Marcelo Bielsa shares brilliant Barcelona and Pep Guardiola story during Leeds United 'spygate' briefing

He is the coach who, according to friends, cannot be distracted for more than half an hour before his mind returns to football and tactics.

Even Guardiola, though, was amazed to discover the way in which his renowned Barcelona team had been analysed by Marcelo Bielsa before the Copa Del Rey final in 2012. Bielsa’s Athletic Bilbao lost that final, beaten 3-0 by three goals inside the first 25 minutes, but after full-time the Argentinian gave Guardiola the opportunity to sift through the stack of preparation done by Bilbao’s analytical staff.

Bielsa recounted the story last night during his extraordinary 66-minute press briefing at Thorp Arch, a session with the media designed to quell the controversy caused by Leeds United’s head coach admitting to spying on training sessions of every other Championship club this season.

How the footballing world reacted to Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa's 'spygate' briefingThe purpose of the tale about Guardiola was not to stroke Bielsa’s ego but, from his perspective, to underline the fact that pre-match analysis is of limited value, and sometimes none. Guardiola, a man who Bielsa had helped to persuade to take up a career in management, could not comprehend the lengths Bilbao had gone to in assessing Barcelona beforehand but to Bielsa it was a pointless exercise; meaningless in light of a major final which had gone so badly wrong.

“When I was Bilbao coach, we played the final against Barcelona, who won 3-0,” Bielsa said. “They were generous with us because after the third goal they stopped playing. I was very sad to lose this game.

“When the game finished I sent to Guardiola this analysis as a gift expressing my admiration for him. He told me ‘you know more about Barcelona than me!’ but it was useless because they scored three goals against us.

“I do this (so much analysis) to feel well but I see that this information does not allow you to win games.”