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Football clubs are not natural recruiting grounds for journalists, but if this newspaper ever needs to add to its roster it could do worse than United's new signing Ander Herrera.

Though born in Bilbao and a proud Basque, the 25-year-old became a professional footballer in neighbouring Aragon with Real Zaragoza, where his father worked.

Herrera supports Zaragoza, but he continued to study journalism until he was 19.

“Not sports journalism,” he explained when I met him in Bilbao.

“That’s not objective. My old manager Marcelo Bielsa was against results being judged. A team should be judged on merit, not a result. If we’d lose 3-0 but created 15 goal opportunities but the rival only created three, Bielsa didn’t have a problem with us.

“But I would have moved into journalism if I hadn’t made it as a footballer.

"I really like National Geographic. I watch and read it every day. I like photography too. I want to go on safari to Tanzania and Kenya.

"I’m curious, interested and afraid of the shark. I’m not sure I could do the shark cage. The problem with football is that you only get three weeks to travel in the summer and I spend that with my family.”

When not at Wimbledon, Herrera has spent his free time this summer sorting out his move to United, something he was up for completing last September when the Reds made a late bid.

“We’ve tracked him for nearly three years. He comes from a footballing family, his father was a top player and a sporting director, he speaks perfect English,” said United’s executive vice chairman Ed Woodward.

So not surprisingly the Reds went back with a bid and finally got their man for £29m last week following Herrera’s successful season with Athletic Club, in which he starred as the Basques finished in a Champions League position for the first time since 1998.

Two years ago, United fans were impressed by Herrera in Athletic’s 3-2 Europa League win at Old Trafford.

“We were thinking of enjoying ourselves,” says Herrera of that game.

“We were under no pressure. Nobody expected us to win. Then I saw our 6,000 fans and we all changed a little.

“That was the best game I’ve played. We were winning 2-0 and Bielsa would not let us stop. We thought he wanted to close down the game.

"No, Bielsa wanted a third and a fourth. He could live with conceding a goal from a counter attack because that meant we’d have been attacking. He’s a football romantic, Bielsa.”

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Bielsa, a madcap genius of a coach, has been a huge influence on Herrera. He also moved him around the field.

“My best position is number eight,” said Herrera.

“With Bielsa I played six, like Sergio Busquets at Barca, eight like Iniesta and Xavi, and as a 10. Bielsa said I could become one of the best players in that position.”

His versatility appeals to United, but he has to thank Bielsa for making him the player he is.

“He’s the most original, different, singular, person that I’ve ever met,” says Herrera.

“He’s got an amazing mind. He has an incredible intellectual capacity for football. Nothing is ever left to chance, everything is studied to the finest details.

"He knows what every player can and can’t do. He makes sure that everyone is on their toes. I’ve seen him speaking to the groundsman for 45 minutes. I’m sure he would have studied grounds keeping before that chat.

“He demands of others what he demands of himself. I’ve never seen a coaching staff work as hard as with him. He’d go crazy if a pole was half a metre the wrong way.

“I once had my feet on a chair. He came up to me and kicked the chair away. ‘Do you see me with my feet up?’ he asked.

“You’ve really got to like football a lot to put up with him. I’m lucky as I love football. I watch videos. Others just like to play.

"They really suffer under Bielsa. I was two years with him and always in the starting XI. 54 games with a groin strain in that season I played United. I’m thankful to him, but I really enjoyed my days off.”

United will get an exceptionally gifted player who has improved season on season - in no small part to the coaching of Marcelo Bielsa.