First team

Improving Atmosphere v Managing Expectation

|
Image for Improving Atmosphere v Managing Expectation

There definitely is an improving atmosphere in the air at LUFC this season. The arrival of Massimo Cellino, the improving financial situation at the club, the proposed repurchase of Elland Road and the influx of new talent, be it untested in Championship football and even with no sign of a serious striker on the horizon yet is still a good beginning!

The start has been promising but there is a blimp on the Cellino’s radar, the baffling choice of head coach and assistant could prove costly. The jump from Forest Green Rovers to Elland Road is a bridge too far and many suspect will see LUFC start the season with one arm metaphorically tied behind the collective back. The friendlies against Chesterfield and Dundee will reveal much and the Millwall fixture!!

The Leeds faithful have experienced a decade of misuse, abuse, financial skulduggery and owners putting profit before club. Having an owner with a proven football track record who loves the game and wants LUFC back in the premiership is almost too good to be true.

As a result Cellino has been given a strong if tentative green light, the expectation for the coming season is incredibly high and the sense of trepidation is so palpable you can touch it! This is the danger point, the Leeds faithful have been here before, do right by them and they will follow to the end of the world, the reverse doesn’t bare thinking about.

Managing this expectation is going to be one of MC’s biggest tasks. Should this expectation be let down for the want of a serious striker, the right head coach or not bringing in enough decent players in general, when we are told there is money in the pot, then the good will, will swiftly turn to anger and bitter disappointment.

How Massimo manages this expectation is down to him, one way would be to use the official website to inform fans of news/transfer speculation on a regular basis even if it is only to quash the rumour control that players we want to keep, are appearing on another clubs radar.

Why have I written this? Mostly to try and reassure myself that all will be well, to stop my heart thumping and chin hitting the deck whenever another news article predicts doom and gloom ahead, another transfer falling through or speculation of another top players being sold! The joys of following the Whites!

Share this article

0 comments

  • El Presidente knows what he’s doing,my hunch now is Vivani will sign,he just wanted to mix it up a bit and stop his team pratting about.

    Its The Hockington that scares me. he’s a bit like a rabbit in the headlights.Is he really experienced enough to select the best team?I hope he’s makes me look an idiot and proves me wrong.

    We also need a striker because Smiths not one,he would be if he could play though.McDaids the Man get him in he’s big enough and old enough,look at Rooney he was plying his trade in his early teens scoring for Everton at Elland Road.

  • only1jdc says:

    When the takeover by Cellino was eventually completed, I felt a sense of relief, despite the fact that I wasn’t “sure” about him. For what he’s achieved so far, I can only thank him and offer him my full support … except in the appointment of David Hockaday, and even in that, I was prepared to be proved wrong and give him time. However, in my simple mind, there is already a conflict between them … MC has brought in 4 foreign players who he clearly believes have potential and who are an improvement on last years squad. Mr. H then picks his “Millwall” team to represent us against Chesterfield … minus 3 of the foreign players with only Marco Silvestri given a start. In his starting 11 he gives an important role on the right side of midfield to an average left footed LB and leaves a specialist attacking midfielder, Tomasso Bianchi, who has already shown his potential on the bench. He also leaves an international RB on the bench, Gaetano Berardi and fails to recognise that pushing Sam Byram forward into a midfield role would provide him with the pace the team so desperately needs? As a minimum, there should have been 3 of the foreign players given starts in their preferred roles … Silvestri, Berardi and Bianchi.

    Sorry Don Massimo, I believe you need to change your coaching team as quickly as possible … a joint resposibilty with either Gary Mac or Nigel Gibbs (who it is reportedly still at the club) and Benito Carbone. Come on Massimo, you know it makes sense.

  • Nick DRC says:

    When MC sold McCormack, he said that he is a man who has to be in control, and, with McCormack, he felt he didn’t have that control. There is the rub. We will never have a manager who is strong minded and wanting to do things his way, as Cellino would not have the level of control he needs. I’m afraid Mr Hockaday was brought in as a ‘yes’ man, a ‘whipping boy’ and eventually, a ‘scapegoat’. You can’t blame him for taking the job, from where he was to being ‘in charge’ at Elland Road, who wouldn’t? This is why Brian Mcd. went, he had his own agenda and his own way of running things, obviously at loggerheads with MCs ethos. Look at MCs track record, how many coaches did he get through with his previous club? If Hockaday goes, we will get someone of the same ilk. The club is undoubtedly in better hands now, everything MC has done has been for the good of the club, but I can’t see us ever doing much better on the field unless we are allowed a proper, strong manager.

