Confirmed: 'Crazy' boss wanted by Liverpool will consider 'concrete offers'. Replace Rodgers?

Will Brendan Rodgers still be the manager of Liverpool next season? The Reds' late-season collapse has inevitably led to speculation that FSG will replace Brendan Rodgers this season, and one of the managers reportedly in the frame to replace him has now confirmed that he's open to offers this summer.

In April, The Mirror claimed that Marseille boss Marcelo Bielsa is on Liverpool's managerial 'short-list', and outlined a couple of reasons why the Argentine is a perfect fit for LFC:

"In tactical terms,[Bielsa] makes sense. Liverpool is a squad used to pressing, a Bielsa fundamental, and to playing with a back three, which Bielsa often favours".

When asked on Thursday about his future on Thursday, Bielsa told reporters:

"If I receive a concrete offer, I will read it as any coach would, and I'll give an answer."

The Argentine also revealed a tidbit of information that may be enticing to Liverpool:

"One thing is certain, playing in the Champions League will not affect my decision"

Some info about Bielsa, who is currently at 33-1 to replace Rodgers this summer:

* Has a two year deal, which contains a 'break' clause in June of each year.

* Nickname: 'El Loco' (Roughly 'The Crazy One').

* Supposedly paces the width of the pitch before every game in order to 'refine his tactics down to the very last detail'.

* 2002: Took 7000 videos of matches, goals, players, free-kicks, corners and penalties with to the World Cup in Japan (as Argentina coach).

* On being criticised by the media in the second half of this season: "When we were winning, I was 'immense' and the whole of French football should 'adopt my methods'. Now you say the opposite. It’s what has happened for the last 30 years. In negative moments everyone abandons you"

* A story from his days as manager of Atletico Bilbao: "Bielsa was stopped by a group of kids who asked him to sign their sticker album. He said no, took the album off them and told them to meet him the following day. When he turned up 24 hours later, the entire team had signed the album".

* At Bilbao, allegedly drenched random areas of the San Mames pitch in a bid to disrupt Barcelona's tiki-taka football.

* Pep Guardiola once stated that Bielsa is the 'best coach on the planet'.

* Guardiola's assessment: "Bielsa’s teams are very aggressive. They don’t let you breathe. Seven arrive in the penalty area, they lose the ball and 11 defend. Their games are all up and back, up and back, without stopping.”

* Diego Simeone's assessment: "He [Bielsa] knows how to get the most out of each player. When you've been in his team, you come away from it another player".

* Bielsa is renowned for his intense training sessions, and according to Marseille striker André-Pierre Gignac: "He [Bielsa] knows everything to the smallest detail. I glanced at his training schedules - there are hundreds of them, and every one featured games he analyzed. He taught us a vibrant, real type of football.”

* SEP 2014: Publicly criticised Marseille's performance in the transfer market: "The time for building the team is over, and the result is negative. There was a gulf between what was expected and what actually happened"



* SEP 2014: Accused Marseille President Vincent Labrune of lying over transfers: "I think the president made promises that he had no intention of keeping. I want is that people tell me the truth. If he had done so at the start, perhaps I could have accepted it, but to find out later, that disgusts me."

* When he first arrived at Marseille, Bielsa used a local supermarket manager as his translator during press conferences.

With his tactical obsession, analytical approach, painstaking attention to detail, outspoken opinions on transfers, and willingness to publicly question club owners, Bielsa sounds very similar to Rafa Benitez, which is why he probably has no chance of ever managing Liverpool.

FSG clearly want a yes-man; someone who won't rock the boat; will push their 'buy 'em young' agenda, and will work within their preferred transfer structure, which means working with a the club's failed 'transfer committee'.

Benitez wouldn't work under such restrictions, and I highly doubt it will appeal to Bielsa, either.

Personally, I'd love to see what Bielsa could do with Liverpool, but at 59, he's arguably too old, and given his managerial history, he probably wouldn't last long at Anfield.

Bielsa is basically a 'hired gun' - he has never spent more than two years at any one club, and Liverpool (arguably) need a manager who'll build a lasting legacy at Anfield, and continue the development of the club's youth system.

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Author: Jaimie K