Latest news with #MarceloBielsa
BBC News
04-08-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
'Might be in the top six... might be fighting relegation'
We asked for your views on how Leeds' squad is shaping up after the Whites continued their pre-season preparations with a 1-1 draw against Villarreal at Elland are some of your comments:Andy: A little nervous, if I'm honest. We have secured some good players but still need a different level of attacking quality and some better full-back Bit of a boring game but one that shows we desperately need a 10 to change the game and link the midfield with the attack, and a nine who we can rely on. I think Piroe would make a great back-up centre-forward and would be a good impact I was lucky to have made the near six-hour round trip to watch the Whites under blue Yorkshire skies. It is just wonderful being back at the top table. The defence looked great even without Jayden Bogle but we missed DJ's pace. Joel looks hungry but Willy cannot give the ball away as many times as he did yesterday. The club have backed Daniel Farke and the squad is looking good but we just need a new strong number a Leeds fan? Find and follow your club hereClive: Not a bad performance but we still need that number 10 to deliver that killer pass and the forward to put it Truth is - nobody knows. We might be in the top six - we might be fighting relegation. But, at least we've learned from past mistakes as Marcelo Bielsa wasn't backed at all. Farke seems to know what he's doing. Good luck to The side is coming together but we need to take the plunge and sign Harvey Elliot and Rodrigo Muniz. If we do, I think we would have no relegation worries and would stand a chance of finishing in the top 10. We need to back Farke as Biesla never got the funds he needed.
Yahoo
27-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Valencia eye another Uruguayan to strengthen the squad
Valencia CF has intensified negotiations with Nicolás Fonseca, Uruguayan midfielder of Club León, as the main candidate to fill the vacancy left by Enzo Barrenechea. Fonseca, 26, has an Italian passport and comes onto the European radar after his good performance in Liga MX and his previous stint at River Plate. He has the approval of Carlos Corberán and Marcelo Bielsa, the Uruguayan national team coach, who gave him his debut with the national team in 2024. Although the club's first offer, close to 2 million euros, was rejected, Valencia is already preparing a new proposal around 5 million. The planned contract would be for five seasons, betting on his projection and versatility in the center of the field. This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here. 📸 Aitor Alcalde - 2025 Getty Images
The Sun
05-07-2025
- Sport
- The Sun
Leeds icon Stuart Dallas ‘not missing' a thing about football one year on after horror injury forced early retirement
IT'S BEEN over a year since a horror injury finally forced Stuart Dallas into retirement. Though the Leeds United legend, 34, is not missing a single thing about playing and won't even contemplate coaching until he can be 'honest with himself' and give it everything. 3 3 3 Ex- Northern Ireland international Dallas made over 250 appearances for the Elland Road outfit and was a pivotal part of Marcelo Bielsa 's promotion-winning side. But disaster struck in April 2022 when he suffered a femoral fracture in his knee after a sickening on-field collision with Man City's Jack Grealish. Dallas bravely fought to save his career but the 'irreparable damage' eventually forced him to hang up his boots in May 2024 following a two-year battle. The injury was so bad it still causes him pain today - though it's all physical rather than mental as he does not miss a thing about playing. Speaking to Sun Sport at the Leeds American Golf for the #RifeDontMiss putting challenge, celebrating the launch of the new RIFE Black Edition putters, Dallas said: 'My knee's alright. It allows me to do what I need to do now. I still need to go to the gym and keep up the strength in it. I knew that anyway and I suppose it holds me accountable to get in the gym and stuff as well. I play a bit of padel here and there too. 'I'm able to do bits and pieces and so far I've not really had many problems. It's a bit sore at times but that's just part and parcel of it due to how complex the injury was.' For some, watching your former team-mates storm to Championship promotion after your forced retirement would have rubbed extra salt in the wound. Not Dallas though. BEST FREE BETS AND BETTING SIGN UP OFFERS He said: 'I'm in a good place and I always have been throughout it. It's been totally fine. I'll be totally honest with you, I don't miss any of it. Because of the age I was and I knew that I couldn't physically play at that level - I don't miss any of it. 'I'm very, very comfortable with my decision. I have a good life, a beautiful family who are healthy. I've got nothing to complain about.' Daniel Farke, who Dallas spent his final year as a pro under, was the man who guided Leeds back to the top-flight. Despite lifting the title, the German coach faced intense speculation over his future before the club backed him publicly. And with three new additions - striker Lukas Nmecha, centre-back Jaka Bijol and defender Sebastiaan Bornauw - on board already, Dallas has no doubts that Farke deserved a shot at keeping Leeds up after bouncing back from last year's play-off heartbreak. He said: 'He's been brilliant. He's remained calm throughout his whole time here and didn't panic when things were going against him. Having worked with him I know exactly how he is and what he says in the media and how he acts is exactly the same and that's brilliant for players. 