Massimo Cellino – Leeds takeover??
Reports coming from out of Italy tonight, notably in the La Gazzetta dello Sport and the Corriere dello Sport, strongly indicate that Leeds United AFC has been taken over by Cagliari president Massimo Cellino. Both papers claim the deal for the Championship club is essentially complete, although news outlets in the UK are being somewhat more cautious.
Nothing has been heard from Leeds United FC so far, nor from GFH or David Haigh himself. Doubtless more news and reaction will follow tomorrow. There have been suggestions that Cellino would not find it a straightforward matter to pass the “fit and proper person” test – but at a club for whom Ken Bates was deemed fit and proper, nothing is impossible.
Meanwhile, reports that David Haigh woke up this morning to find a horse’s head in bed next to him are reckoned to be exaggerated.
TOMA or no TOMA – Noi tutti amiamo Leeds!!
Life, Leeds United, the Universe & Everything 
It was a donkeys head and now there’s a vacancy for the number 11 shirt.
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That was comment number 4000 on #LLUUE Mick – thanks 🙂
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A marciare insieme verso la terra promessa. In avanti e verso l’alto con Massimo. Bella!
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Bloody right an’ all.
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Mama mia!
One of the East Stand boxes will have to be hermetically-sealed so he can chain-smoke himself to death in there.
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im baffled with this…. for months we are talking about a logical takeover with local businessmen and Haigh staying in charge then suddenly overnight we are being sold to a megalomaniac Italian……. putting aside the obvious concerns about his psychological stability…does this guy actually have any money
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What a load of bull (not red may i add) oh so la meo
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Kenolini Batesasimmo is the fixer in this deal !!
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Great,what do i win? Such a shame for the scum tonight,having to suffer the heartbreak of a penalty shoot out defeat. Ha ha. Thats rooney gone then,he’s been attracted to the “pensioners” for some strange reason. He’s ran out of elderly ladies with negotiable affections in the north west it seems aswell.
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Keep ’em coming 🙂
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I think that I may have misjudged this Calgliari, He sings and plays in a band so he can’t be all that bad. He seems to be a bit of a nutter and totally unsuitable for Leeds United – so, it must be true!
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Can only happen to Leeds!! Not sure of his wealth but also don’t know the Riches within Haigh’s consortium either. My view: Haigh and partners love Leeds but love the potential to sell on for big profits even more. That is if we ever get back to the prem (possible an educated gamble). Mad Italian would stay and would give us a laugh if nothing else. He is a proper nutter but in a much better way than W********R Ken.
ps come on the Black Cats!! love it
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Something we can all agree with (that last bit) 🙂
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I don’t agree with it. I think they are both as bad as each other. Look at the bit about not holding a player’s career back. Consider the dodginess about the stadia.
And you’d like stability, would you? He’s sacked 20 managers or something. If this is true we may as well give up. He obviously isn’t prone to funding transfers in, he prefers to think of insane reasons to sell.
Told you someone was pulling a fast one.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cagliari_Calcio#Managerial_history
http://www.football-italia.net/44204/report-cellino-buys-leeds-united
(And get rid of all this bloody blue, OK?)
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Everyone’s told me at some point that every party is pulling a fast one; also that they’re all on the up-and-up & straight as a die. There’s a LOT of opinion out there.
As for the colour – you have a perfect right to specify exactly the background you desire, just as soon as you make a donation of at least £500.00 🙂
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At least Ken got building permits for HIS grandiose monument.
In Elland Rd did Kenny Khan
A gradeley Pleasuredome decree (well alright, some cream cladding and a casino).
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This is insane. Next thing we’re going to find out is that LUFC is going to move it’s operations over to Italy and play there next season! When’s our first game at San Siro? I said yesterday for us to give things a chance to work out…but that’s sorta tough when we have a different owner every month!
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Rob – as an exiled leeds fan, abroad for many years, now in London, I wanted to say thanks for this great site. I don’t always agree with you, but your passion for Leeds is fantastic – mirrored by so many other fans. I just wish – just once – things could be straight forward at Leeds. But his latest takeover talk doesn’t sound like that wish will come true. And as you said above, if Ken Bates is seen as fit and proper, then this guy shouldn’t have too much of a problem. I just hope we are not into a re-run of Batesgate. I fear we might be…..
Best wishes and thanks – Andy
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Cheers Andy – I reckon it’s not about agreeing all the time (how boring would that be??) – but about each of us loving our wonderful, maddening club – and getting our views out there. MOT
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What have we done to deserve this torment??? The Haigh consortium must have been the right move for us – that would explain why we are going to be fed to a mad Italian. We always take the wrong turn at the fork in the road.
