ROSARIO, Argentina (AP) — Marcelo Bielsa’s threat was visceral.
“If I have to cut a finger of mine to win tomorrow’s derby, I will,” he told his players. “I still have four left.”
Bielsa made that statement in 1990, in his first year as a coach, to rouse the passion of his players at Newell’s Old Boys before a trip to archrival Rosario Central.
His team won the Argentine league match 4-3, even without Bielsa having to lose a finger. But it was an early example of the motivational methods of a coach who was already then known as “El Loco” for his obsessive personality and explosive character.