Meet TSB’s new columnist, Gaetano Berardi himself. This season Bera is taking time out from studying for his coaching qualifications to talk us through his memories of playing for Leeds, starting in this issue with Stoke at home, Bielsa’s first match, and climbing Peter Crouch like a telegraph pole.

On the first day Marcelo Bielsa arrived, he already knew the name of every single player in our squad. But then we didn’t see him for at least a week. At the beginning, only his coaching staff were with us on the training pitch.

Marcelo is a big personality in the world of football, so I think everybody in the team knew him and it was exciting to know he was going to be our coach. I don’t believe there was a single player who didn’t know who he was.

The training sessions were so, so hard and intense every single day. There would be so many exercises in just one session. But every session was with a specific plan to prepare for every game. We had to face long, long days at Thorp Arch.

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