays at some clubs.
Lille and Espanyol also proved to be homes for less than a year. Kinnear reiterated Bielsa’s 26 months at Elland Road should be worn as a badge of honour.
That longevity is proof of how the current administration has been able to accommodate one of the world’s most respected coaches.
The latest demand Bielsa has put upon the club is the removal of at least one hill from Thorp Arch.
“Marcelo has said, and I think one of the reasons we’ve kept him, we’ve been able to give him everything he needs,” said Kinnear.
“The reason he has spent a short time at other clubs is if you let him down. He doesn’t tend to look at the magnitude of issues.
“An issue is an issue for him. So, the car parking layout in front of the stadium: he said it caused disorder when people arrived in the morning and they weren’t starting their day properly.
“You need to have it fixed. That is as big an issue for him as Pablo being out for six weeks.
“What we’ve been able to do is have a team which has been able to address those issues for him.
“We’ve delivered for him at the training ground, we’ve delivered in transport, delivered in pre-match preparation.
“He’s been appreciative of that and he’s got a fantastic relationship with our stadium manager, who just spends hours and hours with him as he’s asking him to remove hills from the training ground.
“It’s a credit to everyone around the club there are clubs which haven’t been able to accommodate Marcelo Bielsa and we have.”
