Leeds United: Marcelo Bielsa won’t thank Chelsea for what he achieved at Elland Road - View | OneFootball

On the 15th of June 2018, Leeds United's history was changed forever.

With Paul Heckingbottom having been sacked after just four months in charge, the club pulled off a major coup in hiring Argentinian coach Marcelo Bielsa as boss.

With Leeds having finished 13th in 2017/18, Bielsa's appointment brought about an air of optimism for what was next, and in the years to come, Bielsa would go on to do great things at Elland Road, winning the Championship title in 2019/20 after play-off heartbreak in 2018/19.

Busy summer for Leeds United

Following Bielsa's appointment, he and the club certainly wasted no time in looking to strengthen the playing squad at Elland Road.

There was a huge turnover of players that summer, with plenty of incomings and outgoings. For example, 12 senior players left the club either upon the expiry of their contracts or on permanent transfers elsewhere, whilst seven new faces arrived on permanent deals.

Furthermore, there were a considerable number of players loaned out, with a further four fresh arrivals coming from Premier League sides.

These loan additions were Jack Harrison from Manchester City, and Lewis Baker, Jamal Blackman and Izzy Brown from Chelsea.

Given how the latter of those three deals worked out, Bielsa certainly won't be thanking Chelsea for any of the success he had in his first season at Elland Road.

Indeed, although the club went on to finish third that season, the Chelsea trio played very little part in helping the club get there.

Baker and Blackman deals ended early

Lewis Baker's deal, for example, actually ended up with Chelsea deciding to pull the plug early when it came to January due to how things were going for their prospect at Elland Road.

Baker had featured regularly from the bench in the early weeks of the season, but soon, he began to be left on the bench as an unused substitute more often than not.

Between August and January that season, Baker made just 11 Championship appearances under Bielsa, starting just three of those matches. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that in two of those three, he was substituted at half-time.

Baker was not, however, the first of the three Chelsea loanees to have departed Elland Road that season. Jamal Blackman had already left a couple of months earlier after suffering a broken tibia in an under-23's match.

Apart from the fact this left Leeds with just one senior goalkeeping option at the time, in terms of their goalkeeper who played, it was no great less. Up to that point, Blackman had been the firm number two goalkeeper that campaign, and had played just twice in cup competitions for the club before his injury.

Given that he had played 31 times in the Championship at Sheffield United the season prior, we dare say Chelsea may have eventually recalled him anyway due to his lack of game time.

It was Izzy Brown's loan spell from Chelsea to Leeds that perhaps worked out the least, though.

Brown joined the Whites whilst recovering from an ACL injury, and, once recovered, was later blighted by a hamstring problem.

This meant that Brown did not make his Leeds United debut until February, when he featured for nine minutes in a 1-0 defeat at QPR. Either side of that match, Brown was an unused substitute in three games, and the Chelsea man went on to feature only once more that season.

Sadly, Brown was forced to retire aged just 26 in 2023, and in an interview at the time, he reflected on his spell at Leeds. By his own admission, he was never 'Marcelo Bielsa fit' and regrets how his time at Elland Road went.

“Brighton was a great move for me but then I did my ACL. I went to Leeds about seven months on from my injury and I was fit, but I wasn’t ‘Marcelo Bielsa fit’," Brown explained to The Athletic last year.

"I always wanted to sign for Leeds because it’s a massive club. I wish that I’d got to the level Marcelo Bielsa wanted from me because if I had, I would have excelled and he would have got the best version of me.

“That’s the one move that, I wouldn’t say I regret, but I just wish I’d been better.”

Chelsea deals flopped for Bielsa

Unfortunately, Brown's loan spell at Leeds United simply did not work out, much like his Chelsea teammates Baker and Blackman's own spells at Elland Road.

Indeed, whilst Harrison's loan deal from Man City to Elland Road proved a huge hit - he was retained for the title-winning season and the Premier League beyond that - the same cannot be said for the three loan arrangements the Whites made with Chelsea that season.