Mighty Leeds Weblog

IF NEIL WARNOCK is the ‘Red Adair’ of football management, Graham Bean is surely the administrative equivalent. By Leon Wobschall In his case, it applied to some dysfunctional football clubs behind the scenes during his time in the domestic game. Situations do not get more chaotic and surreal than his spell as a consultant at Leeds United during the infamous Massimo Cellino era. The Yorkshireman's run-ins with the controversial former Leeds owner are chronicled in his recently-released book "Bean There… Done That". There are many tales to tell, as there are from the former South Yorkshire Police detective's time serving as the Football Association's first Compliance Officer where he was given the nickname of 'The Sleazebuster' by the tabloid press. Bean investigated football wrongdoing on and off the pitch, covering everything from dissent towards match officials by players to alleged financial corruption in the boardroom by chairmen. He woul...

Massimo Cellino's Leeds mad house! The Italian owner's foul-mouthed temper tantrums left staff in fear, he banned the No 17 and colour purple... and once rejected chance to sign Virgil van Dijk! Graham Bean says working at Leeds under Massimo Cellino was a madhouse The controversial former owner would often erupt into severe temper tantrums Cellino ordered Paddy Kenny to be sold due to a superstition over the number 17 The Italian once said that future England star Kalvin Phillips wasn't good enough By GRAHAM BEAN FOR THE DAILY MAIL Graham Bean was the FA’s ‘sleazebuster’ but also worked with a number of clubs in English football, most memorably at Leeds where he worked closely with the club’s controversial former owner… Massimo Cellino’s reputation preceded him when he bought Leeds United. The controversial Italian businessman was known as the ‘Manager Eater’ in his homeland after going through more bosses in his 22 years at Cagliari than he’d had pepperoni p...

  Manager Eater Massimo Cellino swings his axe again and again and again as his new regime gets under way in earnest – it’s all change in the playing squad as Nicola Salerno goes shopping in Serie B.  Neil Redfearn emerges after the sackings of David Hockaday and Darko Milanic to launch a fightback built on the fruits of his labours in the United Academy Remember the time and thank your lucky stars for where we are today! Part 1 Watermelons –  http://www.mightyleeds.co.uk/seasons/201415part1.htm Part 2 There’s Only One Neil Redfearn –  http://www.mightyleeds.co.uk/seasons/201415part2.htm Part 3 Results, table and transfers –  http://www.mightyleeds.co.uk/seasons/201415part3.pdf Massimo Cellino welcomes new United coach David Hockaday

Massimo Cellino knew little of David Hockaday and Darko Milanic when he employed them. That can’t be said of his relationship with Neil Redfearn. Phil Hay reports. Five hours in a hotel with David Hockaday. It sounds like a programme on Living TV. Those were the circumstances in which he and Massimo Cellino made their acquaintance and sized each other up. Cellino was no more familiar with Darko Milanic until they met in Leeds one Sunday night. He knew Milanic’s record but not the man, which begs the question of how the Slovenian entered the running for the head coach’s job at Leeds United. “A mate of Nicola Salerno’s,” is how someone at Elland Road described him, and that description fits. It was United’s sporting director, rather than Cellino, who sat with Milanic at his first press conference. Effusive though he was at the outset, Cellino lumped on men he had no relationship with. Their character he learned about on the job. Hockaday soon looked out of his depth and unsuited to th...

Slow starters: Coach Darko Milanic isn’t the first Leeds United boss not to make a winning start to his tenure at Elland Road. Leon Wobschall reports. NOT TOO many Leeds United managers have been afforded the luxury of a flying start to fully ingratiate themselves with supporters over the past decade, and Darko Milanic has plenty of company in the opposing respect. Like David Hockaday, the man he replaced as the new permanent head coach at Elland Road, the Slovenian was left to lament a disappointing afternoon in the capital in his first outing in the dug-out which ended in a lacklustre 2-0 weekend defeat for the Whites at Brentford. Hockaday kicked off with a similarly dispiriting setback by the same scoreline across town at Millwall on August 9. Gary McAllister and, to a lesser extent, Neil Warnock also didn’t exactly hit the ground running either when both were named as Whites manager and while Brian McDermott did generate some early momentum when he took over at Leeds in April 2...

