Mighty Leeds Weblog

OOOOOO THIS IS DECENT Written by: Rob Conlon If you had asked me to guess which footballers were invited to Liam Cooper’s wedding, the summer sun would have changed for the bleak skies of winter before I mentioned the name Scott Wootton. Paudie O’Connor maybe? What about Vurnon Anita? Didn’t Souleymane Doukara RSVP? I’m yet to see any of them in the photos, but there’s Scott Wootton — and look how happy Kalvin is to see him! Without wanting to be rude to Wootton, it made me wonder what he had done to be invited that Jason Pearce hadn’t. While Wootton was flying to Ibiza for the big do after ending the season in the A-League with Wellington Phoenix, Pearce was announcing his retirement from playing after spending the last six years with Charlton. His interview with Charlton’s official YouTube channel is a sombre watch; Pearce wanted to play for one more season but was told it wouldn’t be with Charlton, and none of the offers he got to continue were as appealing as a gig coaching C...

by Matt Barker A big, bad, mad centre- half, you say? Sold. Giuseppe Bellusci first surfaced at Ascoli in 2007, then a Serie A club. He made his debut at age 18 (still something of a rarity in Italy, never a country for young men). His strong physique (“he’s a beast” said an approving Ascoli coach Nedo Sonetti) was matched with decent pace and awareness, earmarking him as one of the Italian game’s most promising central defenders, spoken of in the same terms as Fabio Cannavaro. Bellusci’s from Calabria, the same region of Italy as Rino Gattuso, but doesn’t share the former Milan midfielder’s pantomime villain histrionics. Instead, there’s a quiet determination about him, one that quickly saw the player linked with a number of Serie A high-hitters (Napoli in particular). Opting instead to sign for Catania (“I like the idea of playing at a smaller club, you’re allowed more space” – that’ll please the Leeds fans), Bellusci spent five seasons in Sicily. The team initially had the Euro...

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...