Book Synopsis

'Everyone with new ideas is thought mad until they work' Marcelo Bielsa

Marcelo Bielsa is one of the great enigmas of world football. To Pep Guardiola, he is the finest mind in the game, a fabulously innovative and obsessive coach who transformed Leeds United, Marseille and Athletic Bilbao after winning three league titles in his native Argentina.

Yet Bielsa is a manager who has won very much less than his reputation suggests. He lasted two days at Lazio and led Argentina to their greatest footballing disaster.

Featuring interviews from across South America, Europe and Yorkshire, The Quality of Madness is a comprehensive and compelling biography tracing Bielsa's story from growing up as a member of one of Argentina's most remarkable families to his revival of Leeds and his comeback with Uruguay at the Copa América.

Bielsa has long been known as 'El Loco' - 'The Madman' - and yet, as Tim Rich's revelatory study shows, there is mercurial method and audacious logic to the madness.

About the Author

Although he began his career in sports journalism as a cricket writer for the Sunderland Echo, Tim Rich has been captivated by football for half a lifetime. Working for The Independent, The Daily Telegraph and The 'i' Paper, he has covered Newcastle United under Bobby Robson, Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson and, latterly, Jürgen Klopp's Liverpool. On Days Like These is his third book and follows his acclaimed biography of Marcelo Bielsa, The Quality of Madness, which was shortlisted for The Daily Telegraph Football Book of the Year. He lives in Cheshire with his stepdaughter, Rose and their three cats.