The one thing that has really upset me was when all the leaks discrediting Bielsa started to come out after Christmas last year and have carried on ever since, getting louder and louder on social media. The above highlighted piece was an April Fool's joke on Bielsa that has somehow become a fact. OK I can't remember where I saw that it was a joke so I can't prove that sadly.
Orta is the one who gets players not Bielsa or Marsch because Aaronson was on the list prior to Bielsa being sacked. I am still adamant that the size of squads and who we are buying was down to the club's stance and nothing to do with the coaches although they could say no. If someone being offered was worse which appears to have been the case with Bielsa, then why on earth would you buy them? I still think a lot of those linked were nothing more than PR which were never going to happen anyway but used as a stick against Bielsa. Yes I admit I didn't want him sacked because I looked at the bigger picture. I was absolutely certain at the time and I still maintain that stance, that once our players came back from injury then we would have been fine and had no chance of being relegated. The horrendous injury situation hit us so badly that it wasn't a surprise that we struggled against the top teams. We were building something that I have wanted back for a long time. We were united as a club and support, we played some fantastic football and were promoted back to the Premier League. Bielsa would never bad mouth his players, if you want to do anything then do it in private is my motto, but would also take ownership of everything. We would get up again very quickly when tackled and played the game how I wanted it to be done. I know there are many cheats out there and we see it week in, week out with players feigning injury and time wasting etc but I was glad we weren't like that. We were that team and fans that had others envious of that old school atmosphere and although it wasn't going to happen overnight, it was always going to take time. I honestly thought there was no way we were going down at that stage when he was sacked. Our fitness levels were the best they had ever been so we could play for the whole game rather than 45 or 70 minutes at a time as we had been doing prior to his arrival. To me, the players were aware before the Spurs game that he was going to be sacked regardless, as to me it was seeing how gutted some of the players reactions were at full time.
I don't agree with your comment of getting rid of all Bielsa's rejects either. We were supposed to be building onwards under Marsch on the foundations of what we had started only to see that everything has been obliterated in a year. We have gone backwards as a club, we have had a split ownership which has contributed to that in my opinion and the fans are starting to turn. It is going to get toxic again on the terraces which I don't really want to see again but it is inevitable. I only make my judgements by what I see on the pitch at the time. I have no issues with Marsch as a person but I do not like the throwing of his team under the bus, his antics in the dug out, his interviews when never taking ownership and to be honest, I don't understand what he is trying to say half the time so I switch off. He would do better by less talking and concentrating on what is happening on the pitch. Under any manager for me, what we need is someone to be in the Director's Box with a link to the dug out like we used to have under Don Revie. It is a completely different game pitch side than further up the terraces and maybe they could see what we fans do every game and make changes sooner. The Cardiff game saw the subs making the change so it didn't feel as bad when we only really played for the last 16 minutes of the game. Suicidal tactics when we won a corner at Villa had us on the back foot after three minutes. I've seen Struijk get so much stick but he cannot mark two players at once which looks to have been the case from one photo I saw.
People will always make their own judgements and have their own opinions which is fine by me and we can all agree to disagree. One thing I do know is that we all want the best for our club, but one thing is for sure. we have to start picking more points up otherwise Marsch will find his position untenable.
