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Gaetano Berardi, Leeds United • photograph by Lee Brown
That change has helped Berardi stay out of trouble and stay on the pitch, although it hasn’t always been easy, and the aggressive edge is still there if ever he needs it; like when Leon Best swung an elbow at Berardi’s nose, smashing it across his face, then had to face Berardi, who didn’t take the blow lying down.
“Against Rotherham? Was crazy, that. Because I was sent off against Rotherham at home, I got a big fine from the club for the red card. I spoke with the manager, Steve Evans, he said, ‘Why did you do that? Why did you leave your teammates?’ I said, I know, but I know when a player makes this, maybe just a movement, you know? And Leon Best, he watched me before, and did it. So, if it happened tomorrow, I’d do the same again, so I pay again a fine.
“The other one against Rotherham, when I punched the ground, it was because the player, Matt Derbyshire, it was not like Leon Best. So that’s why I only punched the ground. I had to punch something! But now, when there is a moment like that, I just count to ten.â€
Was he counting to ten at Huddersfield when David Wagner ran on the pitch, and four of their players came face to face with one raging Berardi?
“Ha, I just watched Pontus start to go over there. And I thought, why not?â€
It wasn’t only his playing style that was difficult for Berardi in his first season. The only way to describe 2014/15 at Leeds is chaos; not only were managers coming and going, but players were leaving and arriving in enormous numbers, seemingly at Massimo Cellino’s whim. Liam Cooper, Billy Sharp, Nicky Ajose and Stuart Taylor were the domestic arrivals, but looking back now, the number of players arriving from overseas was ludicrous. Along with Berardi, add Bellusci, Doukara, Sloth, Antenucci, Silvestri, Cani, Berardi, N’Goyi, Montenegro, Adryan, Del Fabro, Benedicic and Bamba.
“I had to punch something!â€Gaetano Berardi
Cellino’s idea was obvious: players from the Italian second tier would boss the English second tier. But Berardi soon saw the difference. “For me, ten teams in the Championship can play in Serie A,†he says. And how many Serie B teams could play in the Championship. “Maybe two or three.â€
Then there were the language and cultural problems, as a huge number of players, several very young, tried to adapt to life in a different country, in a league where several were out of their depth, at a club that didn’t seem to know what it was doing.
“It was hard,†says Berardi. “I’m sure if five or six players from England go to a team in Italy, it would be the same. So the first months were very difficult. Never speak together, problems in training sessions, so it was difficult for the manager as well. It was, explain once, and if you understand, okay, if you don’t understand, it’s your problem.
Gaetano Berardi, Leeds United • photograph by Lee Brown
Gaetano Berardi, Leeds United • photograph by Lee Brown
“Sometimes when we have a few problems, especially in the first season, maybe I wanted to tell you something, but I don’t know English, so you think I’m saying something else. You start to, not to fight, but it’s not good. Darko Milanic, I don’t remember how long he stayed, but it was not easy for him, and it was not easy for us, because we changed the manager several times. He came here and there were two groups, Italian players and English players, and he tried to work together, but it was impossible. So it was difficult for everybody.
“The second season was better. We just needed time. Last season we had only four or five Italian players, so it was much better. The first season was learning for the second season, so the English players started to understand the Italian players, and it was very good. We’d go out for dinner, eat something together, it was much better.â€
“I want to win every game, so if I have to make a strong tackle, I do itâ€Gaetano Berardi
It got better, but not before it got worse. The away trip to Charlton in April 2015 was one of the too-frequent nadirs of Leeds United’s recent history, a moment when the divisions in the squad spread and split the players from the fans. Some of the players, anyway. Six of them, citing injuries, refused to travel to play Charlton, in what many fans believed was a player-protest as part of an increasingly bizarre dispute Massimo Cellino was having with caretaker manager Neil Redfearn. Berardi was not one of them. He was thought to be carrying a genuine injury, but went to the game anyway and sat on the bench.
“A few players had a few problems, they had injuries,†says Berardi. “But not all the players. Two or three were injured. The other ones had a problem with the manager, so they took the decision. I don’t want to say names, because it’s not good.
“Me? I was very close to making a mistake. Because in that game, I don’t remember how many games I played in before, but in that game I was on the bench. I was not injured. I read a lot of websites that say, ‘Berardi goes with the team, but he has an injury.’ I was not injured, I was on the bench because Redfearn wanted to put me on the bench.
