The Super(ish) Leeds United Thread

Started by Rufus T Firefly, January 25, 2007, 08:14:53 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Tony Baloney

Quote from: Minder on January 01, 2013, 02:39:34 PM
Might belong in the WTF thread, a young Leeds supporter gets "blacked up" for his hero Diouf


http://t.co/kQS895VE
I would like to see what the parents are like! Idiots.

screenexile

What the absolute f**k??!!

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jul/03/massimo-cellino-leeds-united-paddy-kenny

Quote

Massimo Cellino axes Paddy Kenny from Leeds over date of birth
• Cellino says number 17 is unlucky - Kenny's birthday is 17 May
• Goalkeeper is second-highest earner at the club

Massimo Cellino Massimo Cellino had seat number 17 removed from his former club Cagliari's ground and replaced with 16B. Photograph: Daniel Hambury/PA

The increasingly bizarre world of Leeds United has taken another turn for the strange after it emerged that Massimo Cellino, their maverick new owner, has such a dislike of the number 17 it has turned him against one of the club's key players who was born on that date.

Cellino is so suspicious of the number 17 that he had the seats at his former club, Cagliari, taken out and replaced with 16B. Now he has instructed the new Leeds head coach, Dave Hockaday, not to select Paddy Kenny after discovering that the goalkeeper's birthday is on 17 May and concluding that he is bad luck for the Championship club. Kenny, the second-highest earner at Leeds on £10,000 a week, has been left at home while the other players embark on a pre-season trip to Italy and he will not play for the club again.

Cellino, who also has a fear of purple, has separate issues about Kenny allegedly being overweight but is said to have reacted emotionally when he found out the 36-year-old goalkeeper had a connection with the number 17.

The Italian's superstition about that number is so strong he has told Hockaday it must not form part of the squad list next season. Michael Brown previously wore 17 for Leeds but was released at the end of the season.

The issue goes back to Cellino's time in Italian football when he says there was only one occasion in 20 years that Cagliari won or drew a game on the 17th of a month. In a recent interview, he remembered that victory and put it down to him asking the club's supporters to wear the dreaded purple to the game. "The whole stadium was purple on the 17th. We won because I think that bad luck is like algebra: minus and minus is positive. Purple and 17 ... they became positive and we won. That's the only time."

Cellino completed his takeover of Leeds in April but only after an appeal against the Football League's decision to try to block him entry on the grounds he had a previous conviction for fraud.

Since then, he has sacked Brian McDermott and unexpectedly brought in Hockaday, who had been out of work for eight months after leaving his previous club, Forest Green, on the back of a run of seven defeats in eight games.

Leeds are now embarking on a cost-cutting process that has seen the canteen at their training ground closed down, meaning the players have to take packed lunches or send out for sandwiches. The players are also being made to pay to have their kits washed. Hockaday will not have control of transfer business and Cellino intends to flood the squad with free signings and cheap Italian imports. Stuart Taylor, who left Reading at the end of the season, has joined Leeds to take over from Kenny.

Billys Boots

It's Twilight Zone stuff, as if we weren't used to that already - I'm (almost) pining for Dave O'Leary.
My hands are stained with thistle milk ...

AZOffaly

I heard that Paddy Kelly was released by Leeds there last week, after the mad owner said that he wouldn't play for the club again because his Birth date is the 17th of May, and your man has a phobia about the number 17. Crazy stuff.


Mourne Rover

Cellino is a colourful figure but some of the stories surrounding him can be placed in the urban legend category. The keeper is Paddy Kenny, not Kelly, and he has had a few ups and downs along the way. The reports that he turned up for pre-season training more than a stone overweight almost certainly had more to do with his departure than his birthday. Cellino had also lined up a pretty decent young Italian keeper on a competitive wage, so spreading a few rumours about unlucky numbers may have had the desired effect. However, on the basis of last night's result, it could be another long hard season for Leeds anyway.

AZOffaly

Quote from: Mourne Rover on August 20, 2014, 12:48:31 PM
Cellino is a colourful figure but some of the stories surrounding him can be placed in the urban legend category. The keeper is Paddy Kenny, not Kelly, and he has had a few ups and downs along the way. The reports that he turned up for pre-season training more than a stone overweight almost certainly had more to do with his departure than his birthday. Cellino had also lined up a pretty decent young Italian keeper on a competitive wage, so spreading a few rumours about unlucky numbers may have had the desired effect. However, on the basis of last night's result, it could be another long hard season for Leeds anyway.