  • RAN says:

    Hockaday himself joined late, and the staff at ER has been changed drastically. It will take time to settle. The Chesterfield line-up could be the preferred team for now because of Hockaday’s focus on fitness as a basic qualification. The players from the Italian league did not join in time for boot camp, so they are not yet fit to elect for the starting eleven, as per Hockadays standards. I believe competent people who worked with Hockaday says he is a good coach – he is not the manager. He can only work with the players which are in his squad anyway, and so far there is no replacement for McCormack and the central defender so clearly missed last season has also not (yet) been acquired.

  • Lykewakewalker says:

    How can anyone say that “everything MC has done has been for the good of the club”? He brought in Hockaday, a man who is so far out of his depth that he is drowning in the verbal bilge that he puts out every time we fail to lower league opposition.
    If this is some kind of master plan then sorry but I and probably the majority of Leeds supporters cannot see it.
    Yes, MC has brought in players, but they are un-proven in the Championship. We need players who can last a gruelling season while putting in the performances necessary to keep us well in the top half of the table. I hope that the Italian imports do well but I don’t think they, or MC know what a season in the Championship is like.
    In the pre season games this clubs loyal support has paid out good money to watch a mainly mediocre team try to cope with tactics that would be a farce in an under 10’s Sunday league, on present showing we will be doing the same once the season starts.
    I am in the camp of calling for Gary Mc to be brought in, he should never have been sacked in the manner that he was and he could just be the coach to bring the best out of the players that we have and the ones that we have (supposedly) been promised.

  • henryvl says:

    The problem is firmly at Cellino’s door.
    He appoints a coach with a poor track record because he was cheap and would do his bidding – an old ‘Bates’ trick.
    Cellino gets rid of some players who are not up to standard, but still has another ‘team’ of players who are not good enough for Leeds.
    The Hock is stuck with these players, plus some new ones, of unknown quality, who are not fit to play 90 minutes yet.
    Yesterdays team picked itself, with the new players getting a run out towards the end.
    These players were poor before Hock arrived, and they still are.
    He may get the blame and the sack soon, but Cellino is at fault here for;-
    a. Picking the Hock because he was cheap and grateful.
    b. Doing little or nothing to tackle the weaknesses in the team.
    We are desperate for a goalscorer, a dominant Centre-back, and a midfield leader.
    His penny pinching arrogance has brought us to this my friends.
    Although he is the manager, and sole decision maker, he is on holiday in Miami when he should be here, sorting out his mess.
    Whatever you think Hock is, it is Cellino’s making, and he will be Cellino’s sacrificial lamb!!!
    Don’t knock there Hock. He cannot work miracles with the squad he has.

    • only1jdc says:

      Henry … I accept the argument that the new players are a bit of an unknown quantity, but their CV’s say they are talented, quality players with loads of potential, well thought of in their own countries. I also accept that they’re probably not as fit as the rest but the quickest way to get them up to full fitness is to play them in pre-season friendlies … let them start in place of last season’s squad until they show signs of tiring, then replace them with the old guard. Shockaday’s mistake was to declare that his Saturday team would be the team that would start at Millwall.

      I would also say that an almost fit Tomasso Bianchi must be preferred to a fully fit, average LB as a midfield option.

      • henryvl says:

        Playing unfit players results in injuries.
        Hamstrings and pulled muscles.
        It is sensible to be guided by the physio’ and build them up gradually.
        The new players may be ok.
        I would be surprised if they were not better than many of the players we have.
        These new players are not centre-halves or goalscorers, or outstanding playmakers.
        When/if those players arrive, we may have a chance in the top half of the League.
        I feel sorry for The Hock, as no coach could do much with this squad.
        The young players like Cook, are exciting and I can’t wait for the off, but…… lets not be too optimistic in the early days.
        Cellino will not tolerate bad performances for long.

  • The Chief's Biggest Fan says:

    Hock has never stated the team v Chesterfield would be the starting 11 v Millwall. He said he would be selecting his CURRENT strongest side. Now, that also doesn’t mean that some of those on the bench wouldn’t be in the strongest current 11 – once they are fully fit!

Comments are closed.