Cellino

Scottish newspaper highly critical of Cellino at Leeds

Massimo Cellino has a Marmite™ personality in that you either love him or hate him. That’s the situation that a massive majority of Leeds United fans find themselves in – a black vs. white argument with very little grey in between.

In an interview in the Scotsman with Gordon McQueen, ostensibly about Liam Cooper’s inclusion in the Scotland squad,  the newspaper had some strong views on Leeds United’s maverick owner.

The divisiveness that Massimo Cellino causes amongst Leeds United is plain for all to see, you don’t have to be a fan of the Whites to witness it. Court cases, convictions for tax evasion on imported yachts and Football League bans are all there and all out in the public domain. Already the time-served victim of one Football League ban, Cellino is currently ‘on a ban’, deferred by the grace of him appealing against its legitimacy.

When it comes to Cellino, the Scotsman pull no punches in their more-than-brutal appraisal of Leeds United’s controversial Italian owner. One particularly scathing comment comes when talking about the fact that current Whites boss Steve Evans  has worked admirably under the overarching ideals of Cellino’s running of the club. Speaking on this, the Scotsman refer to the Leeds owner as, “impulsive – and the Leeds fans would say – asset-stripping owner in Massimo Cellino.”

To use the emotionally-laden term “asset-stripping owner” is something that demands qualification, something that the Scotsman do by way of using it as a link to introduce the views of interviewee Gordon McQueen on how Cellino operates. McQueen, speaking of how Leeds operate with regard to player sales says, “If any player shows any promise, Leeds sell him right away.”

The Scotsman also say that Cellino’s ownership of Leeds, where there has been a fan-orchestrated backlash by protest group Time To Go Massimo, could partly be to blame for supposed fan feelings towards central defender Liam Cooper. On this topic, the Scotsman say, “Cellino’s stewardship, now the subject of ‘give us our club back’ style protests by the Leeds faithful, may be a factor in the ambivalence towards Cooper from the stands.”

Their basis for this assumption, the ‘fact’ that they say that Ccooper “is said to have been “signed on a whim” [Scotsman’s own emphasis] by the controversial Italian owner.”

Whilst the gist of the Scotsman’s article is Gordon McQueen’s brutal assessment of why Liam Cooper doesn’t deserve a place in the Scotland squad for tomorrow’s game against Denmark; the article itself contains some quite strong sentiments about Leeds’ owner Massimo Cellino.

 

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