Sorry I meant Paddy Kenny. Don't know where I got Kelly. I have a neighbour called Paddy Kelly, maybe that's it.

Denn Forever

I have more respect for a man
that says what he means and
means what he says...

SLIGONIAN

I just moved over to London to work and was over last weekend for the Dolphins as I am huge fan, was great, but also I went to brentford without a ticket, both sets of fans were mixing outside the ground in what was a very friendly atmosphere, I got a ticket at face value and went into the Leeds away end, the leeds fans were a credit to the club, not a hint of trouble, we played terrible and only for silvestri we would have been hammered,

Cellino is a nut job, way to public with his mouth and way too emotional in his decision making, he has huge influence in the team selection, will be interesting to see if he buys back elland rd in November as he promised, I presume ye know outer ex chairman David haigh is in jail in Dubai since may, there's a book being written by ex LUST chairman Gary cooper about the last few yrs goings on at Leeds, should make interesting reading
"hard work will always beat talent if talent doesn't work"

BennyHarp

That was never a square ball!!

Syferus


RealSpiritof98

Seen this on twitter, thought it was funny....

QuoteClocks go back tonight, so if Leeds appointed a new manager at 1.30 am, they could actually sack him half an hour before before he started.

muppet

Quote from: RealSpiritof98 on October 25, 2014, 10:28:19 PM
Seen this on twitter, thought it was funny....

QuoteClocks go back tonight, so if Leeds appointed a new manager at 1.30 am, they could actually sack him half an hour before before he started.

;D ;D
MWWSI 2017

Rufus T Firefly

Quote from: AZOffaly on August 20, 2014, 01:02:45 PM
Sorry I meant Paddy Kenny. Don't know where I got Kelly. I have a neighbour called Paddy Kelly, maybe that's it.

Does the Paddy you know play? Is he doing anything most Saturdays?

I don't think this is going to be the normal season of despair - this one could be spent flirting with relegation!!  :(

Billys Boots

Despair doesn't normally set in until after Xmas - it's here before Halloween this year.  Looked better than Rotherham last week and folded; looked better than Wolves this week and folded.  Pattern for definite despair.
My hands are stained with thistle milk ...

Rufus T Firefly

When Leeds got relegated in May 1982, it would be eight long seasons outside the top flight before they returned in August 1990. Those eight years seemed like a lifetime. However, when Leeds take the field next season in the Championship, it will be the twelfth season outside the top flight and yet for me personally somehow it doesn't seem as long. I don't know if that's because I'm considerably older and time moves more quickly, or these twelve seasons have been more of a rollercoaster ride than 82 - 90 with a further relegation, promotion and a number of play-offs covering the intervening years. Either way though, there doesn't seem to be any basis for optimism that the twelve years will not become thirteen and fourteen and fifteen and.......

As usual last season there were the ups and downs to fill any supporter with both unreasonable optimism and absolute despair. Early season form (pre Hallowe'en) suggested that a promotion push was well within their grasp but a long and indifferent run of form from November to about February resurrected the relegation fears. Another good run in the Spring raised again the flicker of hope that we might sneak a play-off spot but that was crushed under foot by an abysmal end of season run that somehow found a fitting end with a dull and uninspired 0-0 draw at home to Rotherham.

There were an awful lot of sub plots within the season just gone - a number of Italian players were brought in - Silvestri and Antenucci were both positives and although he could be a liability with his disciplinary record, I liked Giuseppe Bellusci as he played with a bit of passion - a rare commodity. However the issue with the Italian contingent was clouded by the non appearance away to Charlton which was itself shrouded in controversy. Another Italian who went missing of course was the boss himself, Massimo Cellino, although he made a late season return after serving his ban. However he is now again the subject of an FA investigation around transfer activity.

What the future holds is unclear. Leeds appear to want to get our promising young players tied down to contracts and there are talks of a change in our kit provider (Macron to Kappa) which might prompt a visit to the courts. However the big question going forward will be ownership and what the intentions of the owners are regarding investment. As always with Leeds, the future is as clear as mud.