Leaked recording of Bielsa: "I am ashamed of the way we lost"

The following farewell speech by Bielsa has been leaked to the media. In Bilbao forums they speculate that it was Javi.

"You allow yourselves to laugh after seeing there are fans that coming back walking from Madrid, and we're on top of a bus laughing after losing a final.

"You allow yourselves all these sorts of things but neither life nor football are like this, lads, because it will be a long time, a very long time, before you get another shot like this. And you will remember this conversation and what I'm telling you, and I insist, it's not about winning but about how we lost.

"To me, the entire way here, that was extraordinary, because you played extraordinary games, truly extraordinary, is overshadowed by this, and especially for not knowing why. Because the reality, lads, is that we don't know why we played this way. It's not enough for me to say that in the first game [Bucarest] we were too nervous, that... all the things excuses you've said. To me, if they ask me why, I wouldn't know what to answer, and that's the worst.

"Well, I just greet you lads in case we don't see each other again. And if we do see each other again then we will keep fighting to produce something important."

You can hear it here: http://www.goear.com/listen/9fbb086/la-reprimenda-de-bielsa-tras-perder-las-dos-finales-eldesmarquebizkaiacom

Javi Martinez was laughing?

Or is it something else?

Disgraceful. Makes it look like there not trying their best. A cold reminder to us fans that reveals how most professional Footballers are nothing more that mere sellswords.

Yohan Modric wrote:Javi Martinez was laughing?

Or is it something else?

He was speaking to the entire team, so all of them

I always felt like Bilbao players let down their coach in both finals they played last season.

They flopped, and did no justice to the run they had in EL and Copa del Rey. It's too bad really.

That's not Bielsa. He is saying more than 2 words per minute.

wow i really feel for Biesla here, he did so well to take them to the top and they just disappointed him with such performances. And who was laughing, all i saw in the final were half of their team crying their hearts out when there was about 5 mins left till FT.

He should join a club who are determined and willing to fight for eachother like Sevilla or something, that way he can still get CL/EL footy as well

I can see and understand where Bielsa is coming from, but don't really buy into his sob story.

Bilbao is really not a team with depth (for obvious reasons), they pulled in some very special games, like against United, that can't be repeated week in, week out without at least rotating some people. They never had the depth to challenge on all three competitions, its completely normal what happened.

If i were a footballer, at some point i'd understand that you win some and you lose some. The margin of error between becoming champion and just another runner up is so little sometimes.

chinomaster182 wrote:I can see and understand where Bielsa is coming from, but don't really buy into his sob story.

Bilbao is really not a team with depth (for obvious reasons), they pulled in some very special games, like against United, that can't be repeated week in, week out without at least rotating some people. They never had the depth to challenge on all three competitions, its completely normal what happened.

If i were a footballer, at some point i'd understand that you win some and you lose some. The margin of error between becoming champion and just another runner up is so little sometimes.

Bayern pls

A longer version has been published where Bielsa claimed that he is solely responsible for the defeats, that everyone trained the way he wanted for the games and they were still not able to show the game he wanted. He claimed to be ashamed, not of losing but of losing the way they did. He also claims Athletic have an extraordinary fandom who are naive enough to applaud a good play when they're losing 3-0 in a final. He says it's inadmissible to let down a crowd like that, and that it wasn't necessary to be the winners to not let down the crowd.

I might translate later, but it's very interesting to hear what goes on in the dressing room first hand:

http://www.goear.com/listen/d28ca0f/charla-de-bielsa-en-deia-bielsa-en-deia

"Now in the next few days the club and I will decide if I keep working here at Athletic the next season. The vacations are about to begin and I'm not sure if I will see you again or not. I might see you or not, and if the club decides otherwise this might be the last time. So I wanted to give my farewell, maybe until the next pre-season or maybe not.

"And to comment briefly on the way the season went. I don't think we can ignore the way the season ended. It would be denial to ignore the development, but the close was awful, it was truly awful. I make myself completely responsible for the way we lost, and I'll tell you why. We played a great game in Portugal, and after that everything came down and was very negative. Yesterday's game [against Barcelona] confirms it in my view. The players that embody and are representative of my way of playing, expressing myself, of feeling the game, like De Marcos, Amorabieta, Susaeta, Munian, those that I feel work in the same tune as me were not up to the standards of the matches.

"Of course in a group of 20 people there will be players that have the traits you want and players that don't, but everyone was useful and we all made a tremendous effort together to achieve the important things that we have. But, lads, we weren't up to the standards. That is a scar, an injury. Yesterday in the bus back from Barcelona I heard conversations, laughter... it is inadmissible to me to mobilize an entire people and not being up to live up to the occasion. Because, lads, I am truly ashamed of having disappointed the fandom of the Athletic Club. Don't lose sight of that: we disappointed. It is truly a failure and it is a negative season. Because you can lose finals not 3-0 [as we did against Atletico Madrid] but 5-0, but losing both finals as we did... I don't know how you see it, but if the Atletico Madrid match was bad, yesterday was even worse.

"I am the one responsible for this. We played yesterday against Barcelona knowing who we would face, what type of game we had to neutralize, they did not surprise us at all. Everything we thought would happen, and we trained to neutralize, was exactly what happened. So how could I not feel responsible? And how could I not feel especially responsible if the players that most genuinely represent my ideas are the ones that had the least influence on direction and build up of the match?

"I'm not sure if you understand what I'm saying. A coach can feel less responsible of this, of that, if we had not trained properly, if his team didn't follow his orders, etc, but that wasn't the case. You trained for 10 days like animals. You obeyed and applied to everything I asked you, proposed to you, aspired to, so that the differences wouldn't be as big as they were. So let it be very clear to you that I am solely responsible for this. This is the way I feel it.

"But you should also know that you can't disappoint a people so naive, but so naive, that when we're losing 3-0 with an open wound and you do a half-decent play and they applaud you for it. You have a people so extraordinary, so extraordinary, and you are a result of that people. You are exactly the same kind of people that we are talking about. Extraordinary people.

"But unfortunately lads we didn't rise to the occasion. I am ashamed. Ashamed. Because from playing the fantastic match we played against Sporting Lisboa and from there we had met all our objectives and we had to display greatness, strength, personality, self-confidence, reinforce everything we had done over the season... we did exactly the opposite.

"I insist, when I say I feel responsible, I wouldn't feel responsible if I had coached a team that didn't obey, that didn't believe in my idea, that opened internal cracks, but this was not the case at all. The ones that didn't play [names them], guys that could have made a lot of trouble... everyone was behind the project and supported what I was proposing. I don't have anything to reproach to anyone.

"For your good, for your future, I have the obligation to tell you this. You disappointed a people that did not deserve it. Let this be clear: we didn't need to win to not disappoint. All we needed to lose the fear to lose and play to win. We did not play to win. We did not play to win yesterday or against Atletico Madrid. Because to play to win we had to do what we trained to do believing that training could give you the triumph. We did not do that.

"Now everything is past, there are no more games to watch, or things to analyze, heads to put in place, messages to give... we already let the chance slip past us. And be conscious of this because you are very young. You are premature millionaires, you don' t have a worry in the world, you allow yourselves to laugh in the bus... [here's where the original leak started]."