Massimo Cellino

Massimo Cellino (born 1956) is an Italian entrepreneur, football club owner, and convicted fraudster. Cellino is the chairman of the Italian club Cagliari Calcio, and the majority shareholder of the English club Leeds United A.F.C.

Cellino has a deep suspicion of the number 17, a number he considers unlucky. At Cagliari's stadium Cellino had the number 17 removed from seats and replaced with 16b. Cellino has a dislike for the colour purple. He also plays guitar in the cover band Maurillos.

Cellino has properties in Leeds and in Miami, Florida.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massimo_Cellino

"We are not sick, we are not in the hospital, we can survive. We can heal, it's a cold," says Cellino of Leeds' current plight, in abysmal form and with accounts for the 2012-13 financial year reporting annual losses of £9.5m. "Now I'm driving the bus. Now the bus is ours and we have to run the bus. The other driver [before] is not my problem – he can sit on the bench, he can go fishing."

Cellino, whichever way you look at him, is one of the more maverick characters to have entered the English game for years. Now living in a city-centre Leeds apartment as well as in Miami, he has a suspicion of the number 17, like many in Italy, and the colour purple – at the IS Arena in Sardinia there is no seat 17, only 16 and 16b.

On Tuesday he asked a member of the press, sincerely, if he would like to play with him in his rock band Maurilios in front of 25,000 people. On Wednesday he was chatting with supporters at a pub near Elland Road and later in the evening was spotted strolling around town talking jovially with passers-by. What next?

 "I am an unusual owner. I look after everything: the grass, the cooking. I want to know what they [the players] eat, they drink, where they go on their night out, I want to know everything about the players and employees. If they need something, if they need help, I must be there."

"It has the potential, like a Ferrari," Cellino says of Leeds. "They got really pissed in Sardinia because I said we [Cagliari] had a beautiful Cinquecento, big wheels and everything. Leeds is potentially a Ferrari, now it's a Cinquecento. I want to transform Leeds from Highway to Hell to Stairway to Heaven. You are not going to be bored with me."
James Riach
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/apr/10/massimo-cellino-owner-leeds-united

The debacle surrounding Leeds United plummeted even further into the abyss after the owner of the Leeds United internet radio station called White Leeds Radio managed to cold call Massimo Cellino, and the pair talked for 22 minutes about various aspects of the club.

The call will be cited a further evidence of the complete shambles that is engulfing Leeds United at the moment as Massimo Cellino, who recently had his takeover bid for the Whites rejected, gav ea no-holds-barred interview with the Leeds fan. Cellino is appealling that decision.

During the conversation, prospective Leeds owner Cellino labelled Whites’ managing director David Haigh “a son of a bitchh, dangerous, a fucking devil.”

Cellino also described the current Leeds United side as the worst football team he’s ever seen and criticised Brian McDermott for spending too much time moaning and not enough time coaching.

The only people who were praised by Cellino were the Leeds fans. The Italian remarked “Fans are not for sale, they have feeling and you don’t buy feeling. You can buy a bitch for one night, but you don’t buy the love my friend.”
http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/the-incredible-phonecall-in-which-massimo-cellino-tore-into-david-haigh-during-cold-call-from-leeds-fan-audio/

His culling of coaches at Cagliari is a notorious trademark and he was at it again this week, firing Diego Lopez after Cagliari lost at home to Roma. There was sympathy in a severance statement which said the sacking was “extremely painful” and described Lopez as “a professional man” but he has gone – the 36th coach dismissed by Cellino in 22 years.

Lopez was lucky to survive in February when to all intents and purposes he was on his way out. Cagliari’s players complained, the sand shifted behind the scenes and when the music stopped, Cellino sacked assistant Ivo Pulga instead, accusing him of disloyalty. Pulga is back at Cagliari now, named as Lopez’s replacement.

Is English football ready for this? And is English football any better? The cuts are usually cleaner here but Leeds United, Cellino’s new project, have no track record for managerial survival.

“The coach gets a chance because he has a job,” Cellino says. “If I give the coach a job, he has a chance with me. If he doesn’t do it then what? What should I do? Come on!”

“I was raised as a manager, not as a bulls**t president who puts his tie on, eats some roast beef and f***s off home. I look after everything.” He runs his fingers along the steel girder above the doors to the Harewood Suite in Elland Road’s East Stand. It’s filthy, though you hardly notice until he unsettles the dust. “Who cleans this? No-one. What are you doing here? I don’t work this way and everybody has to be like me. Everybody."
Phil Hay
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/sport/leeds-united/latest-whites-news/leeds-united-exclusive-massimo-cellino-interview-part-2-1-6557395 


Massimo Cellino Interview Sky Sports News #LUFC... by WeAreLeedsMOT