When Giuseppe Bellusci arrived at Leeds United, he came with a reputation and a nickname; he was the ‘Warrior’. Nobody can deny the fact that he’s thrown himself into becoming or establishing himself as a firm crown favourite at Elland Road. His hard-tackling, no compromise defensive displays have endeared him to the Leeds United faithful as well as to the referee’s note book with 12 bookings and two sendings off. However, he does have a softer side, as shown when a wayward shot, in a warm-up at Elland Road early on in the campaign, hit one of Leeds’ disabled fans pitchside in a wheelchair. After the game, Bellusci insisted on going up to the fan in question [pictured] and personally giving the fan his game-worn shirt. It’s little things like this that endears a player to fans; that crack of niceness in the midst of the darkening broodiness that makes the ‘The Warrior’
Then there are those moments that every fan dreads, when their central defender starts to think that they are the new Zico and start trotting off up field seemingly with the ball glued to their boots. However, invariably it is like a child being ‘helped’ to ride a bike by their loving father. Just it appears to be going OK, things start to unravel…rapidly. The child turns around and notices you are no longer holding on, cue crumpled heap of crying child. Central defender-wise, they take it one pace too far, it appears their feet are numb, their laces tie themselves together and they stumble for a while like a thirsty man after water. Suddenly the ball is whipped from them, passed upfield and usually ends in the back of their net, beyond an irate goalkeeper and to the disappointment of a baying crowd. Bellusci isn’t like that, he’s competent on the ball…oh and there is this,
Most free kicks like this from centrebacks end up bouncing in the car park more so than the opposition goal.
So, after today’s thrashing at home from Blackburn, one where he made some defensive errors, including a slide tackle initiated by Bellusci himself sliding in from what seemed like another postcode, he decided not to acknowledge the crowd after the game. Much to the chagrin of people commenting on the following apology he posted on his Twitter status.
I regret not having thanked the stage
but I was too upset about the performance and the result .— Giuseppe Bellusci (@peppe_ele) April 4, 2015
The comments that follow from this apology are a mixture of “chin up son” and others that I would not even deign to give the time of day to, such is their vitriol. In fact, such is their odiously poisonous air that it makes me ashamed to be a Leeds fan actually reading some of them.
