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Our club is slowly but surely confirming itself as a joke

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The Leeds United soap opera is something that we are all accustomed too, chaotic owners, an embarrassing football team and a managerial merry-go-round, this season, however, has seen all three of these things bought to the forefront in an overwhelming fashion and has ripped apart our fan base like nothing I can remember.

Firmly, for myself, and an ever-growing number of Leeds fans are well and truly awakening to where the blame belongs and that is firmly at the door of our “President” Massimo Cellino. Firstly, let’s roll back to the January transfer deadline day of 2014. A deal had been agreed for Cellino to take over pending a football league fit and proper persons test, which he subsequently failed. He fired our manager, which he had absolutely no right to do as he wasn’t in charge of the club at the time, tried to bring in players which also failed as he had no right to do. Started off on the wrong foot and is still doing whatever he likes, and nothing in the best interest of the club.

Fast forward to the end of the season, Brian McDermott was dismissed from his position, which in all fairness wasn’t the worst decision he made, we needed a change we all know that, but what a change we got.. We went from a manager who had Premier League experience, took his Reading team to the Championship title and was harshly sacked by Reading and we moved onto Forest Green’s failed coach and our new “head coach” Dave Hockaday.. Absolute embarrassing decision that failed spectacularly. In this whirlwind of this appointment we had Cellino signing players for the team, and the majority of those have turned out to be absolutely shocking. Poor signings that can’t cut it in this league. Serie B is light-years behind the championship let alone Serie A, but it could be worse, there were people saying this was our best squad for years! Hockaday was clearly saying, just like all his successors and a few of our senior players that Cellino is having an input into the match day squad, something which is showing with the team selections and the constant picking of certain players. Moving onto Hockaday being fired, he was replaced by academy coach Neil Redfearn who somehow managed to turn things round unbelievably and picked up 10 points from 12, so obviously he was replaced by Darko Milanic, another decision that had a massive impact, and one that myself and many Leeds fans believe that completely destroyed our season. After he had a torrid time and put us all through negative football, our intrepid leader put Redfearn back into the dugout, like he should have done before. Now, this is where it all starts to get too much for the club and where the off field madness is clearly affecting the players..

Cellino, has been told to stand down from the board and has appealed this decision with his case coming up soon, and the team in a shocking run of form you would expect our President to be leading form the front, pulling everything together working on new signings and helping Redfearn get his targets over the line. Clearly, being in Miami with the man-child brothers is far more important. Being with your family at Christmas, is something we can all understand, being away until January 10th.. Not acceptable when you run a football club that is in dire straights. But, of course all the minions are out there saying it’s the 21st century, of course he is in touch with Redfearn. Nope. It was confirmed today, by Redfearn himself that they are still yet to speak! I can’t understand how people are still standing by the man. He failed his first fit and proper persons test, NOT just for the yacht saga that is currently plaguing him but the man was convicted of fraud in 1996 for the small sum of £7.5 million, in 2001 he was again in trouble for false accounting at Cagliari and finally in 2013 he was arrested, for a still unresolved case of fraud and embezzlement relating to the building of the new Cagliari stadium.

We really need to move on from all these cowboys that end up in charge of our club, it’s not doing us any good at all and is causing us serious damage. This month is going to be extremely testing for the football club, with Cellino’s appeal, Bellusci’s race charge case and a tough run of fixtures and the team currently looking down the barrel of the league 1 gun. Before people jump in to giving me stick for this, it’s time for the people who haven’t researched Cellino to do so, this is just the beginning and it’s not going to ease up anytime soon.

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  • Devastated and Angry says:

    Brilliant Brilliant article!! Cellino is a total disaster! Cellino came with too much previous baggage, somehow won his appeal, but the uncertainty and pending fraud trucks in Italy, make the man the biggest liability as an owner we have ever had.
    You didn’t mention that he has not purchased Elland Road as he promised, is still involved with the despicable GFH and remains close to the man that all but destroyed us Kenneth William Bates.
    Cellino is too irrational, too dictatorial and knows nothing of the English Game.
    He has destroyed the infrastructure and as you say where has he been in this critical and unproductive time?..

