The debate about whether football is ultimately all about results is as old as the game itself. People like to talk about it, maybe because they are talking about themselves: are you a so-called realist or an idealist? For the idealists, here’s a quote I saw recently from Marcelo “El Loco” Bielsa:
“When managing a team, we have an obligation: we have to win. And the way we do it is no longer important. There should be a penalty for those who ignore the beauty of the game in order to win.”
But Marcelo – why?
“I love football because I love the people who love football ... [and] I find it hard to accept that the only thing we are going to offer them is results. Because if we don’t offer them football as an aesthetic element, we are making them worse as human beings. The appreciation of aesthetics is a condition that we humans have that is linked to sensitivity. It cannot be ignored; not everything can be commercialised.
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