Patrick Bamford has identified Marcelo Bielsa as Leeds’ future hope.
Despite a candid admission from Leeds United, striker Patrick Bamford has looked to Marcelo Bielsa to outline his club’s future prospects.
Leeds will return to Championship football next season after a 1-0 defeat to Southampton in the play-off final ruined the club’s hopes of a rapid recovery from relegation.
Due to a knee injury, Bamford could only watch from the Wembley Stadium as Adam Armstrong’s first-half goal propelled the Saints back into the Premier League, leaving Leeds to try again next season.
Bamford, on the other hand, has been quick to look at the long picture, emphasizing the importance of clubs being promoted when they are “ready” and pointing out that even Bielsa’s Whites needed two seasons to get promoted.
Speaking on the My Mate’s A Footballer Podcast, Bamford expressed hope that history will repeat itself, with Bielsa’s squad promoted as winners in the 2019-20 season, one year after losing to Derby County in the play-off semis.
When presented with the notion that there was still lot of optimism among Leeds fans returning from London following the Wembley final defeat, Bamford concurred and swiftly drew parallels with Bielsa’s team.
“I feel like it was kind of similar,” said the Whites forward. “We clearly lost in Marcelo’s first year in the play-off semis, but the following year we moved up, and I believe that every club moves up when it is ready.
“Sometimes, not with every club, but what I’m trying to convey is that it’s better to move up when you’re ready than to go up and not be ready. We were in for two years and then demoted in the third, but other teams go up and then right back down, which is difficult.”
Bamford, however, confessed that his squad would have to suffer an even greater heartbreak by losing in the play-off final rather than the semi-finals.
“I’d say losing in the final is way worse,” Bamford confessed.
“Say you lost a semi-final and thought, ‘If we beat them, we’d still have to beat them in the final. But if you lose a final, you’re like, “We literally only had that one game, and if we won that, that’s it; it’s over.”
