Man City loan Jack Harrison to work under Guardiola’s idol at Leeds United

Leeds United have signed 21-year-old Jack Harrison from Man City on a season-long loan.

Harrison, who has been capped with the England Under-21 team, arrived at the Etihad from New York City in January and spent the rest of last season on loan with Middlesborough.

The 21-year-old winger arrived at Elland Road on Monday where he is looking forward to working with manager Marcelo Bielsa.

“I’m looking forward to meeting the team and working with [manager] Marcelo Bielsa,” he told BBC Radio Leeds.

#WelcomeJack pic.twitter.com/woPOcPFNcO

— Leeds United (@LUFC) July 30, 2018

“I wanted to go on pre-season with Pep [Guardiola] to work with him and try and prove myself. He said he was very impressed but that at a young age you need to be playing, so he said that this was a great option for me.

“The ideals here are similar to City’s and Marcelo has a fantastic reputation. It’s a great opportunity to be here.”

Guardiola’s admiration for Bielsa

The current Manchester City boss will be happy that the youngster has an opportunity to hone his skills with Bielsa as he highly regards the Argentine, once describing him as “the best coach in the world,” when he was managing Barcelona.

Before Guardiola’s Barca side defeated Bielsa’s Bilbao in the 2012 Copa Del Rey final the Spaniard was full of praise for his opponent. “I would have liked to have played under him: he is different to everyone else,” Guardiola had told a pre-match press conference, “You can see Bielsa’s hand at Athletic. This will be a fascinating final.”

EXPLAINED: Marcelo Bielsa’s philosophy and how Leeds will look under Guardiola’s idol

Guardiola idolised the Argentine tactician and, according to Spanish football journalist and historian Sid Lowe, had travelled to Argentina six years before their meeting in 2012 to seek out his advice.

“There were heated discussions, searches on the computer, revising techniques, detailed analyses and enactments of positional play which, at one point, included Trueba (Guardiola’s friend) man-marking a chair,” reads Guillem Balague’s 2012 Pep Guardiola biography ‘Another way of winning’.

With such reverence coming from one of, if not the best, football manager in the world, the pressure will be on Bielsa to finally return the Peacocks to the Premier League.

Leeds United play their first game of the new Championship season against recently relegated Stoke City on August 5.

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