“So, it was not good, but I decided to go anyway, because in my head, I don’t listen to the other ones. It’s not a problem if you’re not picked to play a game. It’s not good, but I go anyway. I’m fit, so I have to go. It was difficult, but it’s my job, and I want to do my job right.â€
Did the players that didn’t go regret what happened?
“They understood afterwards, it was a mistake. Not everyone, because some of them had injuries. But the others, it was a mistake. And that’s happened, it’s gone. After that, the players who are here now, have shown they are professional.
“I can tell you, I had a lot of problems, like the other Italian players. I always try to leave that, focus on my job, and to be professional. There are some players, like Balotelli for example, he’s a very good player, he knows he’s a good player, so he can do whatever he wants. Some players can do that. But some players, that are, ‘I’m a good player, I can do whatever I want’, it’s not good. I don’t think that, because I know my limits.
“I know I don’t have the same quality as other players, so I have to give everything, everywhere. In the dressing room, in training sessions, in the hotel when we play away, everywhere: my best. I have to be, I have to manage positive everywhere, everything. With my teammates and the staff, because I need this, I need to feel positivity from the rest of the group. Because if I start to create problems, it’s not good.â€
We talked about a time at Sampdoria when Berardi was out of the team, and he began taking a GoPro camera with him to games, filming from the bench and in the changing rooms, and on the pitch before and after games — he edited the clips together to show to the squad at the end of the season, and posted it on YouTube. We thought it was a creative way to deal with being out of the side, but to Berardi, it’s the kind of thing he wouldn’t do now he’s grown up a little.
“Because it’s not professional to make a film,†he says. “I could do it, because if I want to make a GoPro, I go to Cellino with a GoPro, I do it. I’m not scared about Cellino, I’m not scared about a manager, anyone. But I just want to be professional. Because I know my limits. I know what I can do for my team.â€
That attitude has helped Berardi this season, after a tough start. He was injured for most of the summer, missing pre-season, then injured again in the first day’s collapse at QPR; Luke Ayling was signed, and some wondered if Berardi would soon be leaving. Instead he stepped in at left-back when Charlie Taylor was injured, and, out of position, played himself into contention to this season’s Player of the Year awards. Previously, Sam Byram, one of our most highly rated young players of recent years, had a hard time getting his place ahead of Berardi; this year, another of the best young players in the division has struggled to get back into the side at left-back, and one of Leeds United’s most popular new signings is by no means secure at right-back.
“It’s good when you have a challenge like that,†says Berardi. “With good players, it’s always good. And every year there is a challenge, so I just try to do my best, like I tried last season, and in my first season. And now, I don’t like to see my teammate when he doesn’t play. Because I understand, because I did a lot of benches, I understand what it means. For Charlie, this is a bad moment now, not just because he doesn’t play, but because he has had an injury for a long time, so it’s not a good moment. But he has to be positive, and to be like he has been until his injury. Maybe for me to think this is a mistake, because maybe I will have to go to the bench — but that’s my problem.â€
After years of wariness and mixed feeling about our own club’s players, that attitude is music to a Leeds fans’ ears. The improved attitude throughout the team has been tangible, and felt like part of the overall contribution Garry Monk and his staff have made to the club this season.
“Like the season before, we started with the target to try to go to the play-offs,†says Berardi. “I know the fans and the city want the Premier League, because Leeds is a big club. But when we started the season what Monk said was, the most important thing was we have to play game by game. Because if we try to see the end of the season, it’s difficult. That was the mistake with the two seasons before.
“With his mentality, we started to play with his ideas to play football. Try to be positive and be focused, game by game. We started with a few problems, we lost a few players, and it was not a good moment in August. We started to win a few games in September, and we felt a good energy from everything. From staff, from each other, from the fans. And from that point we kept the energy.â€
Gaetano Berardi, Leeds United • photograph by Lee Brown
Gaetano Berardi, Leeds United • photograph by Lee Brown
We also kept the manager, something the club struggled to do in Berardi’s first two seasons. Did he ever think Monk was under pressure?
“Maybe at the beginning, the first period, I think so, because Cellino is a little crazy, yeah? But after that moment, everything was great. It’s normal. The problem was, the last two seasons, Cellino managed with a strange mentality — because he doesn’t like to change managers, but the thing he did was change managers. I think maybe last season, with Monk, after one month, gone, probably. This season, Cellino left him to work, was patient. And he took a step behind. So Monk had a lot of time to work better with the players.
