'I won't forget it' - Leeds United boss Marcelo Bielsa responds to city murals and explains what Athletic Bilbao win over Manchester United meant

Meeting with the press via Zoom to preview Sunday's clash with bitter rivals Manchester United, Bielsa got onto the subject of culture and how victories in big games inspires an artistic response from a city's football lovers.

He recalled Athletic Bilbao's famous 2012 Europa League victory at Old Trafford and how it cemented his connection with the Basque club and its supporters, because it meant to much to them.

"The memories are many," he said.

"Initially to the players who produced the performance, to the 8,000 Basque fans who attended the game, the image of them being to the right hand side of me, I have that installed in my memory. That triumph is in the memory of all the Athletic fans. Why it has to do with me is that it solidifies the link I have with the Athletic fans and the Basque people. There is one thing it clearly shows, the affect this type of game has on the fans.

"This kind of result increases the art of a city, the people of a place, but not from a commercial point of view. From the imagination that comes from the body and is expressed in the culture. There are works and sculptures, jewellery, paintings, writings that are produced by normal people, common people, where the feeling that is created is something unimaginable. The same as when [Kalvin] Phillips had a mural painted of him, but done in a smaller way with similar manifestations by normal people who don't want the recognition. They don't want any payment or anything in return. They show the pride that is to be part of a tribe."

Bielsa himself has been immortalised in Leeds thanks to his contribution to the city's football club and its history. He masterminded their return to the Premier League and ended a 16-year exile from the top flight, securing a place among legendary managers of the Whites' 101 years in existence.

Murals featuring the Argentine appeared in a pair of city locations and the gestures did not escape his attention, nor will they ever leave him. One, at Hyde Park Corner, includes his quote: "A man with new ideas is a madman, until his ideas triumph."

Another, depicting Bielsa as Christ the Redeemer, was painted in Wortley by Nicolas Dickson and 'Burley Banksy' Andy McVeigh.

"It makes me very proud," said Bielsa today.

"I am very thankful for it and of course I won't forget it."