Et Tu Brute. That’s right. ET. TU. BRUTE.
Now for those of you who never did Latin at school or English Lit, or maybe fell asleep during history when they were teaching about the Romans, I’ll explain. By the way, do you get taught about the Romans nowadays? The Romans were the ones that built all the roads, some which are still around today, unlike Leeds City Council.
Et tu Brute, is the phrase Shakespeare used in his play Julius Caesar. In the play, Caesar’s ambitions are such that he wishes to declare himself Emperor. The proud Republican Senate are in disagreement and Cassius and Brutus, whom Caesar believes to be his friend, lure him to the Capital to assassinate him. Brutus stands there watching Caesar fall from the stabbings of the Senate, and as Caesar reaches towards his friend, Brutus effectively does the dirty and piles in, with Caesar left to utter the phrase, Et Tu Brute?
https://pixels.com/featured/death-of-caesar-march-15-44-bc-vincenzo-camuccini.html
Some of you may have heard the phrase “Beware the Ides of March”. I have done a blog many moons ago on this same topic. Another line from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar. It is the date that the soothsayer predicts will be the fall of Caesar. Traditionally the date of the first full moon in March, which is there or thereabouts the 15th March.
If only the Board could have mercifully lasted that long.
Instead the death knell was Sunday 27th February.
We will never be party to the discussions, so we will never know the truth. Meanwhile the keyboard warriors and those “in the know”, claim everything and everything. Bielsa “lost the plot”. He’d “been found out”. There was “no plan B”. He didn’t care about the youth.
Now that is something I take exception to. There are numerous photos of him at the U23s, U18s and even the U11’s, surrounded by a crowd of kids, all in utter awe at the Master. Name another PL manager who would do that? Anyone? No, I don’t think so. So the ones spouting that lie, should all hang their heads in shame.
Many times the U23s were on the bench. And not just because of the bat flu / injuries either. Bielsa didn’t always play them, but maybe that was because he didn’t want to hurt the egos of the 1st team. We know that he tried to keep the likes of Gotts, McAlmont and even our own Ryan Edmondson. But how do we know how much pressure he was under to get them off the wage bill, so we could splash the cash on some famous players? We are never going to know.
The fact was that Marcelo Bielsa was the one who held the spotlight at Leeds United. Not the owner, not the Board members, not even the £million pound players. Nope, Marcelo Bielsa was the one who everyone wanted the photo with, he stole the limelight from everyone else. Can you name another manager in the PL held in such regard? Nope, me neither.
The keyboard warriors complained that he relied on tactical stats too much. That he researched the oppositions’ flaws and skills too much. That’s just what the Don did. The Revered Don Revie meticulously studied every team so he could prepare the right plan of action. Bielsa wasn’t picky, he was a perfectionist.
Perhaps this was his downfall. He looked at the players during the training sessions, picked the team on the performance on the training pitch, their merits earning them a place in the first team. How sad that however good they looked at corners at Thorp Arch, it failed to materialise on the pitch. Unless corners are meant to not get past the 1st defender? They probably weren’t passing the ball straight to the opposition in training either, but they sure made up for that against Livarpool and Sc*m.
Betrayal
We, the matchgoing fans have been deprived of what was OWED to us. We were OWED a open top bus parade. We were OWED at least a final goodbye to the great man. We were deprived of watching the team lift the Championship Trophy. We were deprived of watching our team play in the top division for the first time in 16 years. We were deprived of that fantastic football, you cannot beat watching a live game, TV cannot do the game justice. We were deprived of seeing us finish 9th – yes 9th in the table. No feat ever achieved by a promoted side. We were deprived of saying farewell to the monster that was Beradi. We were deprived of saying goodbye to the wizard, Pablo.
Matchgoing fans were deprived of what we live for and cherish every week August to May.
I know the cyber fans, the fans who have no desire to ever watch a live game, the “want it, click it, get it” fans don’t understand where I am coming from. I feel so sorry for you.
The Board didn’t like it. Typical of the Corporate Ideal, where you have a one year, a three year and an five year plan. You know that annual continuing professional development discussion, “where do you see yourself in 3 years?” – “Not f**king here mate”. It’s bizarre that whilst they were sticklers for this, the promises of the stadium development and development of ER and it’s training facilities never actually got anywhere near fruition, did it? Can you have it both ways?
Leeds United yearned for maximum exposure, maximum publicity, big name signings. Has anyone emerged from the youth apart from Kalv? Maybe eventually young Jamie Shack will get a mural painted in his honour, we can live in hope. In the meantime, it is just Kalv that gets to be in the Christmas JD Sports commercial.
Is the Club merely wanting players in shampoo ads and modelling razors and moisturising creams? Is that their yardstick of success? That’s not what the fans want. At least that isn’t what I want. I wouldn’t think that this product placement, corporate image is my idea of success.
Harsh Reality
The keyboard warriors in recent days have said that it was simply down to the fact that “teams learnt to play against us”. Maybe they should watch a replay of the Chelsea game? Perhaps another viewing of the 1st half against Spurs before Conte started jumping up and down waking the Spurs fans up? Were we “found out” in the game against Villa? Did Moyes “learn to play against us” at West Ham in the league? I’d like to suggest that those who criticised actually watched the game rather than have it on in the background whilst they were making another Tik Tok that no one is going to like.
The harsh reality is that in the last three games, we gave the ball away. We gave them the goals, some on a silver platter. Apart from maybe that 4th spurs goal, that was well taken.
Yes, Bielsa’s style is attacking, that’s what made it SO good to watch. But the players were also expected to track back. They were expected to do their job with the ball, but also put a shift in off it. This is why we have missed Lord Bamford so much. It wasn’t so much about the goals he scored, it was everything he did OFF the ball, drawing players away, creating space to give the likes of Harrison, Raphinha and Dallas the opportunities to attack the goal.
The last few games we’ve been subjected to crosses being ploughed into touch. Shots being skewed into the South Stand, silly flicks and backheels, when a hard low shot would have sufficed. Oh, and those corners.
We’ve also been on the harsh end of some random reffing decisions, not to mention VAR and all the cheating and diving. Which incidentally IS the way to play against us – Anti-football. Just stop and start the game by falling over several times when you lose the ball, and clasp your ankle in hope that the ref will give you a free kick.
The inability to pass the ball to your own player is NOT Bielsa’s fault.
The inability to stick the ball in an open net is NOT Bielsa’s fault.
The inability to get your arse back into position when we lose the ball from a corner is NOT Bielsa’s fault.
The inability to not get a corner past the 1st defender is NOT Bielsa’s fault.
In days gone by, getting subbed when you weren’t injured was a slap in the face. Remember Pablo storming off and kicking that water bottle against Leicester a few years ago? Being subbed when you’ve done nothing wrong hurts, it makes you do better the next game. Nowadays they almost look relieved to get off the pitch and have a sit down. Professional players in the 21st century.
This is why I was so aggrieved by this quote
Which players? Who?
Et Tu Brute. ET. TU. BRUTE?
I have always said that no one is bigger than the Club. The fans are the most important thing, as we were here before, we are here now and we will still be here long after the owners, the players, the managers even, have left OUR Club. Well, I have to say that this is the ONE exception. When I say no one is bigger than the Club, no one is, apart from the man who made the Club bigger with his presence.
I’m not gushing about him for the sake of it. Bielsa really did mean that much to me, because of what he did and how he did it. But he is not God.
God created Yorkshire.
But when it comes to the creation of the last 3 and a half years of football, Bielsa isn’t far off.
