Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa gets lost in translation but it's hope he's selling, not smoke

The man many Leeds fans call God revealed that he is ‘rejected’ in his native land Argentina, where he is accused of ‘selling smoke’ – using meaningless words and arguments – when he goes into detail on his footballing philosophy.

The expression ‘smoke seller’ is included in the Royal Spanish Academy’s digital dictionary and has been described as a person who boasts knowledge, talents, experiences or riches that he cannot verify.

Perhaps Bielsa’s past experience of that phrase, the stigma attached to it and the shame he says he feels when he has to go into detail to explain himself, knowing the accusation that will come his way unless he wins every game, is one reason why he’s so keen to frequently point out that his opinions can be verified by data or by a journalists’ own eyes.

But as fascinating and touching as it was listening to Bielsa’s experience of footballing persecution, it was uncalled for, in the literal sense. He was answering the wrong question.

Leeds United’s head coach had already been asked and answered as to why he was keeping faith with recently error-stricken goalkeeper Kiko Casilla earlier in the press conference.

“I don’t ignore the mistakes that Kiko makes that are evident,” he said.

“And also it is true that the consequence of his mistakes are linked with the result of the team.

“But I give a lot of importance that Kiko, in the same match where he makes mistakes and in the next ones, kept confidence in himself and he continued giving the right answer in every situation in the game.

“Other keepers, for example when they fail in aerial play in the next situation they are between the posts, they don’t go up anymore. Other keepers when they give a bad pass, then they start to play long.”

A little later, Stuart Rayner of our sister paper The Yorkshire Post, asked how important it was for Leeds’ playing style that Casilla continued to be ambitious with his passing and continued to come off his line. It was a technical question and not a repeat.

What Bielsa heard, through his translator Diego Flores – one of the head coach’s assistants, doing his very best in challenging circumstances but not a professional linguist – was: “How important is it that Kiko keeps playing in the team? Can you explain why it’s important for him to keep playing?”

And so Bielsa, sounding a little miffed – not for the first time in recent meetings with the press corps – went down the ‘damned if I do, damned if I don’t’ track, pre-empting criticism for being repetitive.

He did go on to touch on press suggestions around psychological support and how he doesn’t believe it’s necessary, how supporting a member of the Leeds ‘family’ in a bad moment sends a positive and motivational message to the other players and then spoke of the scepticism he has encountered back home, ending his answer with a sobering thought.

“There is a way to avoid this [being called a smoke seller], win every match,” he said.

“But I don’t win every match.

“I know perfectly that in Argentina, but the world as well, you receive support only if you win. And as almost every manager is a loser, for this reason every manager generally is alone.”

Bielsa has a point, up to a point.

The press and football fans can and do turn on managers and players when things aren’t going well.

But Bielsa is beloved in Leeds and beyond, idolised even.

If he is unable to keep the Whites in the top two until the end of the season, if they don’t go up via the play-offs, there will be countless United fans who remain huge admirers of him and his work, just as they did when last season ended so badly.

He recently said the club’s supporters had lost faith in the team. It was a sweeping generalisation and part of a theme that has emerged over the past few weeks, not quite martyrdom but siege mentality at the very least.

And it doesn’t have to be that way.

The media mockery Bielsa spoke of last week at Thorp Arch, whatever it was and wherever it took place, it wasn’t in Leeds. No one in this city is laughing at Bielsa.

While some are struggling to hang on to their faith, the noise that greeted the team as they walked out at Griffin Park on Tuesday and the noise that swelled to a crescendo again despite the disappointment of that calamitous conceded goal, proved that faith still abounds.

The reason why some fans question team selection so relentlessly, is because they crave calm reassurance, now more than ever, and Bielsa appears resigned to his belief that it can only be given by results, not words.

Whatever difficulties he has had with the press in years gone by, they do not need to dictate the tone of his press conferences in 2020, press conferences that feel like they’re feeding instead of soothing tension, particularly when so much gets lost in translation.

What he’s selling with his football and with his philosophy isn’t smoke. It’s hope.

Leeds fans do still believe and Bielsa is not alone. He’s got multitudes with him and they’re marching on together.