Take Us Home: What we learned from Leeds documentary

While All or Nothing: Manchester City was an inspiring insight into success and Sunderland ‘Til I Die provided an uncomfortable rubber-necking at failure, Take Us Home falls somewhere in the middle, charting a season where Leeds failed at their ultimate goal but made huge strides in doing so.

The first episode acts as something of a prologue – channelling the early-season optimism coursing through the club and ending with them three points clear at the top of the Championship after eight games.

Front and centre is Argentine Bielsa, who took over as manager in the summer of 2018 having earned a reputation as one of the greatest coaches in world football during stints at Newell’s Old Boys, Athletic Bilbao, Marseille and the Chile national team.

In the documentary, he is spoken about with a mixture of awe (Newell’s kit man Pancho Aguilano calls him a “god”) and incredulity that Leeds were able to secure his services (defender Luke Ayling: “All of us were like ‘wow, we’re about to work for one of the best managers’ so whatever he wants you’re ‘yeah, yeah, no problem’.”)

Former Bilbao and Manchester United midfielder Ander Herrera also pops up to preach about “the most honest guy he has met in football”.

Even midfielder Kalvin Phillips’ grandma thinks he is “lovely”, as she proudly declares to her grandson in his kitchen.

An enigmatic figure, Bielsa conducted his first sit-down interview in more than 20 years for the documentary, but all we hear from this is his disembodied voice, philosophising in a manner with which those who follow his news conferences will be familiar (“As managers we have no choice but to impose what we think, because we can’t convince by proposing something that we don’t believe in.”)

What is clear is that everyone connected with Leeds – owner, players, fans and local press – all put Leeds’ improvement from a side that floundered to 13th in 2017-18 to promotion challengers largely down to Bielsa.

There is also the insinuation that the affection is mutual, with ex-Newell’s player Ricardo Lunari saying: “If Bielsa doesn’t feel in love with a city he will not go”. This may well explain why he decided to remain at Leeds for a second go at promotion in 2019-20.