Leeds United: The “Manager-Eater” Takes Pole Position… Or Does He?

Editorial | Article posted on January 31st, 2025

Leeds United: The "Manager-Eater" Takes Pole Position… Or Does He?
By Ian on Jan 30, 2025 in Finance, Latest | 1 comment

So the ongoing saga of the take-over of Leeds United has taken another few twists and turns this week, and now nobody on the outside of the matter seems to have the first clue what, exactly, is going on at Elland Road. It had been widely expected that a purchase of the club by the Sport Capital group, fronted by the millionaire Andy Flowers and the current club's managing director David Haigh would be done and dusted by now. Since the end of March, it had seemed as if their takeover of the club was all but a done deal. Over the last few days, however, this deal has spectacularly come apart at the seams, with a character waiting in the wings who, in spite of his huge personal wealth, has filled many of the club's supporters with a degree of apprehension.
Massimo Cellino is, for the time being at least, the owner of the Italian club Cagliari, and it is perhaps unsurprising that the early reports regarding his interest in Leeds United largely focussed upon his activities as the owner of that club. Cellino has become known as a 'mangiaallenatori' in Italy, which translates as a 'manager eater', on account of his apparent lack of patience when dealing with the individuals charged with running the playing side of his team for him. Since he took ownership of the club twenty years ago, a total of thirty-six coaches have been shown the door at Cagliari, not a figure that will inspire confidence amongst supporters who hope that a change of ownership might lead to a period of stability at a club that has been in a state of flux for more than ten years, now.
While the appeal of such a headline figure to newspapers is obvious, though, this only tells one part of the story of Massimo Cellino, and there is a far larger partof his story which raises considerable questions over his fitness to be the custodian of a football club. In February of last year, Cellino and the mayor of Cuartu Sant'Aleni, a city near Cagliari on Sardinian, Mauro Contini, were arrested and imprisoned on suspicion of attempted embezzlement and false representation relating to the development of the Is Arena, a stadium to which Cagliari had briefly moved in 2025 after a dispute with the council over the use of their previous home. However, their stay there was brief and unhappy. A match against Roma had to be postponed, whilst another against Juventus was switched Parma and a match against Milan saw the stadium initially not granted a safety

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