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Attention pundits/typists: a 65 year old interdisciplinary savant using the medium of football to espouse a carefully constructed socio-philosophical ideology isn't going to abandon his ethos because of your tossed off opinion that you formulated on the spot, for money. #lufc
Don't get me wrong, I do get that everyone has to earn a living & it also took me a long time to understand Bielsa's approach but I feel as though search engines & social media have made it very easy to perform basic research if you care enough to bother, which you should! #lufc
If you were not au fait with Bielsa, wouldnât you want to know why a legendary Argentinian coach who is also a multimillionaire lives above a shop in Wetherby? Youâd have hoped that intellectual curiosity alone would be sufficient to make people want to find the answer. #lufc
It seems very evident to me that Marcelo Bielsa is deliberately constructing a legacy in the sport, for all to see. Before he retires, heâs showing everyone what heâs learned from obsessively thinking about football for roughly six decades. I think itâs worth hearing. #lufc
Itâs said that wherever Bielsa goes he leaves disciples, many of whom still work in the game. Some are fans from all walks of life who lovingly document his words for posterity. One such fan is @JimenaJuani, who posts highly absorbing videos. Here are some pertinent ones. #lufc
For whatever reasons, be they political, religious or both, Bielsa has sympathy for the working classes & has freely discussed feeling obligated to create beautiful football as an inspirational gift for those living in poverty. #lufc
Bielsa has gone on record that he considers the execution of a gameplan & overall spectacle of a game to be more important than the result. He would prefer to lose than play defensively in the hope of obtaining a boring draw or a workmanlike victory. #lufc
This is almost certainly because Bielsa believes that all other factors, particularly the intrusion of massive financial investment, corporate interest & the binary win/lose sentiment, dilute the fundamental spirit of the game, as discussed here. #lufc
Bielsa rejects the conventional logic that winning is the most important thing about football on the basis that each season there are few titles & trophies available so satisfaction must be found elsewhere, in the emotional resonance of the sport. #lufc
Although very obviously invested in football & dedicated to his job, even early on in his career Bielsa outlined that the insatiable thirst for endless victories is the product of an unhealthy mindset & is sometimes counterproductive too. #lufc
For reference, here is a video in which Bielsa highlights that the media relentlessly perpetuates the narrative that winning at all costs is the most important factor in football & beyond. He also recognises his own complicity. #lufc
Here is a compelling thesis on Bielsaâs wider motivation for rejecting the win/lose binary by @stirling_j. This is a must read if you want to understand the broader context for his legacy. #lufc https://medium.com/@stirlingj1982/project-cyberball-77e744ab59cd
Hopefully Jamie will forgive me for reproducing some of his peerless work here in the interest of streamlining this cheat sheet on Bielsaâs overall ethos because he so brilliantly summarises it in the following passages. Please go & read the whole thing though! #lufc
If youâre also interested in the inevitable & presumably unending backlash against Marcelo Bielsa (among others) as a wider societal trend, I recommend a book called âThe Death of Expertiseâ by @RadioFreeTom, in which he examines the burgeoning anti-intellectual phenomena. #lufc
TL;DR - Marcelo Bielsa doesnât really care what you think, he is busy creating his Gesamtkunstwerk, in the context of which results are merely one factor. To judge him solely by the imposed binary standards of football is to miss the wider point. He is forging a legacy. #lufc