'When he stuck his neck on the line and said that he was 100 per cent convinced that Leeds would get promoted, as a player that would give me a lot of confidence to go and perform. 'It's definitely the right decision to keep him. What he's achieved over back-to-back Championship seasons can't be topped. He'll have learned from his mistakes in the Premier League before with Norwich and is going to be obviously backed a bit better hopefully.' Speaking of coaches, Dallas revealed his own plans to start his journey into the dug-out when confirming his playing days were done. Though the ex-Brentford ace, who was equally at home on the pitch at full-back or in midfield, has put that on the back-burner for now - until he is ready to go into it with the same commitment he showed on the pitch. He added: 'I've done my badges. It's not something where I've been focused on. Maybe down the line. I've got a lot to offer the game. At the minute there's so many other avenues that I can go down. 'To be a coach, you've got to be fully committed. Not just for yourself, but for the people that you will be coaching. If I am to go into that, I want to be 100 per cent fully focused on it. 'At the minute there's just other things going on that doesn't allow me to do that. I wouldn't be being honest with myself or with the people that I'd be coaching.' Dallas appeared at the second #RifeDontMiss Challenge, celebrating the launch of the new RIFE Black Edition putters.
Reuters
01-07-2025
- Sport
- Reuters
Wolfsburg's 'Gouda Guardiola' Simonis is big fan of Man City coach
BERLIN, July 1 (Reuters) - Dutch coach Paul Simonis earned the nickname 'Gouda Guardiola' for his faint resemblance to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, but the new VfL Wolfsburg boss said on Tuesday he was actually a fan of the real thing. Simonis, who took over at Wolfsburg for the coming season after leading Dutch side Go Ahead Eagles to their first ever Dutch KNVB Cup victory in April, said Guardiola was one of the coaches who inspired him. He also named Paris St Germain's Luis Enrique and Uruguay coach Marcelo Bielsa. "Good question," Simonis told a press conference when asked about which coaches inspired him. "I really like, not because he looks like (me), but I really like Pep Guardiola. "He looks like me. I was already bald before he was bald. What I like about these guys is how the players talk about them. If you take good care of them, they will pay you back." "These types are capable of doing that, besides having a good technical and tactical plan to watch the games," Simonis added. The Bundesliga season starts on August 22.
The Guardian
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Through It All Together review – Leeds United drama tackles big themes
Leeds United fan and playwright Chris O'Connor is clearly Shankly-ian in his belief that football is more important than life or death. He lays out his argument in Through It All Together, which is at once a paean to his football club, a contention that fandom is a glue that binds with more ferocity than a Norman Hunter tackle, and an appeal for the deification of the manager who led Leeds back into the Premier League in 2020. Where Liverpool had Bill Shankly – recently given his own moment in the stage spotlight in the moving and epic Red or Dead – the Whites had Marcelo Bielsa, or El Loco as O'Connor reminds us, the nickname with which the Argentinian arrived at Elland Road. If there were any doubt as to the regard in which fans like O'Connor hold the manager, a stained glass window bearing the image of Bielsa rises above the stage of Amanda Stoodley's set. At the heart of Through It All Together are long-time married couple and Leeds season ticket holders Howard and Sue, played by Reece Dinsdale and Shobna Gulati. Howard is just about living with dementia, wife Sue is coping with it admirably, while daughter Hazel is either in denial or overcompensating when it comes to her dad's condition. The trials of having the condition, or living with a family member with it, are intertwined with the season before and the season during which Bielsa's Leeds United secured promotion – one which was plagued by Covid and lockdown. But the play never lands firmly on either story. Howard's dementia doesn't progress to its usual conclusion, leaving Dinsdale, a fine actor, with a curtailed journey, while Bielsa's two-season odyssey back to the Premier League is told in snippets that the Leeds faithful in the audience clearly loved, but the uninitiated will find have the depth of a highlight reel. Everal A Walsh and Dean Smith, in roles from podcasters to fans in the pub to club higher-ups, are uniformly hilarious in the very amusingly sketched scenes in which they appear. The play, like the club, will have its fans, but will mean most to those who are already marching on together. At Leeds Playhouse until 19 July