    • leeds oldie says:

      What an absolute load of crap we are still in the process of clearing the mess of bates,gfh cellino has put money in some players have worked i.e attenuchi,silvestra, cooper ,cook to name a few and yes some have not but they need time teams evolve over time not in 4+months new players will arrive others will leave so they need time to settle
      As regards cellino we all know the f.l.dont like leeds and if they persued other owners of clubs like birmingham , for one let him sort out the offield stuff and when gfh follow league rules then cellino may be zble to by the ground back dont forget gfh are being investigated on where the money came from to buy leeds.Where were the leagues rules then?

      • Rhys says:

        Firstly, the use of Cook in an argument to show Cellino’s good points is quite ludicrous. It really is. Secondly, are you hinting at the classic ‘The Football League are Corrupt’ line that we have all come to know and love? If so, I read somewhere that owners such as Oyston and Yeung actually took control of their respective teams under slightly different terms within the initial owners and directors test. I’m not sure if that’s entirely true, but if so it would help to explain why they are still in control of their clubs, and Cellino, after committing numerous crimes which correctly deem him dangerous to the wellbeing of our club, is currently disqualified (pending his completely pointless appeal).
        I in fact thought this article had a lot of truths within it. This is a joke of a club. It has been for a decade or so now, and Cellino has added to that.
        His numerous cringey PR stunts (although funny at the time) are embarrassing. He has no idea how to run a football club. He sold our best player (after making it look like Ross wanted to leave) and is now selling arguably our most consistent this season. He brought in 15 new players, most of which have been completely useless. Why is that? Because he tried to do it on the cheap. A couple of decent Championship players won’t benefit us in the long run. We need stability. Stability doesn’t come under someone like Cellino, his reign over Cagliari proved that.
        But anyway, it’s late and I’m tired. Nighty night.

      • Arne says:

        Except for the mentioning of Cook, I couldn`t agree with you more. Cellino has maybe done things which has not worked out, however he is the first owner with guts and money in a long time. Leeds were in real financial trouble, that`s beyond doubt. He came in and used his money to steady the ship. Without him Leeds would surely have gone into admin and then maybe the real crook`s (like some previous owners) could have bought it back. In Cellino`s case the fit and proper persons test is a real joke.

  • John says:

    Never heard of Leeds All Over

  • Marcus says:

    Couldn’t agree more – Cellino has had every chance to build a new structure within the club – instead he has sacked many good members of staff and interferes in everything. You can’t run a championship English club on Italian methods. – awful squad of this and that and without the home grown talent we would be bottom of league. I can’t see how we are getting out of this relegation dogfight based on form and lack of signings. Redfearn is screaming for new signings Cellino only pursues what he wants, Cellino could do so much more and push come to shove he only invested the bare minimum instead of truly investing in the club hence no ground buy back.

    Sad times back to early 80’s on the pitch

  • Ropey Wyla says:

    Viva Ill Presidente Cellino!!!

  • LeedsLover says:

    Some know nothing about football and even less on how to run a football club. I see there’s no name showing the idiot that wrote the article.

    Cellino would’ave been aware of the upcoming embargo, that’s why he brought the players in he did, some permanent, some on loan, it’s also why he shipped a lot of deadwood out; it was also mentioned by Phil Hay a while back.

    Had he spent millions it would’ave made our embargo even worse, the FL are looking to fine QPR up to 30 million quid if and when they return to FL for over spending. The embargo was brought about by GFH, not Cellino, GFH couldn’t give a damn that’s why they opted to only keep 25% shares, the FPP can’t touch’em.

    This article seems to be designed to try and drag other fans onto their “we hate Cellino” bandwagon, are you trying to persuade over 20,000 fans that signed the petition in favour of Cellino first?

    And for the record, the fans wanted Redfearn in, Cellino wanted Redders to stay at the academy, he succumbed to the fans wishes; and them are having a go at Cellino, I’ll bet you wanted Redders in too.

