Wednesday he fought with a construction worker. Thursday he was rebuked by his club and later offered his resignation. Apparently, Marcelo Bielsa was done at Athletic, leading us to ask “Why did the sides let two days define their summer, season, and relationship?”
Thankfully, they didn’t. Resignation apparently not accepted, with Marcelo Bielsa back with Athletic yesterday as players begin returning to their Lezama facilities. And for all the interviews, statements, reprimands and posturing that characterized last week’s stand off, there’s barely been a word this week.
“I will continue carrying out my work as I have done up to now,” Bielsa said in a statement, cited here.
“I maintain the commitment that I made to the club.”
How do we read this? Well, this wasn’t Khrushchev-Kennedy, but the sides got to the brink and turned back. Bielsa did something stupid, Athletic responded, and the sites spent a few hours with their thumbs on the button once Bielsa showed he was willing to walk away.
And then, nobody pushed. We can only infer that after a small cooling off time, each side leaned back and said “what are we doing?” Let’s just move on seems to be the guiding principle, which includes not holding any embarrassing, unnecessarily press conferences to show everybody’s made up (perhaps they haven’t, really).
Best way to show things are resolved? Get back to work.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to debate whether to delete this. And this.