Marcelo Bielsa’s Office, Thorp Arch

Client: Leeds United Football Club · Location: Thorp Arch Training Ground, Wetherby · Sector: Sports & Leisure

Bedroom in Marcelo Bielsa’s office suite at Thorp Arch, with a full-width oak headboard panel, wall lights and a bedside table

Most managers ask for a bigger budget. Marcelo Bielsa asked for a bed.

When the Argentine arrived at Leeds United in the summer of 2018, he planned to spend so many hours at the training ground that he’d need somewhere to rest between them. We were proud to design and fit out the office suite that made it possible: the room where Leeds’ return to the Premier League was masterminded.

A manager like no other

Bielsa is one of football’s great originals. He’s famous for obsessive preparation, endless hours of video analysis and relentless, high-intensity football, and fans affectionately call him El Loco. He took over a club that had spent fourteen years outside the top flight. In 2020 he led Leeds to the Championship title, ending a sixteen-year wait for Premier League football. To Leeds supporters he’s a cult hero.

Reshaping Thorp Arch

Bielsa’s arrival brought sweeping changes to the training ground. Changing rooms were renovated to match those at Elland Road, and new offices and player spaces were created. Every change had one aim: giving the squad and staff the best possible environment to prepare.

The brief

Bielsa didn’t keep office hours. He needed a workspace that could double as a place to live during the most intense weeks of the season, somewhere to work late, rest and be back at it first thing. The suite had to feel calm and well finished, not like a bed squeezed into an office.

Marcelo Bielsa’s office at Thorp Arch, with a full-height oak and grey shelving wall, a white desk with a leather chair and an oak meeting table

What we delivered

The office, with a full-height bespoke shelving wall in oak and soft grey, combining open shelves for files and footage with closed storage, plus an executive desk and a separate meeting table for sessions with his coaching staff
A private bedroom, with a full-width oak headboard panel, integrated sockets and switches, warm wall lighting and fitted storage
An en-suite, with large-format porcelain tiling, a floating oak vanity unit and an illuminated mirror
Consistent oak joinery throughout, tying office, bedroom and en-suite together as one suite
A complete design and fit-out, delivered within a live, working training ground around the squad’s daily schedule

En-suite in Bielsa’s office suite, with a white basin on a floating oak vanity, an illuminated mirror and large-format tiles

Where promotion was planned

Few rooms can claim a story like this one. 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. For us, it’s proof that good design is about more than finishes. It’s about giving people exactly the space they need to do their best work, however unusual the brief.