The Quality of Madness: A Life of Marcelo Bielsa

'Everyone with new ideas is thought mad until they work' Marcelo BielsaMarcelo Bielsa is one of the great enigmas of world football. To Pep Guardiola, he is the finest mind in the game, a fabulously innovative and obsessive coach who transformed Leeds United, Marseille and Athletic Bilbao after winning three league titles in his native Argentina. Yet Bielsa is a manager who has won very much less than his reputation suggests. He lasted two days at Lazio and led Argentina to their greatest footballing disaster. Featuring interviews from across South America, Europe and Yorkshire, The Quality of Madness is a comprehensive and compelling biography tracing Bielsa's story from growing up as a member of one of Argentina's most remarkable families to his revival of Leeds and his comeback with Uruguay at the Copa América. Bielsa has long been known as 'El Loco' - 'The Madman' - and yet, as Tim Rich's revelatory study shows, there is mercurial method and audacious logic to the madness.

• Publication date: 16 January 2025
• Page count: 496
• Dimensions: Height 129 mm; Width 198 mm; Thickness 34 mm
• Publisher: Quercus Publishing
• Format: Paperback
• ISBN-13: 9781529444766