Marcelo Bielsa , livre ebook

Pitch Publishing Ltd - Salim Lamrani

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146 pages

English

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As Marcelo Bielsa's interpreter, Salim Lamrani was his right-hand man throughout his first season in charge of Leeds United. As a privileged witness to that remarkable 2018/19 campaign, Lamrani tells the inside story of how the club came within a hair's breadth of returning to the Premier League before winning promotion in the very next season to end a 16-year exile. Lamrani lays bare the secrets behind Bielsa's methods, starting with the demands he makes in an intense pre-season, through to the Argentinian tactician's unwavering loyalty to a highly effective style of play - a style based on possession, collective coverage, rapid transitions, changes of tempo and constant attack. For him, beauty is non-negotiable. Thanks to Bielsa, the players of Leeds United were the actors in an unforgettable epic, which made an indelible mark on millions of supporters. Taking us match by match through Bielsa's first year in English football, Lamrani weaves a fascinating narrative and paints an intimate portrait of a unique football genius.

Sujets

Condado de Yorkshire (Reino Unido)

Leeds

Bradford

Yorkshire

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Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	21 mars 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781801502375
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2022
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Salim Lamrani, 2022
Translated by the author and corrected by Richard Finn
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781801501385
eBook ISBN 9781801502375
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Contents
Prologue by Rafael Bielsa
Introduction
1. An Intense Pre-season
2. An Ideal Start to the Championship
3. First Pitfalls
4. An Incredible Run
5. The End of Boxing Day and the Laboured Winter
6. Spygate
7. Resurgent Form
8. Mixed Results
9. Wigan: The Turning Point
10. The End of the Dream of Automatic Promotion
11. Play-offs: The Painful Epilogue
Sorrows and Joys
2019/2020: The Return to the Promised Land
A Historical Season
Appendix I: Leeds United 2018/19
Appendix II: Leeds United 2019/2020
About the Author
Photos
To Leeds United fans and to all the humble people of the world who claim, through the club they love, their right to happiness.
Football is of vital importance in restoring dignity to those who have nothing
- Pier Paolo Pasolini
Prologue by Rafael Bielsa
A DOCTOR from the Sorbonne, a university professor, a meticulous and tenacious historian, an international lecturer and a multi-translated essayist, Salim Lamrani is a late son of the Enlightenment. Sapere aude ( Dare to know! ) could well be the motto adorning his coat of arms, as it was for Denis Diderot, Gottfried Leibniz and Cesare Beccaria.
His universalism, his talents and his creativity led him down rough roads, from the eastern bank of the Bay of Pigs, in the south-central part of Cuba - with its indolent palm trees, sand that the crimson dawn stains with heroism, shipwrecked boats whose inhabitants died - all the way to the marbled grass of a football pitch.
I do not know the details of how Lamrani s relationship with Marcelo Bielsa came out, but it is easy to deduce his love for football from his own words: the humanist Lamrani affirms that football is the most popular sport in the world because it is a source of dignity for the humble and the forgotten. The passion of the fans cannot be understood without associating it with the common aspiration of humanity: the search for happiness. Therefore, the victory of their favourite team is one of the few moments of joy in a life marked by adversity. I think now that perhaps it was this that brought them together. Both the coach and his collaborator, Bielsa and Lamrani, share a consideration for those who have less. Both, I think, associate the performance of the teams for which they work and to which they dedicate themselves with the hope or disappointment of those who are frequently left disenchanted by life.
Lamrani, with whom I have occasionally worked, is remarkable in his professionalism. With him, things have to be said in a precise way so that they can then be carried out with the same level of rigour. It is also possible that this is another element that brought him closer to Bielsa, a miser with his words to the point of laconism and a slave to his industriousness to the point of exhaustion.
On the one hand, for Bielsa, results and form are an inseparable pairing. However, it is my opinion that for Lamrani - who is, after all, a man sensitive to heroism as one of the more beautiful aspects of human behaviour - form sometimes becomes more important than results. Bielsa considers form an essential complement to results; Lamrani, at least in terms of what takes place in this book, appreciates form to such an extent that he can sometimes undervalue results relative to the act of achieving them.