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im so surprised our favourite online blogging hermit hasnt picked up on this story yet!its just like him to be about a week late though!
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BBC Leeds is tonight reporting that Cellino has spoken to the Sports Capital consortium but nobody has sold him any shares. That sounds like it came from Sports Capital. You would need two sets of confirmations, one from SC and one from GFH, to absolutely say there is no conversation going on, and at the moment we only have one.
The whole issue at the moment looks to me like:
– Sports Capital were tightening the screws on the deal. GFH were over a barrel because they had a public requirement to start paying off their $100m restructuring debt. The more money SC put in, the less room for manoeuvre GFH had.
– Gazetta reports Cellino has been talking to GFH for a while, initially through intermediaries. GFH need some kind of lever to avoid getting taking to the cleaners.
– Substantial new liabilities to SC would force their hand, or at least scare off their stalking horse, hence the refusal to allow the Barnes deal.
– The fact of the SC deal has been public since November makes the surge in GFH value on the gulf exchanges a bit weird, so maybe it leaked that GFH felt their position was now stronger.
All the above is guesswork btw.
I still think GFH will do the deal with SC but the availability of viable alternatives gives them a negotiating position they didn’t have before , hence the negotiating going on.
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Who the ffff’g hell is talking to who?. Apart from the Italian and Mr Macron….. they all work for the same bloody bank don’t they?. Salem, David, Noodlesguy, Head gfh arab, etc, etc. Is this a game of poker they’re playing?.
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It IS a tad confusing, is it not? Someone should be accountable for all the stress that’s being caused out here as the various parties prat about with OUR club.
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This is the karma that falls on Leeds fans when people start talking about Glenn Hoddle.
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I do not know, whether the SC lot were right for Leeds. I am unsure about this chap who owns the team in Sardinia without a football stadium of their own. Mind you Leeds are only renting currently. At least if the Italian has completed / about to compete the job, it does appear that he has not messed about. I suppose you could call it an “Italian Job.”
It looks like another season gone. I hope we can get enough results together to finish with dignity. Will next season be better. Who knows, I will all to hoping that we move forward. NO MORE FALSE DAWNS PLEASE!
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Makes sense, except that GFC are supposed to have given SC exlusivity. If they’ve torn that up they’d need some justification.
And if this is true then blame Haigh for tightening the screws. He should have just bought the damn club like he said he was going to and done the agreed deal.
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I got it wrong, Corleoneclone has sacked 37 managers. And he has 2 convictions for fraud. That’s 2 more than Bad Santa. Hoping the Football League will block him, though as I’ve said before, they’d love us to stay down here and pay to get into the Wendy House and the Riverdance Stadium – so if this is happening it will probably be waved through the instant the window closes in the hope that they can ban us from transfers while Haigh sues.
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If this all goes tits up, the main thing that will suffer will be the teams results., After the performance against Festa we should be taking positives, this unrest and indecision will be the killing of us. Sort it out now already and stop fucking with our great club
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Che cazzo sta succedendo di roberto ?
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Cazzo sa, Signor Arancione!
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anche se non si sa poi che possibilita abbiamo noi roberto ,
tra l’altro la combiazino di colori e meglio
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Io sono così incompetenti come chiunque altro qui fuori Signor Arancione!
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Phil collins plays in a band, but it doesn’t make him any less of a TW-T. There will no doubt be one or two unpopular decisions made if this loony chap takes over,but on the brightside at least Lorimer will get pedalled from the club aswell as colins signings . Hopefully it will also shut up LUST and put an end to “open letters”. Although i did think it was wrong of bates to make public how many matches the LUST leader attended, as i know for a fact he has two season tickets,one for each cheek.
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Been biding a bit of time before commenting ….. For one I am pro italian already there are reports from Italian media the deal is done, great get it done. However Won’t believe this until the club makes a statement. I drive an Italian car and ride italian push bikes , lots of style made with passion and love, there are knockers by others on lack of reliability …. Until proven otherwise and I may eat my words, this could be good, an off the wall patron could line up some very lucrative personalities into our club, the club we share with passion and love, my product is reliable and is the muts nuts in style. As much as I would love an English club under English management and English owners ….. That’s cuckoo land we are generally as bust as GFH ( the English) …. England doesn’t produce many multi millionaires . If this guy is already talking up a new manager as much as I endorse McDermott , this would shut up those amongst us that want instant success. Think he needs to see what is in place before such drastic measures ….. However he is successful and success breeds success, let him have a crack However I won’t believe until it is shouted from the ramparts of Elland Rd. It can’t get any worst ……. Can it . ???????
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Bunga-bunga party, anyone?
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