After Leeds United folded like a poor poker player against Huddersfield at the weekend, leaking three goals in eight second-half minutes, many were predicting that head coach Steve Evans wouldn’t see the weekend out.
As the slings and daggers continued to be hurled at Evans, his tactics, the decisions he made to bench players and his inability to make effective changes with substitutes, his tenure at Leeds United seemed to be drifting ever-closer to an end.
The Daily Mail carried a story on Tuesday that Leeds owner Massimo Cellino was running out of patience with the current head coach and that he is, “ready to sack Steve Evans as head coach of Leeds United and already has another coach lined up.” Supporting their story, the Mail said that the reasoning behind Cellino’s decision was that senior players had informed him “that they have lost confidence” in Evans, thus prompting the Leeds owner to consider his head coach’s position.
One tantalising thing that the Mail said was that “Evans will not be Leeds boss next season and a foreign head coach has already been sounded out to replace him.” News of this solidified today, with multi-decorated 2006 World Cup winner Fabio Cannavaro named as the man supposedly taking over the reins at Elland Road.
However, according to Daily Mirror writer David Anderson in a tweet on his personal Twitter feed (below), Massim Cellino categorically refutes this, saying such stories are “rubbish”.
Massimo Cellino has just told me that reports that he is about to sack Steve Evans as Leeds head coach are "rubbish".
— David Anderson (@MirrorAnderson) March 23, 2016
Things are rarely what they seem at face value at Leeds United and are likely to change as often as the direction the wind is blowing; expect there to be updates to this situation as the rest of the season wears on.
