Current Avatar:
No Avatar image uploaded
No Avatar image uploaded
Leeds Rumours Member Posts
leelufc's Profile
leelufc's Posts and Other Poster's Replies To leelufc's Posts
To leelufc's last 5 rumours posts
To leelufc's last 5 banter posts
To leelufc's last 5 rumour replies
leelufc's rumours posts with other poster's replies to leelufc's rumours posts
05 Feb 2014 18:27:37
flowers out of takeover race
leelufc's banter posts with other poster's replies to leelufc's banter posts
06 Feb 2014 19:42:50
Cellino interview from www.ft.com/companies/retail and consumer.
Massimo Cellino, the Italian businessman says he expects to have "no problem" in being approved as the new owner of Leeds United and that his purchase of the football club should complete next week.
Mr Cellino, who swooped on the club after a bid from local businessmen collapsed last week, is paying about £25m for a 75 per cent stake from owners GFH Capital.
He told the Financial Times that he was confident he would be approved as a suitable owner by the Football League, despite a past conviction for false accounting.
Mr Cellino blamed the "jealousy" in Italian football for the 2001 false accounting case. He was also convicted of fraud in 1996 but cleared on appeal.
He said he was selling his Serie A club Cagliari because he was "tired and fed up" of Italian football and he did not have the energy to run two clubs.
"It is not going to be a problem, " he said of the League test because standards in Italy were high. "I have owned a club for 22 years. I have a lot of experience."
Since Mr Cellino's conviction is spent under English law and he received a suspended sentence, it should not prevent him passing the Football League's test of whether he is fit to own a club, according to Mr Cellino's lawyer.
Leeds would be owned by an English company, Mr Cellino said, of which he would hold 9.5 per cent, with his family in overall control. Their first act would be to buy back the club's 40,000-capacity Elland Road stadium.
Mr Cellino said he would install himself as president of Leeds, move to Yorkshire and have a hands-on approach to player recruitment. He would invest in the academy and scour the world to buy players.
Leeds borrowed £1.5m from Mr Cellino last week to help pay the championship club's wage bill. It is robustly contesting a winding up petition from Enterprise Insurance, the club sponsor. Andrew Flowers, managing director of Enterprise, and the company itself, are owed about £4m, according to people familiar with the situation.
Mr Cellino said he had the money necessary to buy and invest in the lossmaking club and would meet the Football League on Wednesday.
"On Thursday I am going to the bank and I will buy our stadium. I have the funds to buy Leeds and to run Leeds."
He pledged to return the club, which had average crowds of more than 30,000 when it was in the top flight, to the Premier League in his first full season in charge and keep it there. "A club like Leeds has big potential. I want to see Leeds United versus Manchester United like it used to be. I want to make the fans happy. I know what it means to be a fan."
Leeds was English champion three times before relegation from the Premier League in 2004, but suffered a brief spell in administration in 2007. GFH, a Bahrain private equity fund, bought the club in 2012 and has invested £20m.
1.) 06 Feb 2014 20:24:18
Sounds good to me!
2.) I will have a bit of that!
3.) A "Hands on approach to player recruitment", surely means he finds the players, buts them and Mac coaches them, can't see Mac going along with that so I fear when Cellino comes in, Mac goes out unless he feels they can compromise, don't think Cellino is one to compromise though, we shall see.
4.) Finally someone with passion for our club. not a word I don't agree with in Cellino's interview.
In regards to player recruitment - I think he is on about developing the academy, so I have a feeling he is going to look for young prospects to bring in from around the world or maybe he feels he can negotiate the deals better than the chief executive (can't be any worse than Shaun Harvey was).
5.) Think MCD would prefer someone elses signings to no signings at all.
05 Feb 2014 19:01:32
Cellino owners and directors test news updates removed from football league official website, now saying this page will be updated soon, check back later, good news or bad news?
1.) Depends on your point of view. I don't see how he can fail the test. I'm now 95% sure Cellino will be the owner within a week unless he himself decides to walk.
I guess whatever our views as individuals we may as well just accept it and move on.
Read his tweet too, think he will defo move on in the summer and who could blame him, our great club has become a laughin stock, let's back the team and boo the owners, marchin on together (massive respect to ross)