"He changed the ethos" - Patrick Bamford hails impact of Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United

Patrick Bamford has hailed Marcelo Bielsa for changing the “whole ethos” of Leeds United Football Club and making the ‘biggest change’ to the Whites.

Chairman Andrea Radrizzani appointed Bielsa as United’s new head coach in June 2018 as the Argentinian became the highest paid manager in the club’s history.

Bielsa took over a side who finished the 2019-20 Championship season in 13th as part of a campaign that started under former boss Thomas Christiansen who was sacked and replaced by Paul Heckingbottom in February 2018.

Bielsa then replaced Heckingbottom in the summer of that year and nearly three years on, Leeds sit 11th in the Premier League table having stormed to promotion as Championship champions in Bielsa’s second season in charge.

United’s modest head coach has often played down his achievements and impact, saying recently that it would have been very hard not to achieve promotion given the squad at his disposal.

But eight of United’s starters in this month’s 2-1 win at Fulham were with Bielsa in his first season in charge and Bamford says the 65-year-old has made the “biggest change” at the club – enabled by Radrizzani’s recruitment.

Asked if he thought Bielsa was truly aware of the change that he has created at Leeds, Bamford told the Official Leeds United Podcast: “He’s a very intelligent man so I’m sure that he knows the kind of impact that he has had.

“He’s the kind of person that everyone has seen from videos and the way that he is with fans and stuff that if you said to him, ‘you have changed this club so much, thank you, thank you’ he would be adamant that it’s not him. He would say it is everybody else but him who has done this.

“Realistically, obviously Andrea is the one who has appointed him and put a load of money into the club and got us into the position to be able to get Marcelo.

“But I think that Marcelo is the one who has changed the ethos of the club, the way we play, everything around the club day to day.

“For me, he is the one who has made the biggest change, it’s just getting him to accept it or admit it would be kind of difficult I think!”