I think like everyone I’m still a bit shell shocked from yesterday’s press conference. I didn’t expect to learn anything new, but the circus Cellino put on in front of the gathered media surprised and baffled even those most used to his incoherent rants. The newly appointed Adam Pearson looked genuinely exasperated at times sat next to Cellino as he gesticulated and ranted about everything and nothing at the same time. It was only really when Cellino popped out for a fag, “a beautiful cigarette”, or to play Tiki slot, that Peason actually answered some of the questions.
If anyone is still unclear as to why the press conference was arrange it was about one thing, Massimo Cellino. In exactly the same was as his little returning party at Elland road the other week this was designed to make it clear that he was in charge and we should not forget that. But if the conference was designed to reconnect with those fans who were disenfranchised, angry with Cellino it didn’t really achieve its aim. Not after his little rant about them anyway;
“The fans can tell me I’m a dick, I work for my club, I look after my club. The fans, they don’t understand. They will understand. When you talk about fans, you talk about a couple of million people. Just be worried about 200 fans who have been informed in the wrong way. Maybe they are too close to someone they shouldn’t be.”
But what did we learn if anything? Well we learned that Cellino is as mad as ever and we learned that we are no further on with appointing a head coach for next season. Cellino hasn’t called Redfearn yet, why should he Redfearn wasn’t at his coming home party and hasn’t called him! But he does seem to acknowledge that it needs to eb sorted quickly; “I cannot wait because we are late, already late. I admit that.” The end of the road at Leeds United does seem to be near as far as Neil Redfearn is concerned though.
On Thompson Cellino said “I like Thompson as a man and when I finished my disqualification I called him and told him ‘I don’t know what’s happened”, but it leaves us no clearer on his future at the club either. Likewise Salerno does not seem to feature in future plans; “Here we need a head of recruitment who comes from England, knows the players, everything. Salerno unfortunately is Italian.” So, no decision on the head coach, assistant manager or director of football, great!
We also learned that the McCormack is gone, so much for buying Elland Road back with the proceeds. £9.2 million has been spent on players so far, “garbage” according to Cellino, and we bought too many foreign players but then any of us could have told him that. He did lay some of the blame for that with Redfearn for not playing those players, Brian Montenegro for example, but admitted that “Next season we do not waste money.” It was revealed that £5 million was wasted on an ‘unforeseen legal bill’ left by a previous regime, I wonder who that could be?
Cellino assured the gathered media that the club was not for sale; “This club is not for sale. It’s never been for sale.” But he did concede that if the club was not ‘fixed’ and in the Premier League by 2017 then he would have failed and would sell the club. We’ve heard promises from Cellino before though, and very rarely does he deliver on them.
In all it left me feeling a bit sorry for Adam Pearson. As Cellino rambled on he sat there with his hand on his forehead, god know what he must have been thinking. There was a lot of talk from Cellino, though very little actually said but it is his actions he will be judged on. I can’t help but feel that in some way his heart is in the right place, his head is just so messed up that it’s hard to conceive anything constructive being achieved here. The Pearson situation intrigues me though, I’m not sure everything is quite as it seems there, does he have a plan?