Pundit Watch

Gary Neville reveals the mixed feelings he has about Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United

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Image for Gary Neville reveals the mixed feelings he has about Marcelo Bielsa at Leeds United

Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa has performed brilliantly this season, but it’s not enough for Gary Neville to name him Manager of the Season.

Leeds came into the top flight knowing that just safety would have been a success this term.

However, with all three delegations confirmed with three games to play, Leeds have never even been under threat.

The players can take credit, but it wouldn’t have happened without Marcelo Bielsa.

The season is coming towards a conclusion and that leaves awards to be won for the top performers.

Patrick Bamford and Stuart Dallas could easily be in with a shout of the Team of the Season.

However, the achievements of Bielsa don’t even come into consideration for Gary Neville when he picked his manager.

He opted for Pep Guardiola as he looks in with a good shout of winning the treble this season.

He gave his justification on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, starting:

I still think Tuchel or Pep are going to win the Champions League. To win that is a massive thing.

Rodgers has done a brilliant job. You have to balance off the budgets that these managers have, Rodgers, Sean Dyche at Burnley. These are exceptional managerial performances. David Moyes at West Ham.

Presenter David Jones intervened:

We haven’t even mentioned Bielsa, because a lot of Leeds fans will be screaming about him, won’t they,

Neville continued:

To be honest with you, Bielsa at Leeds, absolutely – exceptional performance.

But I would still go with Tuchel or Guardiola, because to win the Champions League and the league and the Carabao Cup, which Pep could do, that takes some doing.

It’s hard to give it to Bielsa over other candidates here, as much as we’d love it.

David Moyes is my pick for Manager of the Season.

To get West Ham above the reigning Champions and still in with a fighting chance of Champions League football is remarkable.

This isn’t to say Bielsa having us currently in the top half isn’t, but West Ham looked hopeless last season.

It shows how well we’ve done though to even enter this conversation.

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Leeds United season ticket holder since 2013/14, currently situated in the middle of the FA5 noise. From Pablo Hernandez to 5-1 drubbings, I've seen it all at Elland Road.