Preston North End boss Alex Neil believes the standard of coaching in the Championship improved last season, with Marcelo Bielsa one of the main reason why.
Bielsa guided Leeds United back to the Premier League after a 16-year absence last month, with the Whites coasting to the Championship title by ten points.
A last-season drop-off saw Preston miss out on the play-off spots, as the Lilywhites ended the campaign in ninth place.
But as he reflected on the end of his third year in charge at Deepdale, Neil could not help but praise the job done by Bielsa and some of the division's other leading coaches.
"I think the league improves every year and I don't think it improves purely on players, it improved on coaches too," he told our sister site Lancs.Live.
"We've got Slaven Bilic who managed Croatia and got them to where he did in big tournaments, and Marcelo Bielsa is hailed as one of the best coaches around.
"Thomas Frank is thought of as a young and up and coming coach - Thomas Frank managed Brondby! They're one of the biggest teams in Denmark.
"So he certainly wasn't behind in years when he took that job and he knew exactly what he was doing, inheriting a very good squad.
"I think Scott Parker's done a really good job at Fulham, under pressure on a big budget while Neil Harris got his opportunity at Cardiff and they're flying.
"I think coaches have improved and players that are in the league are on significant amounts of cash which means you can get real quality in.
"So I think it's been a good, competitive league but the strange thing is that, as always, anyone can beat anyone in the Championship regardless of budgets, which is what makes it so intriguing."
Preston's ninth-place finish was an improvement of five places for North End on the 2018-19 campaign, with Neil able to hold Bielsa's champions to 1-1 draws at both Deepdale and Elland Road this term.
"Every game I've watched them they've been better than their opposition, whether they've won or drawn or whatever," he said following October's draw in Lancashire.
“I think the only game I watched was West Brom at Leeds, when Leeds were better first half and I thought West Brom were better second half. Other than that I feel they've been really, really dominant against a lot of teams."
