
Its a question that gets asked.
He is a respected coach, an influential coach, but that doesnt necessarily mean he is a successful one.
Of course in this day and age Football fans judge success quite black and white in most cases, trophies is successful, no trophies not successful.
Its a bit simplistic, but that is how Bielsa gets judged and the main criticism, his lack of trophies, something the man himself has been very open about.
“I can’t say I’m a successful head coach, I’d rather say the opposite. “One of the things you hear the most when people talk about me is the lack of trophies. You can verify this.” Said Bielsa earlier this month.
But can you really define a successful manager by what trophies he has won? There should be some context surely, some clubs just arent likely to win trophies, most clubs in fact.
And actually when you look at Bielsa's 2 longest spells in European club football i think he was successful on both counts, 3 seasons at Bilbao and Marseille combined, not 1 trophy to show for it, but imo still successful.
To show why, we need a bit of a history lesson, will start with Athletic Bilbao.
Bilbao are one of the founding members of La Liga and one of only 3 La Liga clubs to never be relegated (the other 2 are exactly who you would expect). They are 8 time La Liga Champions (4th most) and 24 time Copa Del Rey winners (2nd best), they also have a very successful Ladies Football team to.
All the more impressive when you remember there strict policy of only using Basque players, either from there academy or other Basque clubs, there are no raiding Argentina and Brazil and places for Bilbao.
So Bilbao are a very important club in Spain and a very successful one. However, this is where context is important regarding Bielsa's time there.
While Bilbao have had success historically, since 1956 they have only won 2 La Liga titles, in 82/83 and 83/84, the latter was also the season they won there last Copa Del Rey, Javier Clemente in the 1980s was the last Bilbao manager to deliver trophies to Bilbao.
Since 1984 Bilbao havent really achieved anything of note, nothing in fact if you define success purely by trophies.
And this is where Bielsa defence comes in.
10th and 12th placed finishes sound poor, but context is important.
Ok the 2nd season wasnt great, but the 1st season had Bilbao finishing 10th with a squad of 23 playing a 60 plus game season and losing the Copa Del Rey to the best clubs side in the World,Barcelona. Since they last won the Copa Del Rey 35 years ago Bilbao have only made the final 4 times, once was Bielsa.
But more impressive, Bilbao have never won a European title, they have only got close twice, The UEFA Cup in 1977 where they were runners up, and The Europa League in 2012 under Bielsa where they ended up losing in the final to Atletico Madrid who finished 5th in La Liga and only a few months later would destroy Champions League winners Chelsea 4-1 in the UEFA Super Cup final, Madrid were on the upturn winning La Liga in 2014.
So but for the bad fortune of having to face one of the best club sides of all time in one domestic final and a face a club who were on the upturn in Madrid who have gone on to finish top 3 every La Liga season since, win the league and be runners up in the Champions league twice, Bilbao could have won the double in Bielsa's first season.
Thats successful isnt it?
And then Marseille.
They again are one of Frances most successful clubs, 9 time Ligue 1 Champions and the only French club to win the Champions League.
They last won Ligue 1 in 2010 under Didier Deschamps, however the season before Bielsa they finished 6th, under Bielsa they finished 4th, so improvement, that's successful isnt it? The season after Bielsa they finished 13th.
Furthermore Bielsa's points total of 69 has quite often in the past been enough to win the Title, indeed its considerably more then Marseille got for 3 of there 4 titles late 80s early 90s. Its also more then Marseille got when they finished 2nd in the mid 2000s.
Since the 1932/33 season they have played in 43 league seasons of 38 games including Bielsa's season, they have finished with a lower points total then Bielsa did in 37 of those seasons and in some cases finished higher up the league including during 5 title winning seasons.
Furthermore in the recorded history i can find on Marseille since 1933 Marseille have only had a better goal difference then the +34 they had under Bielsa 11 times.
This is why context is important, on the face of it Bielsa may consider himself unsuccessful, and his critics may to.
But history shows us that he is being unnecessarily harsh on himself, with a bit of luck at Bilbao and Marseille Bielsa could have won league titles and European cups and Domestic Cups in the past.
Critics can say what they want but Bielsa almost lead Bilbao to there only European success ever, only 1 other coach has got as close as Bielsa did in there history and that was decades before.
He almost lead Bilbao to there first domestic trophy in 35 years and only there 4th final during that time.
He got a better points total then Marseille managed in 5 of there 9 Ligue 1 titles.
In 84 years only 11 managers have bettered his goal difference at Marseille.
His Argentina record wasnt without highlight, the 2004 Copa America runners up medal was the closest Argentina had gotten to winning it since they did win it in 1993, 4 tournaments had past since then. They also won it in 1991 but prior to that you have to go back another 5 tournaments till 1967 when they were runners up again for the next best before Bielsa.
He also lead them to there first ever Olympic Gold, they had failed 9 times previously.
And then his last 16 with Chile, that was successful, apart from revolutionising Chilean and playing a large part in them repeating the last 16 feat 4 years later in 2014 with his mentoring of that group of players (he wasnt manager then).
In 15 World Cups including the 2010 one that Chile tried to play in.
They only bettered last 16 once in 1962 where they finished 3rd, prior to Bielsa they hadnt qualified since the 1998 World Cup where they did reach the last 16 to.
So what Bielsa did was the joint 2nd best they had done in there history at the time.
Bielsa is widely respected because he is a successful coach, when context is used he definitely is.
He was successful enough for Argentina to offer him the national team job again in 2016. He was successful enough for Real Madrid to make contact with him over whether he would be interested in the Madrid job back in 2004.
He was successful enough for Inter Milan and Barcelona to pursue him while he was at Bilbao (reportedly he made it clear he wouldn't leave Bilbao because he had a project to finish when Barcelona asked if he would be interested if and when Pep went).
He is successful enough for a side currently top 10 in the premier league to be looking at him (and approaching him in 2016 to).
He was successful enough for 2 Premier League teams to make contact in 2015 (West Ham and Swansea).
He was successful enough to be offered the Sampdoria job in the summer of 2015 (and reject it) they had finished 7th in Serie A the previous season.
He was successful enough to be given the job at Lazio who had finished 5th the previous season then walk away from it when they lied to him.
When context is given the cries of "he hasnt won anything, never had a big job waaaaaa" look daft.
He has had big jobs, Marseille and Bilbao are historically two of the biggest jobs in there countries.
He could have had even more big jobs, Lazio, Sampdoria, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Real Madrid.
People find it hard to believe this, that he'd reject teams like that, especially the last 3. But he did, Inter more then once.
Barcelona and Inter because he wanted to show loyalty to Bilbao, and Madrid because he wanted a rest after the Argentina job.
Thats not to say he would definitely have got the Real Madrid and Barcelona job, but as hard as it is for his critics to accept, he was the original prime candidate on both occasions and in the case of Barcelona he had the backing of the star man, he was Lionel Messi's choice.
Bielsa may lack trophies, but circumstances and bad luck played a huge part in that.
Doesn't make him "unsuccessful", he has a fine body of work to be proud of in European club football and International football.
He could have gone to the top clubs like Inter and Barcelona and probably won league titles and whatever.
But he showed loyalty to Bilbao at the time, and very nearly he won a double there to.
He is a very successful coach, trophies dont define a manager, just ask Pep Guardiola.