    Remember, bad results, bad team selections and subbings, bad choice of formations etc fall on the shoulders of the coach, it’s his job, he takes the plaudits or the fall, no one else. Hasn’t anyone explained that to some of you yet?

  • Steve says:

    What a terrible article. Poorly written and full of conjecture. If you don’t like Cellino then that is fine & dandy but be careful with the quotes made to look like facts – “and nothing in the best interest of the club”. Who says? You says? He has pumped millions in and I don’t suppose he has done that because he wants the club to fail, do you? I think it is time for Cellino to stand up and be counted and we all know the mistakes he has made but what would happen if he was to head out and wants his money back? Eh? Leeds United would be Donald ducked, that’s what. How about coming up with an article with answers rather than just moan, moan, moan?

  • PETER says:

    CAN SEE BOTH SIDES OF THE DEBATE, AND SOME VERY GOOD POINTS TO CONSIDER…WITHOUT CELLINOS INPUT WE MAY HAVE BEEN PLAYING NEAR ENOUGH NON-LEAGUE FOOTBALL..SOWE HAVE TO THANK HIM FOR SOMETHING I SUPPOSE. IT WAS OBVIOUS WHEN HE BROUGHT IN HOCKADAY HE WAS AFTER A CHEAP FIX..YOU ONLY GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR IN THIS LIFE.FOOTBALL ESPECIALLY. THINK GIVEN TIME AND AFEW NEW RECRUITS WE MAY BE ABLE TO STAY IN THIS DIVISION…CERTAINLY HOPE SO..KEEPTHE FAITH GUYS….NOT EASY BEING A LEEDS FAN…..MOT.

  • Quaich says:

    Some of you guys really dont know when to let go, do you? Im no great fan of Mr C, but I have watched the financial vultures ruin my beloved club for almost 20years. This article has no redeeming qualities. It offers a series of prejudicial comments about a man who clearly has invested a huge amount of time and energy trying to save the club without any recognition of the difficulties inherent in the task, or any real understanding of the alternatives.
    Please. Get off Massimos back, try to understand what Redders needs to do to get the team to survive and prosper, and give them the time and consideration to make a proper job of it.
    The alternatives are too horrible to contemplate.

    By the way, my support goes back to the days of Raich Carter, so I have some experience of being a fan of the best club in England.

  • Rhys says:

    My favourite part of this is when people happily pull apart your beliefs with an argument of ‘Cellino has pumped millions’ when they literally have no evidence of it.

    Cellino has helped to cut the costs at Leeds through cutbacks and sackings, fair enough it needed to be done, but I don’t for one minute believe he has pumped in the money people think he has.. Remember he didn’t even but is using his own money? Funny that. He bought us using borrowed money which the club are paying back. Yet people still believe he’d pull out £10mil here and there out of his back pocket to help us. Rubbish.

    This is your opinion and you are fully entitled to it. Bar bringing in some italian Tonges/Browns/Morison’s and making some cutbacks, Cellino has done little more for this club than Bates himself.

    Cellino would be far more favoured if He could just keep his mouth shut. He shouldnt have made promises he couldn’t keep. People need to realise that this ‘passionate’ man is indeed passionate, but not about Leeds. Fans of West Ham or Crystal Palace would have seen the exact charade had he successfully purchased them.

    The club has been ruined for years, let’s not pretend it’ll be magically made better anytime soon.

  • Bailey says:

    I’d just like to say that I think Cellino is a bit out of his depth. The second tier of English Football is more challenging then Serie A. I really feel like on the football side of things, Cellino needs some help. He has to stop his panic tactics when things aren’t perfect or they are going to be worse. To be fair to Cellino he has pumped ALOT of money into the club only for the FL to continue to slap him around. Its hard to judge but if we look at the facts alone, Cellino has actually done a decent job but he could do much better at our club. Hopefully, he will decide a more “hands-off” approach as the season continues.

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