Marcelo Bielsa says he “dies after each defeat” and seemed prepared to do this when he came to his front door holding a hand grenade when confronted by some Ultras after his team Newell’s Old Boys lost 6-0 to San Lorenzo in the Copa Libertadores in 1992.
"I die after each defeat," Bielsa said at the time. "The week that follows is hell.
"When the mistakes are of such a grotesque magnitude, the conclusion has to be that the manager is responsible."
He was not the only one who thought that. Soon the barras bravas were at the door of his home in Rosario.
There were about twenty of them, demanding he come out and face them. Bielsa came out holding a hand grenade. "If you don’t go now,’ he told them, ‘I will pull the pin." The barras bravas dispersed.
In an interview with Kaiser magazine one fan said: "The madness sparkled in his eyes. Nobody could look at Bielsa, only at the grenade in his hand. We imagined he would face us with a shotgun, not a grenade."
Marcelo Bielsa’s biggest love is his former club Newell’s Old Boys in his home city of Rosario, but his dad Rafael supported their rivals Rosario Central and argued with him because he disliked his style.
“To gauge the depth of the Newell’s-Rosario Central rivalry, it is worth recalling an interview Bielsa’s father gave to El Gráfico in 1998, the year Marcelo won his third league title in Argentina.
"I never saw Marcelo play nor have I seen him manage," said El Turco.
"It’s not that I don’t like football, it’s because I am a Central supporter and also because I prefer another type of football, one which has less marking and pressing.
"We talk about it every time he comes home. He has his point of view and he tells me that he has to train his teams to win."
Nicknamed ‘El Loco’, Tim Rich chronicles his life in his new biography entitled ‘The Quality of Madness. A Life of Marcelo Bielsa’, published by Quercus, which is out on Friday.
