Throwback to Marcelo: The Office Where Promotion Was Planned
Most managers ask for a bigger budget. Marcelo Bielsa asked for a bed.
It’s one of our favourite projects to look back on, so here’s a throwback to the summer Leeds United changed, and the small office suite at Thorp Arch where a lot of that change was planned.
Summer 2018: El Loco arrives
When Marcelo Bielsa walked into Leeds United in June 2018, the club had spent fourteen years outside the top flight. Fans had seen managers come and go. Few expected what came next.
Bielsa didn’t do things by halves. He’s famous for marathon video analysis sessions, punishing training drills and a level of preparation that borders on obsession. Within weeks, Thorp Arch was being reshaped around him. Changing rooms were renovated to match Elland Road, and new offices and player spaces appeared.
The office
At the heart of it all was his own office, and that’s where we came in.
The brief was simple to say and harder to deliver: a workspace for a man who didn’t keep office hours. We designed a full-height bespoke shelving wall in oak and soft grey, combining open shelves for files and footage with closed storage. We added an executive desk and a separate meeting table, where he could pore over the detail with his coaching staff.
The bed
Then came the request that made the project famous. Bielsa planned to spend so many hours at the training ground that he wanted somewhere to rest between sessions. Not a sofa. A proper bed.
So we built him a private bedroom off the office, with a full-width oak headboard panel, warm wall lighting and fitted storage, plus an en-suite with a floating oak vanity and an illuminated mirror. Oak joinery ran through the whole suite to tie it together. It had to feel calm and well finished, a place to switch off for a few hours, not a camp bed squeezed into a corner.
Where promotion was planned
Here, Bielsa worked late into the night, slept a few hours and got back to the analysis that carried Leeds back to the Premier League.
In July 2020 Leeds were crowned Championship winners, ending sixteen years away from the top flight. The city went wild. Murals of Bielsa appeared on walls from Holbeck to Hyde Park, a street in Trinity Leeds was named after him, and supporters called for him to be given the Freedom of the City. When he left in February 2022, fans gathered at Thorp Arch to say goodbye.
We can’t take credit for any of that. That belongs to Bielsa, his staff and his players. But we’re proud that some of it was planned in a room we built.
Every space has a story
That’s what we love about this job. Behind every fit-out is a person with a way of working, and sometimes a very unusual request. Whether it’s a training ground, a stadium bar or a head office, we design spaces around the people who use them.