“Every week he prepares the next game, a lot about the next team. You know everything about the team you have to play. What you have to do, how they play, their movement, everything. It’s good.
“With Pep Clotet and James Beattie, they work together in everything. Pep is really good at set pieces. James for striker work — movement for the striker, crosses and finishing. He helped Wood, because he needed to be confident, Chris. He has to be important. You feel you are an important player, you feel much better. Strikers have a strange mentality! But he’s doing very well.â€
The whole team has been doing very well. This season Berardi has been a big part of one of the best Leeds United teams we’ve watched for years, and an integral part of one of our best songs for ages: ‘Luke Ayling and Berardi, Pontus Jansson, Kyle Bartley.’ It’s fitting that, while we might sing about Pontus’ magic hat, fans have been paying tribute to collectives of players, and not just individuals.
“I don’t like to see my teammate when he doesn’t play, because I understandâ€Gaetano Berardi
“It’s good because when I have to play a game, I look at my teammates, and it’s a good team,†says Berardi. “I’m confident to play with Pontus on my right or Kyle on my left, or Bridcutt, Greeny. It’s nice, we’re confident, we can start a game positive. And they have good experience, they have strong mentality, that’s good for a team.
“We know the target, we know what we need to do. The manager and his staff work every day about this mentality, so from the beginning it was like that, although at the beginning it was difficult with new players. I want to win every game, so if I have to make a strong tackle, I do it. Pontus the same, Kyle the same, Charlie the same. Charlie, if he has to run twenty times in five minutes to cross, he’ll do it. Luke, same. That’s just the back four. The other ones, the same. That’s good.
“I remember a few games when we didn’t play so well. Blackburn away, not a good game, but we won last minute, because we wanted to win. Newcastle, last minute. Maybe other teams in the play-off places [we’re talking before the Burton game] have more quality, I don’t know, maybe. But I’m sure we have big heart, from beginning to now. That makes a difference. We have to keep going with this mentality, because when we can’t play well, we have to win in other things. We have to find something else to win the game, with heart or head.â€
Gaetano Berardi, Leeds United • photograph by Lee Brown
Gaetano Berardi, Leeds United • photograph by Lee Brown
Which sounds a lot like something you’ll hear Howard Wilkinson or Gordon Strachan say in Do You Want To Win?, the new film celebrating the teams of 1989-92 (that our Moscowhite wrote). We spoke to Berardi a week before the premiere, so this talk was coincidence, or just a sign that Berardi ‘gets’ Leeds. Another sign was at the premiere, where Berardi was noticed by the several hundred Leeds fan in attendance, because he wasn’t hidden away in a private room, but was sat out in public in the cheapest seats, after getting himself a ticket to help celebrate his friend Anthony’s father’s 75th birthday.
It’s not only life at the club that is suiting Berardi, but life in the city. He hadn’t been to The Midnight Bell before he joined us there, but as a city centre resident, he likes going to The Cross Keys and Headrow House, is a fan of the ale they’re brewing in Holbeck at Northern Monk, and keen to try new places. His wife works as a receptionist at a restaurant in the city centre, “Because she doesn’t like to stay at home all day. She’s an interior designer, and she tried to find a job here, but it’s difficult with the language. So with this job, now she speaks it much better, and it will be good for her future.
“Sometimes she works in the afternoon, so I go home after training, relax, watch TV. Sometimes she doesn’t work, and we go to the city centre for a walk, or take our dogs to Roundhay Park.†Which is where the photography happens — during the day, at least.
Even at night, though, there’s nothing to fear from Berardi. He might not be scared of anyone or anything, but that doesn’t mean there’s any reason to be scared of him. The intensity is there. But so is the wish to lead a nice, normal life, in a city that feels like home, enjoying what he does and doing the very best he can. It just so happens that what Gaetano Berardi does, and enjoys doing, is playing football, which isn’t always easy, and clearly hasn’t been easy for Berardi at Leeds United over the last three years. But when giving your best gets rewards, being a footballer is a good thing to be.
“I like winning games,†says Berardi. “After a game, when all the crowd is clapping the team, people are happy, teammates are happy. You go in the dressing room relaxed, talking about the game with your teammates. And when we score, I love to celebrate. I never score, but I love to celebrate.
“When I finish my career I will be proud to say I played for Leeds, because it’s an incredible club. Year after year I can understand everything more, I can understand what it means for the people, and what it means for the club.â€