El León Loco de San Mamés.

Massimo Moratti still can't understand it. The oil businessman - a multimillionaire man, Inter's majority partner - is not used to seeing his offers get a negative response. Much less for issues of commitments with the pledged word. Marcelo Bielsa told him in this preseason that no: the highest contract of his career had not seduced him as much as the possibility of directing an Athletic Bilbao that has been without titles for almost three decades (since that 1984 in which he felt the owner of Spanish football). The astonished Moratti, now certain that El Loco would not direct his Inter accustomed to success, told La Gazzetta dello Sport his impression: "Bielsa is a great gentleman, he was really sorry and he even sent me a letter in which he explained the reason for his no".

Josu Urrutia -the new president of Athletic- had already heard wonders from the Rosario coach in his playing days (he was a midfielder at the Basque club between 1988 and 2003). He had thought about it before, but when he won the elections last July with a record difference, he did not hesitate: he hired Bielsa, with whom he had already talked. El Loco took six weeks to analyze everything: he saw videos from recent times of Athletic (they say there were 97 in total), read details of all the footballers, delved into the history of the Lions, found out and marveled at the sense of belonging that exists in this club. Later, Bielsa agreed to be Athletic's coach, in his first step after having directed that Chile that he led to the top ten in the World Cup in South Africa.

"That, that's fucking training." The cry is heard again under the sky of Lezama, there where Athletic imagines the return of happy days, of prominence. The owner of that harangue has a serious face again. Look, ask for intensity, he explains, walking with his hands behind him at the height of his waist. He reflects and repeats his cry with enthusiasm. These are Bielsa's first days as coach of Los Leones de San Mamés. The players - several of them young with elite dreams - look at him in amazement. Ander Herrera -the star reinforcement- understood it soon: "We are not going to be able to give up for a moment. He is very demanding",

The journalist Martha Hernández witnessed Bielsa's second practice, at the Oliva training ground. And he described it in Deia, Noticia de Bizkaia: "Always addressing the aforementioned by name. He attested that he has been studying lions well. He called Igor Martínez simply Martínez, but David López, with whom he spoke for a few moments , It was David. He was also talking to Llorente; the rest were general speeches or shouts: "If it's all at the same rhythm, it's useless, Ekiza. "All with an Argentine accent, with its particularities that will have to go getting used to, that the goalkeeper is the goalkeeper and those things".

The scope of his arrival was told, in Mundo Deportivo, by the journalist Alberto García, from Bilbao: "'Dale Loco'. As the Chilean group Tomo Como Rey told him in the song he composed for him. It is time for Marcelo Bielsa. de Rosario lands in Bilbao to take charge of the Athletic bench.He does so preceded by his prestige, some notable successes and those philosophical airs that, for example, he shared with Pep Guardiola after a good barbecue when the man from Sant Pedor was preparing his landing at Barça. The expectation with the arrival of the Argentine coach is maximum". Simultaneously, Pacheta -Espanyol player who Bielsa directed for a handful of days in 1998- defined him without inhibitions: "He is a soccer genius."

Bielsa arrives at a club that is pure tradition, that only incorporates footballers who were born in the Basque Country and that has been postponed for many years. They have won 33 titles at the local level (between Cups and Leagues), they are the third with the most laurels (behind Real Madrid and Barcelona), but they have not won anything since the double in the 1983/84 season. It has another pride: it is one of the only three teams that has never been relegated from the top flight. Now, after finishing sixth last season (they qualified for the Europa League), the idea of ​​the new authorities is to take a leap in quality with the Argentine coach.

As for the squad that Bielsa has, a process similar to that of his Newell's in the early 90s (twice Argentine soccer champion and Copa Libertadores finalist in just two seasons) takes place: a squad with many young people with great potential. There is a detail that speaks about it: it has 13 players that emerged from their inferiors in the Under 21, Under 20 and Under 19 teams. In addition, it has another three called up by Vicente del Bosque for the major last season: the defender Andoni Iraola , the midfielder Javi Martínez and the striker Fernando Llorente (member of the champion squad in South Africa 2010).

In "Los siete locos", Roberto Arlt gives the voice to one of his characters who says: "What we call madness is the habitual thinking of others. Naturally, like us there must be few... The essential thing is that our actions collect vitality and energy. There is salvation". The reference -present in "Loco enough", the biography about Bielsa written by the journalist Ariel Senosiain- also tells of Bielsa's search. Even now that he became El Loco León de San Mamés.

Source images: FIFA.

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