Some see him as a knight in shining armour, riding in on a white charger to save Leeds United from incompetent Bahraini investors; others see him as a fly-by-night shyster with a PHD in tax evasion both proven and accused.
Whichever way you look at it, Massimo Cellino is a one-off madcap maverick who has his own rules and feverently sticks to them. At Massimo’s Leeds United, it’s his way or the autostrada, a fact many coaches have found under the guise of il mangia allenatori – the manager eater.
He’s a man who simply refuses to follow trends, as the above photo shows of him mingling with Leeds United fans at an away game. Now, this situation would be something of rarity with the Leeds United fan base divided against him; more-or-less equal parts love and ice-cream and poison and vitriol. Marching into Leeds United on the back of a raft of bold promises, such as buying back Elland Road, the Italian brought a wave of optimism that quickly disappeared and drifted away in the mire and miasma of a series of court cases and Football League bans.
However, a transcript has risen of an interview that il duce Cellino gave to an Italian journalist with the title ‘Massimo Cellino racconts gli ultimi 25 anni di storia del Cagliari’. It is at the start of this video (below) that he says a few things that may get Leeds fans a little hot uner the collar.
Five quotations from the interview (transcription provided by Lardy @ShaunijeW – TwitLonger)
On life after Leeds United: “If I go away from Leeds, I’m done with football. In life you have to admit that you can’t do more or that you’re not good enough. I thought it was easier in England.”
On the difference between English and Italian football: “There is no comparison. It is a different kind of football, it’s not easier, pay attention; you are moved [have to make] high sacrifice. They don’t speak Italian, so you have to learn English. It is cold, guys, you need to play in 2 degrees below zero; the cold is too much. You need to play in t-shirts and I cannot sit in a blanket to watch the game, there is too much cold, really. And they play in t-shirts. They are barbarians, what the f**k.”
On watching the Blackburn game at Elland Road: “I tell you this that will make you laugh: The new coach came from some good matches… I was in the locker room, you can not smoke there, so I found the place where I could secretly smoke under the stairs. Before the game, five seconds, I took a coffee, I smoked a cigarette tucked secretly in a hole that I found under the main stand, then I went to the field… the match had been underway for three minutes and a half, I sat and I looked at the backboard: Leeds 0 Blackburn 2. What the f**k Steve, who was near me, look at that, it brings bad luck what they wrote on the board 2 to 0 please change that. They look at me and tell me: “What are you saying President?” “Eh?” (indicating the board)… oh two minutes and 20 seconds the opponents have scored two goals; They were very aggressive.”
On how the fans turned against him at the Blackburn game: “Oh and at some point someone told me: “Cellino, Cellino” – twenty supporters of my team – “time to go”. And I said: “but why don’t you go away?!” And the supporters: “we pay!” So I: “No, you pay to see the game. To criticize me you need to pay an extra” and I put 5 pounds more for each one ticket (laughs).”
This is the infamous ‘pie-tax’ that saw Cellino hoy a £5 increase/surcharge onto South Stand tickets in what some saw as a fit of pique at Leeds fans drinking beer outside of Elland Road, something that he then expands on in the final part about Leeds United before he move on to more Cagliari-based matters.
On explaining the £5 pie-tax surcharge: “Wait a minute I’ll explain what happened. Outside the stadium there is a sly guy who put a fake stand and he sells beers; consider that in England you can’t live only on television rights. The Leeds society lives with tickets and beer, that is sold at the stadium, and season tickets. We collect about 40 millions per year with season tickets and beers only. So if you put the stand in front of the stadium with a bar to sell the beers, what Can I do?! So I said: those that go to this bar, that are the friends of this sly guy, because they are the supporters that criticize us also, they need to pay 20 + 5 pounds with beer included… (laughs) and they are very angry and criticize me for this.”
On this, the first time that Cellino has anything publically attributed to him and the infamous price hike of South Stand tickets, the Leeds United owner has backtracked and admitted that what he said has been in jest. Quoted in the Yorkshire Evening Post, Cellino says that what he said was with a pinch of humour telling Phil Hay, “It was just a joke. I never could do anything like that. In the bar business we try to make (the fans) buy the beer from our bars and not from everybody who sells them in front of the stadium. It is to help the club.”
