Cellino faces first footballing crisis at Leeds United

Article by Gwyn Hughes

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The way Leeds United have started the season is pretty hard for me to stomach. To be sure most of us knew that this season would be as Dave Hockaday has stated many times 'a work in progress', but I still didn't expect to witness the same calibre of poor displays as was evident last season. The recent heavy loss at Watford seems to be the straw that breaks the camel's back with Massimo Cellino reportedly ready to sack David Hockaday after only four games into the new season.

As fans witnessing these abject displays every week, it's becoming increasingly clear that something is still awry at the club. Stability off the field has been re-assured and I think the faithful fans of Leeds are united in being thankful to Cellino for saving the club from a position that doesn't bear thinking about. But on the pitch clearly it will take longer than all of us envisaged (including Cellino) and as typical footie fans we are impatient to see our club improve in the Championship and progress towards the Premier League.

But the continuing conundrum persists in the minds of fans - should the blame for the disappointing displays be directed at the players or the coach? Or are we in deeper trouble and have problems with both? No doubt Cellino will decide which and we all hope that he gets it right. The last thing we want is another cheap trick and another surprise appointment from him.

When Man. Utd realised they made a mistake with David Moyes they made sure that they got a top name in to replace him.

Leeds must do the same. Cellino needs to repair a loss of credibility, especially with the media. Reporters and pundits are already sharpening their put-down puns with headlines that will again make Leeds a laughing stock in the footballing world. It's time to get the big guns out and show everybody he means business.

In my view if we have the wrong coach then we will see inept performances from the players. There needs to be a direction from the coach to instruct the players how to play the opposition, which changes with every game. I have no idea how Hockaday coaches, and what he is telling the players how to approach each game, but just because I don't doesn't mean he is not doing so. He may well be doing his homework for all I know.

In hindsight, we will never know if the players who played for us last season would have played better if another manager was in place. This season we are again on the back of our manager because we are seeing the same rubbish displays. We may play okay for some periods of the games but in the those times when we're not we are being mercilessly punished, and only get something out of the game if the other team fails to take advantage. I think the Middlesborough game went this way.

Hockaday will go, eventually. With Cellino's reputation for firing managers it was always going to be inevitable, and Hockaday should have been aware of that from the beginning. It's a question of when and it looks like it's going to be sooner rather than later. As some reports are already speculating his demise he may well have gone by the time this post is published. And it would not be a surprise to be honest. There is great dissatisfaction from the fans about the team's performances and rightly so. But are we expecting too much too soon? Should Hockaday and Cellino still work together and be allowed to see if the team gels when all the transfer activity is concluded? This is what Cellino must decide.

If he sacks Hockaday, the media will have a field day (excuse the pun!) but it will appease the fans. And there are plenty of out of work managers out there at this time. Leeds will not be short of candidates. I have always been a supporter of Roberto De Matteo as a potential manager, but it has been pointed out to me on Twitter that he is still being paid off by Chelsea. Another candidate for me would be Steve Clarke. Managed in the Premier League, though he did well at West Brom, and has the experience to deal with both British and foreign players. His experience from his time at Chelsea is certainly impressive, and beats the pants off someone who's greatest accolade was managing Forest Green Rovers.

If Hockaday goes soon, despite a lot of opposition from fans, there will always be a nagging thought that he could have turned things around if Cellino had given him the opportunity. But, as we all know, football is a tough industry to work in and the more likely scenario is the one where Cellino will soon be appointing someone else.

We all hoped that the Hockaday experiment would work, somehow, and I'm sure Massimo Cellino thought so too. His approach seems to have been centred on trying someone cheap first in case a genius emerges, then move up in quality if it fails. Why splash out on an established coach when there's always the possibility of finding a good one for less money? I can understand this and accept Cellino's thought processes. It's a sensible approach and not reckless and risky. But the scale of the re-building of the club's fortunes has now been obviously re-evaluated and Cellino has to change his strategy. He is learning quickly how tough running a football club is in this country.

This cautious approach seems to be the pattern with the transfer policy recently at Leeds. After the abject performance at Millwall (and the thought of his team being humiliated by Middlesborough on Sky) Cellino has gone on a recruiting drive like we have never seen at Leeds before. He has sanctioned deals for a number of players, most completely unknown to many, but have hints of future promise. The Adryan deal will certainly be a coup for us if he agrees to come to the club. I think we need him desperately.

But before this it looked like Cellino wasn't too keen to spend on players, possibly thinking that he could get away with the four he had before that first game at Millwall.

If the pattern persists then we should see the next manager at Leeds coming from a more experienced background.

But Hockaday's downfall may be from the consequences of his decisions during matches and his relationship with his president. Most were baffled by his decision to take off Billy Sharp near the end of the Watford game and preferred to keep his new signing Mirco Attenucci on the pitch. This is the same Billy Sharp who has bags of Championship experience and got us an 88th minute winner against Middlesborough. Attenucci by all accounts was a bit lost during the game but at 2-1 down I would have kept Sharp on and made sure Watford scored no more goals by helping the midfield out.

Was Hockaday hoping that his Italian striker was going to save the day and at the same time make Cellino look good by signing Attenucci? If so then clearly his judgment is in question. Any manager would fancy Sharp to get a goal against any team.

Twelve players have come to Leeds so far in this summer transfer window, with more to come. After years of having to settle for drips and drabs of transfer activity, I have never been so pumped up as a Leeds fan.

But having a good team and playing winning football still seems a long way away. Hockaday seems to be playing with the same midfield that was so ineffective last season. Murphy seems to lacking a lot of confidence and perhaps should go out on loan this season. Tongue is probably past his best and doesn't stamp his mark on games as he used to. I'd like to think that Austin has a role to play in the team but the more we lose the worse his reputation seems to become. It's too early to assess Bianchi yet but he hasn't made much of an impression so far.

Our defence has always been a worry. It gets compromised because of the weak midfield we have, and possibly also a lack of concentration. With a strong and organized midfield, our beleaguered centre backs would not have so much to do. The law of averages dictates that eventually, with being so active, some balls are bound to get through and become dangerous. If you look at the successful teams out there you will find a commanding midfield set-up, protecting the defence from being overworked.

I hope that Cellino gets in a couple of more midfield players next week, but I suspect that the next outlay that Cellino will be making is securing a manager that can get Leeds on to winning ways again.

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