Chief football writer Phil Hay looks at five key things we’ve learned about Leeds United in the first month of the new skybet championship season. English football won’t change Cellino. He says he needs to learn about the game in this country – and also the players – but the Cagliari mindset is ingrained in Cellino. Five months at Leeds United have made no difference to his traits or his methods. In Sardinia they recognise him as the same man who ran Cagliari for 22 years: the tub-thumping, the unpredictability, the outright dominance of everything. Cellino proved on Thursday that his penchant for sacking coaches is neither mythical nor exaggerated. The top job at Elland Road will always be precarious while he pays the salary. His preferences can be matched with those seen at Cagliari too – an inexpensive coach who knows his place and holds no great profile; signings taken from Italy and South America, two markets United sporting director Nicola Salerno knows well. The transfers th...

by Phil Hay The end of the press conference after Leeds United’s defeat to Brighton on Tuesday was more revealing than the press conference itself. “We’re still alive,” David Hockaday said as he left his seat and prepared to leave the room. Managers and coaches are prone to speaking like that but usually in March when death is creeping or the play-offs lie at arm’s length. Still alive after three games. It’s almost a contradiction in terms. On Tuesday the comment was quite appropriate. Hockaday let his guard down. It isn’t customary for a coach as new to the job as him to be talking so defensively, and Sami Hyypia did nothing to betray Brighton’s laboured start to the season, but Hockaday felt the need to shield himself. And so did many of us. For all the holes in his credibility, he’s not a naive man. He knows what’s going on around him and can sense that the balance of support is weighted against him. His throwaway comment on Tuesday was an unwitting appeal for all and sundry – s...

by Nick Westby Billy Sharp has been scoring goals at Championship level since long before Leeds United had become the apple of Massimo Cellino’s eye. The diminutive striker first started tormenting second-tier defences when playing for unfancied Scunthorpe in the 2006-07 season, round about the same time that Mr Cellino was on his 23rd manager at Cagliari. Sharp’s latest goal – some 100-plus strikes later – is one that gives the next man in Cellino’s firing line a precious bit of breathing space. Dave Hockaday had started his tenure in the Leeds dugout in circumstances befitting the most inauspicious of head coaching appointments, but the healing power of a single goal – Sharp’s 87th-minute close-range pounce – can not be under-estimated. It gave validation to Hockaday’s reign, reassurance to the striker that he can still contribute at this level after a couple of nomadic years, and the Elland Road faithful something to smile about at long last after a summer in which there have b...

by Richard Sutcliffe CONSIDERING Accrington Stanley, perennial strugglers since winning promotion to the Football League in 2006, were last night’s visitors, even the most comprehensive of home victories was never going to make it a Glorious Twelfth for Leeds United. Nevertheless, yesterday did prove to be a long overdue day of positivity at Elland Road as safe passage to the Capital One Cup second round was ultimately secured along with considerable progress in the transfer market. Giuseppe Bellusci, a 24-year-old central defender, signed on a season-long loan deal from Serie B side Catania ahead of kick-off, while a fee believed to be in the region of £600,000 was also agreed with Chesterfield for Liam Cooper. The former Hull City apprentice, the subject of two unsuccessful bids from United last month, will travel to West Yorkshire today to discuss personal terms. Also understood to be on his way for talks is Billy Sharp, the former Doncaster and Sheffield United striker, after...

Leeds United are heading for a legal battle with former assistant manager Nigel Gibbs after the 48-year-old quit Elland Road in protest at his “treatment by the club.” Gibbs is preparing to sue Leeds for breach of contract and constructive dismissal following his sudden departure from the coaching staff. The former Watford player - United’s assistant throughout Brian McDermott’s reign as manager - is understood to have left Leeds last Monday after a summer in which he became a peripheral presence at Thorp Arch. Gibbs remained in employment after McDermott and Leeds parted company on May 30 but his role was largely undefined once David Hockaday took charge of the first team as head coach and named Junior Lewis as his assistant. Leeds did not take Gibbs on their summer tour of Italy and he spent much of pre-season observing training sessions at Thorp Arch. He and club owner Massimo Cellino previously discussed the possibility of severing his contract but failed to reach an agreement...

Former Forest Green Rovers manager opens up in an exclusive interview 56-year-old admits he understands the scepticism over his appointment Hockaday refuses to reveal exactly how he became Leeds manager but says he is humbled to get job and promises to give his all Hockaday denies Leeds players had to do their own laundry By MATT LAWTON Quite how Dave Hockaday came to be the head coach at Leeds United remains something of a mystery. Even after more than an hour at the club’s Thorp Arch training ground he is reluctant to reveal much detail. He refuses to name the person who alerted Massimo Cellino to his existence. He won’t even name the London hotel where he first met the eccentric Italian. ‘It’s irrelevant,’ he says sharply, explaining only that ‘someone in footballing circles had been asked to source a good English coach’. Hockaday does appear to have enjoyed some success as a coach and soon has you wondering why it is only now, at 56, that he has risen to prominence. He is pa...

