Diego Flores paced his technical area nervously as his San Martin de Tucumán side defended its penalty area from relentless Patronato attacks deep in injury time. They had nursed a delicate 1-0 lead for over an hour since Ariel Garcia’s first-half screamer put them in front.

They only needed a point to guarantee their place in the promotion play-off final, but they held on to win, a result that takes them an unassailable twelve points clear at the top of Group A of Argentina’s Primera Nacional, a.k.a Argentine Champo. This has been Flores’ solo odyssey, his Viva Hate after leaving The Smiths. Leaving the associated politics aside, I hope you get the picture I’m trying to paint with that very relevant pop culture reference.

You might remember Flores from his days on Marcelo Bielsa’s coaching staff at Leeds. He began as the laptop guy, feeding Bielsa information during games, and then became his translator in Leeds United’s glorious promotion-winning campaign of 2019/20. To call him a translator is perhaps incorrect because, in his words: “I am not a translator. I say this out of respect for those who did the degree and studied hard.”

Flores returned to Argentina after Leeds’ promotion and took a well-earned break from coaching before launching into his solo career at Godoy Cruz, a club in Argentina’s top flight, in August 2021. After two stints there between 2021-23, he disappeared for a few months and has resurfaced in his homeland’s second tier with San Martín de Tucumán.

The league season in Argentina’s Primera Nacional runs from February to October and San Martín de Tucumán’s 76 points from 35 games has them dreaming of a return to the top flight for the first time in five years, and their wonderful season has earned Flores respect among local media and tactios alike.

Bielsa’s Leeds and Flores’ San Martín de Tucumán side aren’t exactly alike, other than the fact that both had a Pablo Hernandez in midfield. But some of this might sound familiar:

‘In attack they practise predetermined movements in order to score.’

‘An organised defence that shows aggressiveness in recovering the ball quickly.’

A coach from Argentina whose team plays aggressive football. He and his staff love to analyse their opponents to death. And he’s fond of a winger. It’s bringing back memories.

For all the crowing about Carlos Corberan and how he might be the Marcelo Bielsa ‘disciple’ to take over at Leeds, it seems that Flores might be more of a disciple, at least from an aesthetic perspective.

However, perhaps Argentine football isn’t the best barometer for measuring just how swashbuckling a side may or may not be. San Martin de ​​Tucumán have scored only 37 goals, basically one per game. Three sides have scored more than them, but none are higher than 8th. It seems that defence wins matches (and championships) in Argentina, something which Flores clearly understands. His team have conceded only fourteen goals all season and have won their last six games with a 1-0 scoreline.

Flores has come a long way from making cappuccinos in Dublin while coaching an amateur youth team. His experience with Bielsa at Marseille, Lille and then Leeds must have been instrumental in making Diego Flores the manager. Even if he hasn’t gone for the tracksuit and customised bucket, he has taken some elements of Bielsism into his managerial career.

He has also shown some of the stubbornness that makes Bielsa great. After all, this is a man who moved from Argentina to Ireland to continue pursuing a coaching career and gain his UEFA qualification, establishing himself in a different country with a different language. He left Leeds after promotion rather than stick around to experience the Premier League, taking almost a year out of football before reappearing in a dugout.

The job at San Martin de Tucumán feels like a second chance for Flores to make a real impact in management following his experiences at Godoy Cruz. While he didn’t necessarily ‘fail’ there, it wasn’t the kind of triumph that tends to launch a successful coaching career.

A promotion play-off final win could prove just that, and Flores’ team have to navigate three more league games that are effectively dead rubbers before the final against the winner of Primera Nacional Group B. It seems incredibly unfair that winning a 38 game league campaign by 10+ points might not guarantee you promotion, but that’s the system in Argentina. They also don’t have the play-off nightmares to bias their opinion on such a system, unlike some.

Diego Flores becomes another coach in professional football whose influence can be attributed to Bielsa, and while no coach is likely to ever successfully replicate his methods, some will take elements of his philosophy and forge their own path. The Bielsist influence can be seen in the brushstrokes of Flores’ football painting, which means I’ve got another team to add to my list on SofaScore. Buena suerte, Diego. ⬢

(Photograph by Dave Howarth, via Alamy)