Marcelo Bielsa admits Leeds United's Championship restart at Cardiff City will be bittersweet

When Marcelo Bielsa perches on his famous blue bucket at Cardiff City on Sunday, it will be a unique and bittersweet experience for Leeds United's vastly experienced head coach.
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He has taken the road less travelled by, taken managerial jobs in seven countries, taken two nations into World Cups, won the Olympics, won a FIFA Fair Play award and witnessed more than many in his profession. Yet even for the 64-year-old, this is a new one.

Three months have passed since the Argentine last took his men into Championship battle, a global pandemic forcing the suspension of football worldwide.

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Throughout the debate over what should happen to the Championship season, Leeds have maintained that their preference was to play for the opportunity to call themselves a Premier League club.

Bielsa is relieved to be restarting a campaign that promises so much - Leeds were top of the table when the competition was frozen, with nine games to go.

The idea of being handed promotion by some mathematical equation like points per game is simply not to his taste.

"For me, to think if we got something without playing it would be very disappointing," he said in his first ever Zoom press conference with the local media this afternoon.

There is a but, however.

BITTERSWEET - Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United will go to Cardiff City on Sunday to begin playing for promotion again, without their fansBITTERSWEET - Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United will go to Cardiff City on Sunday to begin playing for promotion again, without their fans
BITTERSWEET - Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United will go to Cardiff City on Sunday to begin playing for promotion again, without their fans
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Leeds will walk out in Wales on Sunday without their travelling army, the fans who have packed away sections and Elland Road all season.

Bielsa has said on numerous occasions that supporters are the most important people in the sport so it was little surprise to hear him lament their absence from games that are now behind-closed-doors.

"Not being able to share this last period of nine matches with the fans is something I would never wish for," he said.

"We know public health is above everything else and football is secondary if we compare it with public health, but we have to say that the communication between the players and the supporters makes football a different sport, without this relationship football is different."

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There will be no deafening roar to greet captain Liam Cooper and the 10 other players behind him as he takes to the pitch this weekend and there will be no chorus of Marching on Together.

The supporters' reasonably harmonious accompaniment to the melodious tune Bielsa's band strike up every time they play, will be replaced by silence and echoey shouts from the technical area or, and it's hard to settle on which is more strange, generic piped-in crowd noise - if Cardiff go down that route.

It is an alien environment the Whites and every other side in the top two tiers will have to get used to.

"I think that the most important thing is the mental adaptation of the players to the new situation," said Bielsa.

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"In football, the most important people are the fans and people who watch the match on tv are a different kind of supporter, even if they are the same [people].

"The presence of the supporters is something very important but this is for football in general and every team. Everyone in the Championship has to adapt to this lack of supporters and what they mean in football."

Bielsa, like the rest of the footballing world, has been powerless to change the new normal. But the return of competitive fixtures and the final Championship run-in will present an opportunity to put smiles on faces in, as he alluded to, a difficult and testing time for the people of Leeds.

The Peacocks have been given the green light to strut their stuff once again and

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"Football is the favourite pastime for people in general," he said.

"This situation with the virus forces people to be at home a lot of the time. Finding a reason to give fans enjoyment is always positive.

"This is a situation everyone has to face without exception. It is the best way to try to resume the season.

"We are ready to go."