Will he sell, will he not? Is he selling, to who and how long? Phrases like these, questions akin to these are heard around Elland Road at various times and with increasing frequency of late with Massimo Cellino’s seemingly upset at the treatment he was receiving from elements of the Leeds support. Now he’s instigated a high-value ‘jumble sale’ at Elland Road, as per a report in the Daily Mirror.
According to Mirror reporter Bill Cooper, Leeds United’s flamboyant owner is ready to start up the age-old tradition of a fire sale at Elland Road with the entire first team squad up for offer to the right buyer with the right amount of ink in a riffling cheque book. Cooper says that the players included in such a move “includes six-goal top scorer Chris Wood, who cost £3million from Leicester last summer, and whiz-kids Alex Mowatt, Lewis Cook and Sam Byram, who each carry £8m price tags.”
Whilst it is widely known in the footballing fraternity that Sam Byram’s Leeds United future is somewhat under a cloud with his contract situation not being sorted as of yet, the news that others could very well be included in a cash grab will come as something as a shock should they read tomorrow’s Mirror or glance at various sites that will no doubt carry this story, ours included.
However, is all as it seems? I mean the Mirror article contains no official linked sources, no named whistle-blowers so-to-speak. What it does contain is that ubiquitous ‘source at club X’ who in this case says, “We played Leeds a while ago and a few days before the game we got a call from them saying that if any of their players caught our eye, they are open to bids.” As long-suffering Leeds fans will gladly inform you, our style of play of late wouldn’t be good enough to catch the eyes of our Championship rivals; it’s hardly invigorating enough to open the eyes of fans at Elland Road or those who travel 100s of miles in their many 1000s to watch the club they love.
Cooper calls this circumstance, the supposed Cellino-ordered ‘jumble sale’ of Leeds’ top players and including their much-vaunted Academy-produced starlets, “the latest twist in the soap opera that Leeds have become” since Cellino took charge of the club. There, for one brief moment you have that glimmer of truth glowing slowly in the burnt charcoal of another story written on the back of the Leeds United name, journalism that will guarantee column inches at the expense of integrity.
Yes, Leeds United have become the byword for a soap opera complete with Massimo Cellino in a J.R. Ewing-style bad guy role. Elland Road is quickly becoming Southfork Ranch with the shenanigans that are seemingly going on up there on a daily basis. Court cases, tribunal writs, player fall outs, managers in/out like the hokey cokey – Southfo…Elland Road has it all and in spades.
Now we can add non-journalism to the soap opera script that is Leeds United. Yes, I’ll give Bill Cooper credit for the truth that Leeds United is an archetypal soap opera.
When can I wake up in the shower like Bobby Ewing and it be all a dream?
