Former Leeds United loanee Eddie Nketiah has said the work of Marcelo Bielsa on the training field made Arsenal players think he ‘was on drugs’ when he returned from his spell at Elland Road. Nketiah spent the first half of Leeds ’ promotion campaign with the club where he was reduced predominantly to substitute appearances.
The 22-year-old scored five goals in 19 matches for the Whites, including three vital ones in the league, but struggled to dislodge Patrick Bamford as Bielsa’s first choice number nine. Bielsa has been renowned throughout his career for working his players hard on the training field and that was no different at Leeds as he turned them into the fittest side in the Championship.
Nketiah claimed that it initially took him some time to get used to the intensity of the Argentine’s sessions, but the improvement in his fitness levels was there to see when he returned to Arsenal and linked up with England’s U21s. He is thankful for the loan spell he had at Leeds but admits he would have liked more game time.
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Speaking on the Beautiful Game Podcast, he said: “I think I started really well but I remember the first six or seven games, I scored four goals or something already. I started a couple in the cup and the rest I was coming off the bench.
“It got to a point where I was thinking ‘what else do I need to do to start?’ But he [Bielsa] was just telling me to be patient, he wants you to learn. I’ve never seen training like that in my life, it was crazy, so structured.
“It was like I was revising for an exam on the pitch! The training was intense but I feel like, when I look back, that helped me so much because I’ve always trained hard but I went there and looked around the training ground thinking ‘am I lazy?’ These guys are sprinting around, it really takes you out of your comfort zone and it pushed to the point where I went back to Arsenal or with England and they thought I was on drugs!
“The way I was running around so it was good but, at the time when I got to that stage where I felt I should’ve been playing, I had a few words and it was a sad story.”
