The tale of 'El Loco' Bielsa reaches the 首相 League
ROSARIO, Argentina (AP) - Marcelo Bielsa's 脅し was visceral.
"If I have to 削減（する） a finger of 地雷 to 勝利，勝つ tomorrow's derby, I will," he told his players. "I still have four left."
Bielsa made that 声明 in 1990, in his first year as a coach, to rouse the passion of his players at Newell´s Old Boys before a trip to archrival Rosario Central.
His team won the Argentine league match 4-3, even without Bielsa having to lose a finger. But it was an 早期に example of the motivational methods of a coach who was already then known as "El Loco" for his obsessive personality and 爆発性の character.
Now, 30 years after starting his coaching career at the Rosario-based club, Bielsa is about to become the 最新の high-profile - and colorful - 経営者／支配人 to 取り組む the 首相 League.
Bielsa led 物陰／風下d 支援する to England's 最高の，を越す 分割 after a 16-year absence, and the team will 直面する Jurgen Klopp-led Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday in the season opener against the defending 支持する／優勝者s.
FILE - In this Sunday, Oct. 29, 2017 とじ込み／提出する photo, Lille coach Marcelo Bielsa looks on before a French League one サッカー match against Marseille at the Lille Metropole stadium, in Villeneuve d'Ascq, northern フラン. A 16-year absence from the 首相 League would have been 考えられない for 物陰／風下d 支持者s in the past but Marcelo Bielsa has 操るd a return to the big time for the 1992 支持する／優勝者s and they will be looking to ruffle a few feathers in the coming months.(AP Photo/Michel Spingler, とじ込み／提出する)
For the 65-year-old Bielsa, it's the 最新の 最高潮の場面 in a 旅行 that started in Rosario and has also taken him to clubs in Mexico, Spain, フラン and Italy - along with the 国家の teams of Argentina and Chile.
And perhaps an 予期しない career for someone who comes from a family of 著名な lawyers. Bielsa's grandfather, Rafael, was a 目だつ 地元の professor and the author of several 法律 調書をとる／予約するs. But a young Marcelo broke with family tradition and 選ぶd for サッカー, joining the Newell´s Old Boys 学院 instead - the same place where Lionel Messi would later get his start.
But a modest playing career as a 中心 支援する only lasted five years, after which he started working as a 青年 coach and talent scout at Newell's 学院.
Bielsa drove thousands of miles to scour Argentine towns and cities for young talents, and it quickly became （疑いを）晴らす that he was g ood at spotting them. He brought 支援する players such Gabriel Batistuta, and also discovered Mauricio Pochettino - who went on to have coaching success of his own, 主要な Tottenham to last year's 支持する／優勝者s League final.
Pochettino lived in Murphy, a town about 150 キロメーターs (90 miles) 南西 of Rosario, and was supposed to 調印する for a different team. But, によれば Pochettino, Bielsa showed up at his house one night at 1 a.m. and 納得させるd his father to let him 調印する for Newell's.
Years later, Pochettino was one of the 重要な players as Newell's won the Argentine league 肩書を与える in Bielsa's first year as 長，率いる coach.
The 祝賀s of that 肩書を与える featured a raucous and shirt-waving Bielsa, who has rarely 陳列する，発揮するd that 肉親，親類d of raw emotion in public since.
"It was because of the 緊張 he had at that moment," said Juan Jos? Bottoli, a doctor that worked with Bielsa then. "He was the 肉親，親類d of guy that felt in his 血 all the work he had done."
Bielsa won the 肩書を与える again the に引き続いて year after a 刑罰，罰則 shootout against Boca Juniors at La Bombonera Stadium, but lost the Copa Libertadores final in 1992 to Sao Paulo, also on 刑罰，罰則s.
That period also gave birth to one of the more 伝説の stories about Bielsa.
After a 6-0 loss to San Lorenzo in a Copa Libertadores match, a group of hardcore fans （機の）カム to his doorstep. Bielsa then 恐らく （機の）カム out 持つ／拘留するing a 手渡す 手りゅう弾 and 脅すd to unplug it if the fans did not leave.
These days, it's his coaching methods that are most talked about.
Since his 早期に beginnings, Bielsa has been obsessed with team 準備, a meticulousness that his friends say was 相続するd from his family of 合法的な minds. It has translated into thousands of hours of 熟考する／考慮するing every 面 of the game, as Bielsa tries to 最小限に減らす the 予測できなく of サッカー.
"He always 扱う／治療するd us with 広大な／多数の／重要な 需要・要求するs. It bothered the younger ones like us a little," said Ricardo Lunari, who played for Bielsa at Newell's. "But over time, y ou realize that everything he is doing is meant to make you a first-分割 player."
One of his big inspirations is the 1995 支持する／優勝者s League 勝利者 Ajax, coached by Louis 先頭 Gaal. That attacking team used a 3-4-3 形式 with two wingers up 前線 and a 的 man, a rigid system that has been frequently used by Bielsa.
Pochettino is far from the only one of Bielsa's former players who have gone on to become coaches. Others 含む Mexico's Gerardo Martino, Paraguay's Eduardo Berizzo, Argentina's Gabriel Heinze and others. Many learned from binders that Bielsa gave them as players with 策略 about 未来 対抗者s.
"They got used to planning matches, and that later ふさわしい their own knowledge," Bottoli said.
Bielsa left Newell's in 1993 to join Mexican club Atlas, but his 遺産／遺物 in Rosario still lives on.
"His sense of belonging and his 激しい （一定の）期間 as coach make him an idol for all of us," Newell's 副／悪徳行為 大統領，／社長 Cristian D´Amico said.
The club's stadium is 指名するd after the coach, and Bielsa repaid the 栄誉（を受ける） with $2.5 million that was used to build a hotel for players to 準備する for matches.
The return of "El Loco" is still を待つd in Rosario. That feeling has not changed even after his career low in 2002, when Bielsa's Argentina team arrived at the World Cup as favorites and left with a disappointing group 行う／開催する／段階 出口.
"When he stops coaching," said Lunari, the former player, "his place in the world will be Rosario and it will be の近くに to Newell's."
___
Associates 圧力（をかける） writer D?bora Rey in Buenos 空気／公表するs 与える／捧げるd to this 報告（する）／憶測.
___
More AP サッカー: https://apnews.com/サッカー and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports
