Marcelo Bielsa, Luis Suarez and trouble in Uruguay. Plus: Man United end Ferguson deal

Luis Suarez warns intensity will make Uruguay team ‘explode’

To understand Marcelo Bielsa — the man, the machine — it helps to read about a speciality of his: the training-ground routine affectionately known as ‘murderball’.

Players describe it as the ultimate physical beasting, inflicted weekly on whichever team Bielsa is managing. Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola, who encountered murderball as a player at Athletic Bilbao, laughed when I asked him once if he used the drill as a coach. No chance. Minus Bielsa’s aura, it risked inviting dressing-room mutiny.

Bielsa pushes footballers to limits they haven’t reached before. When his methods pay off, as they did at Leeds United, the keys to the city await, but when his ideals and idiosyncrasies grate on the athletes around him, they generate the noise currently being heard in Uruguay, where there are murmurs of an unhappy camp.

Bielsa, 69, has been Uruguay’s national boss for 17 months. At the get-go, all was sweet. Uruguay’s results cleared the bar — including a first away win against Argentina since 1937 — and some of their play was prime Bielsaball.

But then, from nowhere, came a scathing interview from Luis Suarez, warning that the intensity of Bielsa’s regimen would make Uruguay “explode”. Was the former Liverpool striker just shooting his mouth off? Or is the house on fire?

Sparks from the start

The Uruguay job suited Bielsa. He likes the country and spends a chunk of his free time there. People around him say he misses the hustle of day-to-day club management, but international football kept him in the game.

It was also a chance to reprise the joy he bestowed on Chile, but according to Suarez (below), smiles are in short supply. Players are being pushed too hard, he says. Bielsa’s aversion to personal interaction isn’t going down well. Suarez talked of Bielsa frowning upon the squad’s card games and reducing Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez to tears.

Suarez, who retired from international football last month, is not so saintly that his comments should be taken as gospel, but notably, midfielder Federico Valverde backed them up. “What Luis said is all true,” Valverde said. “He never lied.”

Valverde talked about fixing problems, but on Friday, Uruguay lost a World Cup qualifier to Peru. Their last three qualifiers have yielded two points and no goals. That initial spark? It’s gone AWOL, fuelling the fear that the foundations are creaking.

‘I know my authority is affected’

After the Peru defeat, Bielsa addressed Suarez’s comments calmly. “I know my authority is affected,” he said, “but the players’ response was the same as when I started working here.”

There’s a distinction to be made between Leeds and Uruguay. At Leeds, and in the Championship, the squad realised they were working under the best coach they might ever play for. More elite footballers, like Suarez, don’t necessarily feel that way; perhaps less inclined to go with the flow of a manic, demanding ride.

Uruguay and Bielsa was a logical marriage. It might have been love and it might be yet. Another test of the relationship comes when they meet Ecuador tonight, but without a strategy to clear the air, history says the story of Bielsa in Montevideo will be closer to a Shakespearean tragedy than a deep romance.

United end Ferguson’s ambassador deal

On the subject of elder statesmen… Adam Crafton has dropped a quality exclusive from Old Trafford this morning.

INEOS, Manchester United’s minority shareholder, is cost-cutting like hell and Adam’s learned that as part of its economising, Sir Alex Ferguson is to lose his multi-million-pound ambassadorial deal with the club. Strewth.

Ferguson (above, with INEOS founder Sir Jim Ratcliffe) is United’s most successful manager of all time, regarded as one of the sport’s best and the royal’s royal at Old Trafford; an ambassador and director who, you’d think, provides value through his sheer gravitas.

We’ve spent the past couple of weeks wondering when time would catch up with United’s manager, Erik ten Hag. Instead, Ferguson is dropping off the staff list. You can only hope he took the decision with good grace because in PR parlance, INEOS is playing with fire.

News Round-Up 📰

• As we said yesterday, Arsenal Women head coach Jonas Eidevall was on dodgy ground. Sure enough, Charlotte Harpur and David Ornstein have confirmed his time’s up.
• Libya and Nigeria were meant to play an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in the Libyan city of Benghazi tonight. It’s off (we believe) after Nigeria captain William Troost-Ekong alleged the squad were locked in an airport (above) without food or water for 12 hours. An accident? Or were dark arts at work?
• “FIFA needs a hug,” wrote our football business expert Matt Slater on X yesterday. Not much hope of that. The pressure on world football’s governing body over its stacked calendar has intensified after FIFPro, the global players’ union, linked up with European leagues to file a complaint with the European Commission in Brussels. “Enough is enough,” said FIFPro’s David Terrier.
• The City Football Group (CFG), the multi-club organisation that controls Manchester City, has named Riccardo Bigon its global football technical director. The Italian was previously employed by Bologna. This follows hot on the heels of Hugo Viana agreeing to become City’s next sporting director.
• Chelsea have found their rhythm under Enzo Maresca and Reece James’ return to training is a bonus. The England international injured a hamstring in pre-season and hasn’t played since. Liverpool away on Sunday — a big test for both teams — will be too soon for him.

Benjamin Mendy Sues Man City

The occasion of ‘man kicks ball’ isn’t getting much of a look-in at Manchester City, or not as much as it should. Legal wranglings are dominating their agenda — and here’s another.

Benjamin Mendy, City’s former left-back, is claiming £11million ($14.3m) in unpaid wages from the club in a case related to rape and sexual assault charges brought against him in 2021. The 30-year-old was cleared of all of those charges during two separate trials.

An employment tribunal kicked off yesterday and the details from day one were explosive, chronicling Mendy’s party lifestyle, his breaching of Covid-19 rules, City’s decision to withdraw his salary in the two years before his contract expired in 2023, and the financial hardship he encountered.

City claim Mendy’s behaviour, including him being imprisoned on remand for failing to comply with bail conditions, was “reckless”. Mendy says he was treated unfairly, not least because other City players who attended his sex parties (none of whom were accused of wrongdoing) faced no punishment for failing to follow Covid rules themselves.

Mendy, who left City in 2023 and now plays for Lorient in France, faced bankruptcy proceedings. Despite earning £6m a year before bonuses, he says three former City players had to lend him money to pay bills and that his life was “turned upside down forever” over “crimes I did not commit”. The tribunal was due to continue today.

EPL’s Winless Wonders 😢

TAFC is a bit down on Southampton’s form, but we have a solution to their poor start to the Premier League season: burn striker Ben Brereton Diaz at the stake.

Why? Because after a bit of digging by Nick Miller, we discovered that Bad Luck Ben has the worst winless record in the top flight’s history (above). In 20 appearances — six for Southampton, 14 for Sheffield United in 2023-24 — he has failed to taste victory once. Not good.

Six more games and he’ll break the record for the longest streak taken by a player to feature in a Premier League win: 25, set by ex-Sheffield United and West Bromwich Albion winger Oliver Burke. Mind you, six more games without a victory and Southampton would be up a certain creek — with the stake most likely occupied by Russell Martin.

Around The Athletic FC 🌎

• Matt Slater got a group of sports lawyers together to discuss the outcome of the associated party transactions (APTs) case between Manchester City and the Premier League. What struck me most: all of them felt City got a meaningful result.
• Our Premier League writers compiled a list of the most popular words or phrases used by coaches across the division. The juxtaposition between Everton’s Sean Dyche (“hard yards”) and Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner (“NIPSILD”) amused me.
• Supporters in the stands who use camera phones during games are a bone of contention. But at Arsenal, the images they’re creating (and the raw nature of them) are so compelling that the club have started publishing the best on their socials. I guess it’s the natural run of things.
• Former USMNT head coach Bob Bradley is (or was) something of a hero at Norway’s Stabaek. Sadly, his second stint there fell flat and hit the wall last month. A 7-1 defeat to Lyn sounds grim.
• Most clicked in yesterday’s TAFC: ‘Warhammer for full-kit w***ers’. I like your style.

Ask Phil❓

Amid the talk about which Premier League clubs are relegation-bound, TAFC reader Matt K asked me to name the best mid-season signing who helped a club avoid the drop.

I’m going with the late Kevin Campbell, taken too soon at 54. Everton were on the brink in the 1998-99 season. Campbell (above) descended on loan from Turkey and hit nine goals in eight games. Crisis and relegation averted. He walks on water at Goodison Park.

Catch A Match (Times ET/UK) 📺

(Selected games)

AFC World Cup qualifier, Group C: Japan vs Australia, 06:35am/11.35am — OneFootball (UK only).

UEFA Nations League (both games 2.45pm/7.45pm), Group A1: Scotland vs Portugal — Fubo, ViX/Viaplay; Group A4: Spain vs Serbia — Fubo, ViX/Viaplay.

(U.S. TV only)

FIFA World Cup Qualifying (CONMEBOL): Colombia vs Chile, 4.30pm/9.30pm — Fanatiz PPV; Uruguay vs Ecuador, 7.30pm/12.30am — Fanatiz PPV; Argentina vs Bolivia, 8pm/1am — Fubo, Vix; Brazil vs Peru, 8.45pm/1.45am — ViX, Fubo.

Friendly: Mexico vs USMNT, 10.30pm/3.30am — TNT, Vix.

(Top photo: Megan Briggs/Getty Images)