It is said that Michelangelo went personally to the quarries of the Apuan Alps to choose the only block in which he would carve La Piet , the only sculpture of his to bear his name. He had a year to finish the work, for which he received 450 gold ducats. For the first months he sat in front of the stone without moving, and when the Cardinal of San Dionisio, Jean Bilh res de Lagraulas, asked him what he was doing, he always answered, I m working. For Susan Sontag, solitude was never enough, One can never be lonely enough to write. Here is - in reflection, in solitude - possibly another common ground between Lamrani and Bielsa.
In the section The organisation of the day , Lamrani provides an object lesson in exactly the sort of thing described in the previous paragraph. As a spectator who never misses a single Leeds United game, I am often left ecstatic by and never tire of seeing the speed of a move - of the purest geometry - or the technical skill of a footballing juggler taming a ball just millimetres from the touchline, or the way a midfielder twists his body like a reed to deceive a rival before launching a counterattack. But behind this, there is a multitude of minimal tasks planned and executed day after day, hour after hour, minute after minute.
Lamrani enriches his account of this behind-the-scenes work with anecdotes that typify his existential sensitivity: Gjanni Alioski s respect for the value of money; the courtesy of fitness coach Benoit Delaval; the benevolent intelligence of Gaetano Berardi.
There are two additional themes covered by Lamrani: cultural change and the transmission of values.
Playwright Lillian Hellman - the author Dashiell Hammett s eternal companion - used to say, People change and generally forget to communicate that change to others. However, this book showcases models of cultural change that lead to collective progress.
Examples appear on every page: leadership based on facts rather than words; courage in the face of adversity, which should never be an excuse; regular visits to help the homeless; private and intimate celebrations instead of public displays of merriment (the examples accumulate ad infinitum ).
The same can be said of the transmission of values (do not start eating until everyone is present - solidarity; do not leave the changing room in poor condition of cleanliness - respect; presume the nobility and good intention of your rival - benevolence). It is precisely in Lamrani s expertly observed portrayal of these aspects while always linking them back to football where I find another of the work s great contributions.
Georges-Louis Leclerc, the Count of Buffon, is the author of the maxim, Style is the man himself. And per philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, Organisation is the long shadow of a man. These two examples of insight and wisdom apply to both Lamrani and Bielsa. To the essayist, for his precision, for his uncompromising love for the truth, for his undeniable sympathy for the most edifying traits of our species. And equally, for his ability to order ideas around an objective. To the coach, because his teams play as Bielsa lives: they look as he would like to be seen, they develop as he wishes to develop. And they organise themselves according to the values he tirelessly instils in them: protecting each other, working for the benefit of all, presenting themselves to the world without resorting to exhibitionism.
I am here to learn from you, said the Spaniard Kiko Casilla in his introductory address. This could easily be the introductory address of every person who reads this book. From Lamrani, from Bielsa, from Forshaw, from Berardi, from Alioski, from Klich, from Dallas. And from so many others. People and characters that make us happy or unhappy through their performance on the pitch. In this book, Lamrani masterfully illustrates less well-known aspects of these people, that are nonetheless enlightening. Chance versus tenacity. Unscrupulousness versus ethical behaviour. Ball in the air versus ball on the ground. Forced errors versus taking risks.
This is a book about football. But reading it amounts to more than just reading about football. It is a journal of a voyage through the collective spirit of a group. It is a novel about navigating the stormy waters of competition. It is a treatise on human conduct while on pilgrimage to the promised land.
Lawyer, writer, former Argentinian Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Ambassador to Chile, Rafael Bielsa is also Marcelo s brother.
Introduction
IN APRIL 2018, Marcelo Bielsa first alerted me to the possibility that he might become the coach of the legendary English football club, Leeds United. Before finalising his decision, he apprised himself of the situation in typically rigorous fashion. He began with a careful study of the team itself, the infrastructure and the history of the club and of the city. Before offering a definitive response, he sought to have in hand all of the elements relating to the foremost sporting institution of Yorkshire, a region known for its love of football. After several meetings with club directors, an agreement was reached on the project to be put in place. It included the scale of the work required to improve the existing facilities at the Thorp Arch training ground and, ultimately, to achieve athletic excellence.
Once the contract had been finalised and the details had been resolved, Bielsa telephoned to ask if I wished to accompany him on what promised to be an exciting new adventure. I remember that at that moment