Marcelo Bielsa Back To Work Following Resignation Rumors

Athletic’s training facility underwent renovations over the summer, and those renovations had not been completed last week when Bielsa and the players turned up at the ground for their first pre-season training session. Bielsa had a physical confrontation with a contractor at the site and made public statements about his dissatisfaction with the construction at the training ground. This prompted Athletic to issue a public apology stating that they disagreed with Bielsa’s opinion of the work done by the construction company contracted to do the renovations, leading to reports that Bielsa had resigned.

However, Bielsa turned up to oversee training on Monday morning, where everything was believed to be business as usual. Athletic kicks off their preseason with a friendly match against Olympique Lyonnais on Friday.

Athletic’s training facilities are in the process of being renovated, and the construction company hired to handle the construction work did not finish before the club was scheduled to begin preseason training. Bielsa was reportedly furious when he showed up to his practice facility, which was more like a construction site, and physically threw the contractor out of the facility. Bielsa admitted as much and talked openly about the incident.

Following this altercation, Athletic Bilbao released a statement which said that they did not share the opinion of Bielsa in regards to the work done by the construction company, and stated that they wished to publicly apologize for the damaging statements made by their employee, or if these reports are true, their now-former employee.