Bielsa credits Bilbao youth team coaches
Reuters - Tuesday 08 May 2012, 19:21
Athletic Bilbao's success in
reaching the Europa League and Copa del Rey finals this season
is down to the youth team coaches who cultivated the players in
the current side, according to coach Marcelo Bielsa.
Unusually in Europe, Bilbao, who face Atletico Madrid in
Wednesday's Europa League final, shun expensive signings and
field only players with connections to the Basque region,
raising most of their own talent.
Bielsa, who took over at the start of this season, revamped
the team and replaced their traditional physical style with an
adventurous passing game, has earned praise for leading them to
their first European final for 35 years.
However, the former Argentina and Chile coach, whose side
upset Manchester United and Schalke 04 on the way, preferred to
pass it on to the club's youth team coaches.
"In institutions such as Athletic, what happens in the
present is always articulated and connected to what happened
before, because it's an organisation which feeds off itself,
which generates in its formative divisions the players who will
compete and represent it in the years to come," he said.
"Obviously, whoever has taken on and developed this task in
the last decade has done the job very well.
"It's up to us in this case to make use of what they have
produced, this team is a young generation with a very high
percentage produced in the same institution."
Bielsa, gazing constantly downwards in his usual manner, was
at his philosophical best as he talked about the final.
"In relation to me and all those who are involved in a
final, the emotions and feelings multiply themselves and it is
up to you to transfer those particularities to which I refer
into the game itself," he said.
"A league is a series of successive commitments where you
always have the option of correction and change.
"A final, as the name makes clear, is single and
irreversible and this condition establishes the most significant
difference.
"Everything which happens will be final and unmodifiable and
those of us who compete all know that this adds a very special
ingredient."
He was equally verbose after being asked whether Athletic
had surpassed the expectations he had when he took over.
"In a league competition, we set the target of equalling
what we had achieved the year before.
"In a cup, it is impossible to establish such an objective
because you have to do this on the basis of the path which has
to be trodden and this is impossible to do when that path has
not yet been developed."
Midfielder Ander Herrera said the victory over Manchester
United in the round of 16, when Athletic won both legs, was the
key in the campaign.
"It was the moment we realised we could go far in this
competition," he said. "We realised the team's capabilities and
qualities and felt that we could beat anyone.
"We beat one of the best teams in the world and played
better than them and that was a good springboard."