Massimo Cellino accused of ending former Leeds United player’s career at Elland Road due to bizarre rule — Leeds United News 18/12/24
Danny Bloomer
Despite still being in the Championship, Leeds United as a
club couldn’t be in a more different position to what they were under Massimo
Cellino.
Cellino spent three years at Elland Road as Leeds’ majority
shareholder and eventually left the club completely in May 2017 when he sold
the remainder of his stake to Andrea Radrizzani.
It is any wonder just how Leeds managed to keep themselves
afloat both on and off the pitch during Cellino’s tenure in charge.
He constantly hired and fired dreadful managers, signed some
atrocious players and was often embroiled in some kind of legal battle, one of
which involved Leeds icon Ross McCormack.
McCormack was one of the only people who dared speak out
about Cellino’s mismanagement at the time, and recently revealed how his move
to Fulham prevented Leeds from going under.
David Norris shared bizarre Cellino rule that ended Leeds
career
Cellino’s first summer window in charge saw him make one of
the most ridiculous appointments in English football history, bringing in Dave
Hockaday from Forest Green. Needless to say he lasted a matter of weeks.
Hockaday’s arrival was also accompanied by 16 new signings,
many of which came from the Italian leagues.
Stuart Taylor (backup goalkeeper) was Leeds’ only signing above
the age of 30 that summer, and speaking on the latest episode of the ‘I had
Trials Once’ Podcast, David Norris has revealed how that ended his career at
the club.
Norris was released on a free transfer a few months before
the end of his contract at Leeds, having not made a single league appearance in
either of his last two seasons in West Yorkshire, due to a rule adopted by
Cellino.
He said: “As soon as we had that mad Italian [Massimo
Cellino] come in and take over, then no one over 30 was to play under his rule.
Stephen Warnock got a few extra games, but he still wasn’t happy. That was the
end of me then.
“We had Dave Hockaday, was manager of Leeds which people
probably won’t remember or realise. He was a non-league manager, I think at
Forest Green and got the job at Leeds under this mad Italian somehow.
“So he [Cellino] was really running the team. I never played
after the first season regularly. I had a good first season but under that
Italian, it was just carnage because you had a right setup at Leeds, we were
well looked after.
“We had the indoor pool that had jets in it, we had a steam
room, saunas, baths, training ground. It was luxury and he just shut it all
down. Turned everything off at the training ground, made us bring in our own
lunches, buy our own socks. It just went, I think he thought, ‘this is £2 per,
this is all change’. The lads didn’t react well at all. It was a shambles.”
Leeds have come a long way since Cellino
Radrizzani was the man who took over from Cellino in 2017
and has also received a lot of stick since he left the club.
Radrizzani’s time at Leeds ended badly for its own reasons
but he progressed the club so much further than Cellino ever did.
Having helped Leeds return to the Premier League, Radrizzani
did end up wasting a lot of the potential it had. However, he left the club in
a much better position for the 49ers to take over.
If Leeds can get back to the top-flight under the 49ers then
you would imagine the ceiling for success is almost endless.