When the news reached the meticulous man preparing for life in the Premier League it was, initially, far from welcome. Kalvin Phillips had been driving into Leeds United’s training ground when Gareth Southgate called and invited him to join England’s senior squad for the first time. To Marcelo Bielsa, this was a disaster. “He was kind of pulling his hair out because there were quite a few lads going off to internationals,” Phillips says. “He was thinking he didn’t have enough time to prepare for Liverpool [Leeds’ opponents on Saturday] who, obviously, are the champions, so he was pulling his hair out.”It is a reaction entirely typical of an eccentric coach whose character has grown ever more colourful since arriving at Elland Road in

Source: The Times September 06, 2020 03:33 UTC