There is perhaps no greater expert in football when it comes to dramatic exits than Marcelo Bielsa. At Lazio, he lasted barely 24 hours before quitting the role, while previously he walked away from Marseille after just one match of the 2015-16 season.
Both of those departures, though, were on his own terms. Not so from Lille, where he merely waits the formality of his sacking due to French labour laws. It will be the first time in his 27-year career as a coach the man described by Pep Guardiola as “the best manager in the world” has been fired.
The Argentine has officially been suspended, but in reality it is impossible that he will regain his functions in the dugout. Technically, it will be December 1 before he can be deposed of his functions.
It promises to be an ugly divorce, with Lille working to ensure that they do not have to pay €14-16 million as a settlement having spent around €70m during the summer on a transfer campaign that has thus far yielded little fruit.
Known as one of the most uncompromising coaches in the world game, as well as one of the most exciting, Bielsa splits opinion between those who know him by his nicknames ‘El Loco’ and ‘El Profesor’. He is at once Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, depending on the viewpoint of the individual.
What is unquestionable is that his time at Lille has been a disaster and culminated in a 3-0 defeat to minnows Amiens in a Ligue 1 match on Monday.
While certain factors of his failed tenure were of his own making, the 62-year-old could afford to feel rueful about the manner in which that defeat came about. The match was being replayed from September, when a collapsed barrier in Amiens’ Stade de la Licorne necessitated the initial tie to be abandoned. Ironically, the incident was prompted by LOSC fans celebrating their side’s opening goal.
It was one of the few times in the last four months that they have had anything to cheer. After a 3-0 victory over Nantes on the opening day of the season promised much, the northern side have since slumped towards the foot of the standings, winning only two matches and scoring a meagre nine league goals since.
Bielsa was brought in to help kickstart the ‘LOSC Unlimited’ revolution of the club under new owner Gerard Lopez, yet the project has been a muddled one that highlights the dangers of having a sporting director and a head coach at odds.
Luis Campos arrived from Monaco as Lopez’s right-hand man in an attempt to replicate the success that Stade Louis II side have had at picking players up young, developing them for a couple of years then selling them on. He is the man who to pinpoint the talent Lille side, with Bielsa expected to be the one to nurture it.
The Argentine, though, has enjoyed cult status among a certain breed of football fans due to his insistence in a 3-3-3-1 system that is unique to the coach and a handful of disciples, such as Jorge Sampaoli.
It is not a formation that can work with just any player, no matter how talented, and Lille have discovered that to their cost. And there was no prospect of their coach altering his principles just to have square pegs fit in square holes.
Then there was the clash with Campos over staffing. Joao Sacramento was appointed to the coaching team by the sporting director in January only for Bielsa to push the Portuguese, whose speciality is video analysis, away when he arrived, much to the irritation of the sporting director.
Campos also wanted to bring in more experienced players towards the end of the transfer window. Wilfried Bony was touted as an arrival, but Bielsa vetoed the deal, despite Lille having sold Nicolas De Preville, their chief recognised centre forward.
He was content to be left with the youngest squad in any of Europe’s major leagues. Kevin Malcuit is the oldest player he has used this season – the right-back only turned 26 on the final day of July.
Consequently, Lille have often looked disjointed and leaderless. They were able to dominate possession as the coach would have wished, but often they offered no penetration to their play.
According to Opta’s statistics, they enjoyed 60.36% of the ball under Bielsa – only PSG managed more – yet only four sides have scored fewer than them. Sterile doesn’t begin to do justice how toothless they were.
The Argentine insisted on playing Nicolas Pepe through the middle of the attack. Newcastle were beaten to the signature of the young forward, who was signed from Angers in the summer for a fee of around €10m. Though he excelled in Ligue 1 last season, he did so as a winger and most certainly not a centre forward. On the rare occasions he has been allowed to operate in his favoured position for Lille this season, he has unsurprisingly looked very effective.
For Bielsa, idiosyncratic as ever, that was merely an inconvenience that did not merit change.
Pepe is not the only player to have suffered under a coach so romantic he can become lost in his own dogma. High-profile summer arrival Thiago Maia has failed to settle, often being deployed on the left of the defence, which is a whole sector that has never once looked comfortable.
Unsurprisingly, he ultimately tested the patience of his players, the staff and the fans too much. Too much changed, too quickly and with too little pragmatism to make Bielsa’s reign a long one, let along successful.
As exciting and enigmatic as he may be, the Argentine was not the correct fit for Lille and for them to part ways was the only logical outcome as an improvement in their fortunes grew increasingly unlikely.
He will be back, though, and he will take his legions of fans with him.
