Athletic Bilbao and Marcelo Bielsa's Silence Doing Little to Calm a Raging Storm

Athletic Bilbao just got thrown for one hell of a wrinkle in their preseason preparations.

It involves a practice facility that wasn't ready, an irate coach, a physical altercation, back and forth statements, a resignation, a desperation meeting...and then silence.

Reports from ESPNSoccernet and NBC Sports on June 6 suggested that coach Marcelo Bielsa resigned on Friday after a series of events starting at the club's Lezama training ground.

Since then, neither the club nor Bielsa has offered any details on whether the man is gone or not. This leaves no shortage of bemused, irate or confused spectators hanging in the lurch.

The facilities were announced on the club's website to be upgraded on June 11. That gave the companies a little under a month to make all the renovations necessary.

Apparently, they didn't get the job done in time, which is where Bielsa's strange tale begins.

Per NBC Sports:

"

Short story: Bielsa was involved in a training ground altercation with the club’s site manager, and after a public flogging from Athletic Bilbao (via a statement condemning his actions), he’s handed in his resignation.

Long story: Two days ago, everything seemed fine, but then (B)ielsa confirmed rumors of a training ground altercation between him and the site manager at Lezama, the team’s training ground. Those facilities are undergoing construction, and with preseason fast approaching, Bielsa was apparently irate at the grounds’ conditions. And irate may be an understatement.

On Thursday, Bielsa admitted he physically attacked the site manager, though he would not go farther than a vague confirmation that an altercation had ensued. However, the club (per Bielsa) had to convince the other man not to press charges, making it seem like Bielsa may have assaulted the construction worker.

"

First off, what Bielsa did was completely inappropriate. This kind of behavior does little to enhance his image or the club's.

Bielsa is probably fortunate that the construction manager got a nice payoff (more than likely, considering that he'd probably have a strong case by Bielsa's own admission) and is not to be tried in a court of law.

What's more troubling is that Bielsa must not have been expecting to get told off in public.

Perhaps Athletic would have been better served to keep things a little more under the radar. It does, however, show a brave streak when other clubs might have swept the incident entirely under the rug.

Bielsa cannot be mad at the club for whatever action they took. It was his screw-up that lead to the incident even becoming a problem.

For Bielsa to even hand in a resignation for getting called out on his mistake is, quite frankly, an insult to the club, the players and the fans of the Basque outfit.

On top of all that, the silence from Bielsa and Athletic compounds the problem.

After the inevitable brushfire began sweeping around the web, the two sides met and promptly did...nothing.

Because of no direct language from either side, most news outlets are left speculating the proceedings.

Marca, amongst others, guesses that at least for the moment, Bielsa has not had his resignation tendered.

But, with no direct answers from the club or Bielsa, everyone is left to speculate, which is where both sides are losing.

This is not the kind of story a club or manager can let sit and stew because there is no shortage of speculation and opinion on the matter.

Why neither side has commented after the first batch of speculation took hold and after the meeting held late Friday is befuddling.

The PR work that will need to be done is unimaginable at this point. The club and Bielsa have no one to blame but themselves for not at least acknowledging the situation and explaining where things stand.

Uncertainty at this time of the year is compounded due to the inevitable crossover talk of transfer speculation that will soon follow.

Athletic were initially in the right to let Bielsa know that his behavior wasn't acceptable in the situation that occurred at Lezama.

But, with their lack of announcements and an unclear path, Athletic and Bielsa are now likely in for a far more uncomfortable summer than either expected at the start of July.

UPDATE (7/7/12, 4:15 PM EST)

Marca is reporting that Bielsa has not yet resigned, but has been given a two week period in which to do so.

Quite frankly, unless Bielsa stays, two weeks is plenty of time to completely undermine Atheltic's preseason.