LEEDS United head coach David Hockaday has promised that more new signings will be coming to Elland Road - and left the door open the possibility of taking controversial striker Nile Ranger on trial. Hockaday refused to rule out the option of inviting Ranger to train at Thorp Arch and said further additions to United’s squad were necessary after four transfers in the past fortnight. Italian right-back Gaetano Berardi is set to become Leeds’ fifth summer recruit following successful negotiations between Leeds and Sampdoria but Hockaday expects other deals to materialise before the Championship season starts on August 9. “There are areas where we need to strengthen and it’s not rocket science,” Hockaday said. “We’re working hard to improve those areas.” United’s attacking options were significantly reduced at the start of the month when the club agreed to sell captain and top scorer Ross McCormack to Fulham for £11million. The club took forward Souleymane Doukara on loan from Sassuo...

Leeds United’s players will resume training after a two-day break this afternoon amid persistent rumours that Nile Ranger is poised to begin a trial at Thorp Arch. The controversial striker, who has prior links with United head coach David Hockaday, looks set to be given an unexpected opportunity by Leeds despite the chequered record which has hindered his professional career. Ranger, 23, is without a club after a hamstring injury and disciplinary issues ended his year-long spell at Swindon Town in May. Swindon signed the forward during the summer of 2013, several months after Ranger and Newcastle United agreed to sever his contract at St James’ Park. Ranger’s senior career began at Newcastle but he was embroiled in controversy throughout his time on Tyneside, finally leaving the Premier League club after 62 appearances, most of them made as a substitute. He and Hockaday – himself a former Swindon player – are believed to have crossed paths in 2007 when Ranger was an academy playe...

Training-ground source tells Sportsmail morale in the squad is 'low' Youth-team players are sent out to get sandwiches Laundry service has been axed By CRAIG HOPE Leeds United are preparing to enter into the new season with morale at rock bottom. The club’s players returned to their Thorp Arch training ground last week only to be shocked by the cost-saving measures brought in by new owner Massimo Cellino. The kitchen which used to lay on breakfast and a hot lunch for the squad after training is now closed and youth-team players have been sent out to bring in sandwiches. The laundry service which provides the players with their daily training kit is also gone. And a training-ground source told Sportsmail: ‘It’s ridiculous. It’s all the players can talk about. ‘There is no hot food for the lads and the younger boys have been going out to get sandwiches. ‘The players wouldn’t mind even if they had to pay a few quid for some hot food after training and in the morning but ...

by Phil Hay Massimo Cellino has reiterated his commitment to buying Leeds United’s stadium from its private owners and said he will use funds raised from the sale of Cagliari to repurchase Elland Road. Speaking during the unveiling of David Hockaday as United’s new head coach, Cellino highlighted Elland Road as a priority among his aims at Leeds, saying he was “embarrassed to be a guest in my own house.” The Italian, who has previously promised to buy back the ground before the end of 2014, would need more than £15m to regain ownership of Elland Road for the first time since its controversial sale 10 years ago. The ex-Leeds board led by Gerald Krasner sold the stadium to property developer Jacob Adler in 2004, raising £8m at a time when United were under pressure to repay a substantial loan. Adler negotiated a 25-year lease and also gave the club the right to buy back the ground for a set fee at any stage before 2029. Both the rent and the buy-back cost rise by three per cent annu...

Josh McLoughlin Leeds United have today made the surprising appointment of Dave Hockaday, the former Forest Green Rovers manager. Brian McDermott had to be sacked twice before he actually left Leeds United, but it was still incredibly harsh given the circumstances that he had to work under in the second half of the season. The club's future was up in the air and the team were struggling on the pitch due to the uncertainty. Eventually when Massimo Cellino completed his takeover of the club it wasn't a surprise to see McDermott leave the club. What was a surprise however, was seeing the three names in contention for the job. Eammon Dolan, former Leeds manager Gary McAlllister and the man to eventually get the job Dave Hockaday. Out of the three the general consensus from fans was that they wouldn't mind McAllister returning to the club. Between the three of them there is only around seven years of managerial experience and to take on a job with the magnitude of this one w...

Leeds United’s new head coach Dave Hockaday has vowed to win over the club’s fans following his surprise appointment at Elland Road today. Hockaday’s only previous managerial experience was at Conference side Forest Green Rovers, who he left by mutual consent after a run of seven defeats in eight matches last October. But the 56-year-old former Watford coach, who has signed a two-year contract before being unveiled alongside new assistant Junior Lewis at Elland Road, appeared undaunted by the task that lies ahead. “I wasn’t surprised to get the call because I’d spoken to lots of people and when I met the president (Massimo Cellino) and he talked it was very obvious he knew what he was talking about,” Hockaday said. “It happened and it seemed right and he offered me the job and I accepted.” Hockaday, who said the club had players lined up to strengthen the squad and that Ross McCormack would not be sold, added: “I can eulogise as long as I want about a club the size of Leeds, but ...