Swansea chairman in South America to hire Marcelo Bielsa in time for West Ham clash

The Swans must dash if they want Marcelo Bielsa in the hot seat for West Ham

 

SWANSEA are facing a race against time to get their new manager in place before Sunday's game against West Ham - with former Argentina and Chile coach Marcelo Bielsa his preferred option.

 

Swans chairman Huw Jenkins is currently in South America speaking to candidates to succeed Garry Monk.

Current Chile boss Jorge Sampaoli is another candidate, as the club monitor his relationship with the national FA following recent reports he had offered his resignation, with Alejandro Sabella, Gus Poyet and Unai Emery among the bookmakers' favourites.

But it is Bielsa who is Jenkins' top choice. The 60-year-old, who is out of work having left Marseille just a week into the current season, made contact with the Swans through an intermediary over the weekend and made clear his desire to manage in the Premier League.

 

Jenkins has since travelled to meet with Bielsa as he looks to appoint Monk's successor as soon as possible.

While Bielsa does not speak English, which was expected to be an issue given the dressing-room split that occurred when Swansea had a large number of Spanish speaking players under Michael Laudrup, Jenkins has been attracted by his insistence of playing attacking, attractive football.

In addition, Bielsa sets uncompromising fitness standards in order to ensure players can handle his high-octane approach - which reaped great rewards during his spell at Athletic Bilbao - and Swansea want a tough operator to bring an underperforming squad into line.

 

It is understood negotiations have mainly focused on the boundaries of a potential working relationship between Bielsa and Jenkins.

The chairman is Swansea’s de facto director of football and is heavily involved in the recruitment process, while Bielsa, nicknamed ‘El Loco’ has left previous jobs when believing there has been interference in that area.

But Swansea are thought to be confident of getting their man, and hope to be able to conclude talks quickly given Bielsa is out of work and there will be no need to negotiate compensation to secure his services.