Simon Austin Sport
Saturday, 11 April 2015
Calm to storm at Leeds United: How did it come to this?
Rewind to the start of April and Leeds United appeared to be sailing in calm waters.
Unbeaten in five, safe from relegation and their young players to the fore: a rare opportunity to relax and look forward to next season with some optimism.
That was until the storm of 'mad Thursday', with assistant manager Steve Thompson suspended without explanation and news emerging that the club's top scorer had effectively been put in mothballs.
Since then there have been three defeats in a row, the position of manager Neil Redfearn is in doubt, and there are fears that the futures of young guns Lewis Cook, Sam Byram, Alex Mowatt and Charlie Taylor could lie elsewhere.
How did it come to this?
To try and understand, we need to go back to the end of last year, to December 30th to be precise. Leeds United have just lost 2-0 away at Derby County and in truth, the scoreline has flattered them, because they have been completely outplayed.
They lie 20th in the table, just one point above the relegation zone. And I, for one, thought they would be relegated.
And it's at this point that Redfearn decides if he's going down, he'll go down his way.
So at the start of 2015, out goes the diamond formation and in comes 4-2-3-1. Out go Bianchi, Doukara and Antenucci, and in come Murphy, Morison and Taylor.
Massimo Cellino has always told me that he has never told a manager who to select. He's also clear that he oversees transfers though, and it doesn't sit well if a manager doesn't select them.
Anyway, back to the turn of the year and a turn in fortunes. One January signing, Sol Bamba, made a difference too.
Thompson started to make an impact, with Murphy and Bamba, in particular, paying tribute to the help he had given them.
And, perhaps most significantly of all, Redfearn started to get the best from the young tyros he had nurtured through the club's academy.
Results picked up dramatically. Leeds shocked both Bournemouth and Middlesbrough and, suddenly, they were one of the form teams in the division.
Then came mad Thursday and optimism seemed suddenly to disappear.
Underlying all this, has been a tension between the foreign and English contingents at the club - or perhaps more accurately, between the staff of the Cellino era and the rest.
So despite the impressive results, the club's hierarchy were frustrated that the new signings - Montenegro, Cani, Doukara and the rest - were not getting a chance in the side.
Whether or not this came direct from Cellino, who was banned and in Miami, I can't say. But the frustrations of 'the board' was conveyed to Redfearn.
Some of the foreign signings - Berardi, Bamba, Silvestre - mixed in with the rest, but others didn't.
And suddenly there was not only Salerno at training, who Redfearn always got on well with, but also his assistant, a young man called Andrea, who had previously worked in a shop in Miami and been brought over by Cellino.
What was he doing at training? What was his background in football?
And all these tensions boiled over with the Antenucci situation. To recap, chairman Andrew Umbers told Redfearn he was not to select the striker because he was two goals away from triggering a clause that would give him another year of contract.
Redfearn said he would go along with this, but only if he could be honest about the reasons. And he was told he mustn't do that.
When Thompson and Redfearn arrived for work on Thursday April 2nd, Bellusci and Antenucci were laughing, and the reason soon became clear. Thompson was handed a letter, signed by Nicola Salerno, informing him he had been suspended.
Redfearn later spoke to Antenucci. 'I stuck up for you Mirco and my mate got suspended. Now you're laughing about it.'
When I spoke to Cellino last week, he said Salerno had tendered his resignation but that he hoped to talk him out of it when he returned to Leeds.
So the club has no assistant manager, no sporting director and a manager on the brink.
The reasons for Thompson's departure are still not entirely clear. Cellino told me it was because he had called Salerno a 'retard' after the Fulham game, which Leeds won 3-0.
He also said that he was still committed to the club and that they needed four or five new signings to mount a promotion charge.
What we have is a situation of confusion, uncertainty and turbulence.
Freelance journalist
Simon Austin