The new Leeds manager wanted to find out how hard the average supporter had to work to pay for a ticket to watch the team.
He wanted them to learn a lesson; to appreciate how the fans laboured to fulfil their passion.
It is just that his obsessive nature, ferocious intensity, eccentricities and refusal to adhere to convention can make him seem that way.
When Bielsa strode into Leeds on 15 June to replace Paul Heckingbottom, it quickly became clear the club would never be the same again.
It was explained to him that, perhaps, it was the result of somebody leaning back against it, with his or her foot up.
Bielsa checks all the surfaces at the Leeds training ground for dust, invariably appalled by what he finds.
He has stressed the training ground is a place of work and the players are there to work all day. »