30 May 2019 19:12:16
On balance I am pleased that Bielsa is staying. I believe his approach that has improved the club in all sorts of ways. However, he is not infallible. Our loans last year were poor. I don't know how much say he had in there recruitment so the jury is out. Secondly his philosophy that got to the top of the pile ultimately let us first slip into the play - offs and then out from a seemingly strong position in the semis. Persisting with players who were out of form or simply not good enough. Leaving top performing players on the bench eg Phillips, ROOFE and Jansson when their presence could have made the difference between winning and losing.

Substitutions have also been problematic. The final and possibly the most costly was in the final game. Instead of telling himself 'Phew - we got through the first leg without Jannson and Beradi did his bit. Bring back Jansson' He obviously followed his philosophy of letting a player -even one playing out of position and subject of rushes of blood- keep his place. Next season will be interesting as again and loan moves will be important. They can be very useful - there was a hatful playing at Wembley but are record is less than poor in this context.

If Harrison is brought back I hope Bielsa can work miracles with him because although he has good points there are far better players in the championship. I think top six is very possible but not guaranteed. I don't think automatic promotion will happen. I thought after the first leg I had got it wrong when I thought we would lose to Derby unfortunately I wasn't. I hope I am not quite right with this prediction and we go up as champions.

The optimists among us will say of course we will what are you being so pessimistic about. The realists will say this is a very hard division to get out of and now we won't have the element of surprise on our side. I'm not into who is an optimist and who is not. I think it's just about evaluating what we know about the set up and what we see on the pitch and giving a reasoned view. Let's hope for the best.


1.) 30 May 2019
30 May 2019 20:44:54
Not going to say anything about pessimism Hess. But the fact is that Bielsa already HAS worked miracles. Agree, we need to use the loan system more effectively this coming season, but with a few strong additions to lads who already know his systems and methods, who knows what we can achieve. And fingers crossed for a season not blighted by crucial injuries at critical times. 👍🏻✊🏻.


2.) 30 May 2019
30 May 2019 22:58:19
Miracles? - Yes to a degree but in real/ concrete terms we are no better than before. - In the championship. When someone gets us out then it will be a miracle.


3.) 31 May 2019
31 May 2019 10:45:19
Obviously he isn't infallible otherwise we would have been champions. Not sure if Jansson being left out of the second leg was due to injury or discipline over the Aston Villa thing. If i were boss i might have rested him anyway to save him for the final thinking at 2-0 up we couldn't possibly lose but that was before Casilly, Cooper and Berardi combined to mess up our chances.


4.) 02 Jun 2019
02 Jun 2019 08:47:15
I agree with most of your post Hess. After what appeared to be just shy of miracle work to get us up there questionable decisions were made. We must be expecting new arrivals, as MB stated weeks ago he couldn’t take this current squad to the levels he has next season.


5.) 07 Jun 2019
07 Jun 2019 19:07:55
have to disagree the sheff utd and and norwich managers performed mriciles getting teams worse than leeds promoted. MB performed greatness and laughable resutls in the same breath as good as he was bad. still has to prove it in my book.