Rumours linking Marcelo Bielsa to Roma job are trash

Get Marcelo Bielsa’s name out of your mouth, AS Roma.

Rumours out of Italy claim that Leeds United boss Bielsa is a “candidate” to come to the Serie A club this summer and take over after Eusebio Di Francesco was sacked earlier this season and Fulham failure Claudio Ranieri has taken over for the rest of the season.

Along with Bielsa, reports have also named former and current Monaco manager Leonardo Jardim.

These rumours are straight trash. Garbage. Rubbish. Bollocks.

Bielsa has been “linked” with other jobs in the past, including an approach from the Mexico national team last autumn. And what we learned from that link was that Bielsa refuses to consider other jobs while he’s at his current club and that there is a $10 million release clause for Bielsa at Leeds.

So, if Bielsa is still under contract this summer, and there have been various reports saying that he has a second year in his deal, then Roma would have to pay an expensive release clause, which they are unlikely to consider when they can get another manager without spending that money. Jardim would likely cost nothing to pry from Monaco, given that the Ligue 1 club sacked him once already this season.

Roma is also the kind of job that Bielsa would tend to avoid. It’s a rather high-profile club in Serie A, and it would seem unlikely that Bielsa’s refusal to do media appearances or interviews would fly with their outspoken American owner James Pallotta. There have been a war of words between highly respected Sporting Director Monchi and Pallotta after Monchi left the club earlier this month to return to Spain and Sevilla, and Bielsa doesn’t seem to like to go to clubs with that kind of drama and owner interference.

Bielsa also walked away from a job at Roma’s arch-rivals Lazio after a few days, so this could all be a way to wind up the fans. After all, these reports are coming out of Italy, and most legitimate rumours about Bielsa come out of Argentina or other Spanish language press, not Italy.

Don’t believe the hype.