A lot of people seem to be spreading incorrect ideas about what could happen concerning any takeover our club. Firstly Terry Riley, he is NOT part of the rival consortium bidding for the club. He was part of the Sport Capital bid which collapsed. As far as is currently known, the consortium in talks with GFH today is fronted by Mike Farnan, Frank Devoy, Gary Verity, Adam Pearson and now Andrew Flowers. Secondly is the idea that Cellino took Cagliari from the lower reaches of Italian football and established them in Serie A, this is also wrong. Cagliari were already in Serie A when Cellino took over and have been relegated to Serie B twice while he has been in charge, and while in Seriea A have more often than not been fighting relegation. People also seem to think that Cellino would be willing to pump money into the club to push us forward. While he may be personally very wealthy, his record at Cagliari does not suggest this would be the case at all, with Cagliari having received more money from transfers during his reign than they have spent. People can all have their own opinions but some need to do more to research the facts rather than take twitter gossip as read.
BUT - not knocking what you have said Simon, just trying to take a few positives out of what could be a new man in charge. For half a decade and more, Cellino has wrestled with Cagliari’s mayor and the local authorities for permission to move his club out of their decrepit Stadio Sant’Elia ground and into a new custom-built arena. Sant’Elia is a wreck, capable of holding no more than 5,000 fans for league games, that suggests he must have put an awful amount of money in. They have also reached the EUFA cup semi final and two Italian cup semi finals. In 2007 he has established a youth football team in Florida the “Cagliari Strike Force”, with intentions it should become a branch of Cagliari. An investment in a virgin land for football. The new team has already achieved excellent results in the local area - willing to invest in youth? The point I am making is GFH or Cellino - Give me the Italian
All looks true from what I've read simon. The counters to it are: 1. He did seem to want to grow Cagliari but was stymied re stadium plans etc as ristac says... and their fanbase was tiny. Hard for them to mix it with the big boys in Italy. 2. Leeds are worth more in the premiership than they are in the championship... In terms of wealth generation/turnover and future sales value. There's precious little left to cream off at the moment. If we assume (that it's not just an ego/toy matter) and he wants to make money, he needs to get leeds to the prem. If it's just a toy, who knows what his plans are. Who knows if he has a plan? Regardless of his history with Cagliari I think there's an argument he would put his hand in his pocket in the short term at least. Not saying he will, not saying I want him, just saying we can't necessarily extrapolate from what he's done with Cagliari.
There isn't a team at this present moment in time who I believe could survive more than one season in the PL with a 5,000 attendance. Reading other reports the reason he sells players is because they ask to leave.
The reason their current stadium is a wreck is because Cellino refused to keep up with the payments for its upkeep. When Cellino took over it had a capacity nearly taht of Elland Road and had hosted 3 matches in the 1990 World Cup. To comment on its recent state is to comment on the state Cellino has presided over it falling into.
Always two sides to a coin, some will say he refused others will say it was a corrupt mayor, either way he wanted to build a brand spanking new stadium and keeping a team in the top flight with 5,000 fans is not an easy task. You have to look at both sides, you cannot say he doesn't invest much into a team and he sells the best players and use it as an excuse to knock him when you hear they only get a 5k gate and the best players ask to leave because it is just a small club. I am not saying he is an angel and I am not saying you are wrong, I don't know if he will spend money or not, you don't know either. I believe he will based on both sides of the coin you believe he won't I have just TWO concerns at the moment, one he sacks too many managers and two he buys players that the manager doesn't ask for.
And yet Cellino is looked upon as a hero to Cagliari fans, hmm...strange that. Misinformation works both ways Simon, there must be more to it than that, Italian politics etc. it's not all black and white. So he destroyed their ground and the Cagliari fans stood by and watched? Don't think so. And yet they still think highly of him. From what you're saying, if Cellino takes over we'd be playing in a ground like Yeovil's in a few years time. Yeah I'm sure he'd invest upwards of £30m to let that happen.
Make any effort to read the thoughts of real Cagliari fans and you'll see the situation's far more confident than you're making out. He moved to Miami because 1. He "doesn't want to be in prison again" (not dodgy at all that, eh?) and 2. He was receiving threats from Cagliari fans. He has a Bates style list of fans who aren't allowed to attend games because they oppose his running of the club. When asked directly on twitter about Cellino the guy who runs a Cagliari fan site replied "better to lose than to find! Tyrannical, undemocratic and unpredictable person". Some real hero worship there.
People keep bringing up the 5,000 average attendance for this season. That is true, but look deeper and you'll see that their attendances have been shrinking year upon year for the last 7 seasons, they're down 57% on last year alone, heck in 98/99 they managed ~21,500. Cagliari aren't some tiny club punching well above their weight, they have a scudetto to their name, it's hardly a miracle for them to be in Serie A.
Indeed it would appear that the Cagliari stadium, with a capacity of 40,000 when Cellino took control of the club, was restructured in 2002 due to dwindling crowds leaving it with a capacity of 23,000.
Lads i live in Italy i speak Italian,i know Italian footy,I know Cellino, This guy will kill your club and kill your fanbase HE makes Ken Bates look like the madonna To say Cagliari fans think highly of him is soooooo funny he has destroyed what was once a great club with a fantastic stadium and massive fan base and now wants out If you want all that for Leeds go get him Italy doesnt want him hes all yours.....
ristac makes the best two points against having this nutter as chairman ... 1) he sacks too many managers too easily, 2) he buys players the manager doesn't want ... that is just dynamite ... how would we react if GFH signed Pedro Los Dross from Santa Maria for £1m, and McD gets told to bench McCormack and play Dross instead? Exactly!! Nope, Cellino is dangerous for our club, he took an established Serie A team with a good history and turned them into Norwich ... they have never finished higher than ninth under Cellino, no ambition just a public outlet for his ego to be stroked Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
If he turns Leeds into Norwich he would have done well Joking apart surely the decisions he has made already is enough to show you what he is all about and he aint bought the club yet ffs
Jonny GFH said they had a 2 year plan to get you back to where you belong With a 10-15 points deduction its still possible
