Massimo; time to talk:
As another disappointing season whimpers to a close, Leeds have now reached the magic 51 point mark – essentially securing safety. Granted, we could lose our remaining 5 games 1-0 and the MK Dons could win their remaining 5, but they’d need to do so with a +11 goal difference for us to be in trouble, so I think it’s fair to say that Leeds are safe. All questions about the future of the club have been deferred until this point – no distractions until the risk of relegation is gone. Which it now is, so the time for talk has arrived.
The future of Steve Evans is as good a starting place as any, saved perhaps by his record since taking over. Since Steve joined Leeds have won 40 points from 30 games, an unimpressive statistic but one that would put the club 12th (had the season begun on October 19th). There’s an argument for retaining Steve, not just for consistency, but because he hasn’t performed poorly, but he hasn’t excelled either. This group of players still looks distinctly un-coached for whatever reason and the erratic nature of our results supports this feeling. It won’t escape Massimo’s assessment of the season that Leeds are likely to finish around 15th either, and that’s not good enough. Or, importantly, it wasn’t good enough to allow Neil Redfearn to stay in the role, so logic applies that it’s not sufficient for Steve Evans either.
The problem at Leeds is that there’s an incredible vacuum of responsibility. The head coach is responsible for the playing squad (though many suspect meddling from above here too) and Massimo Cellino is responsible for everything else. Contract negotiations, player transfers (in either direction), season tickets, all of these things are funnelled through the Italian. When we have Andrea the Furniture Salesman scouting players and translating for Doukara during “Bitegate 2016â€, rumours of Fabio Cannavaro taking over as head coach and an ominous silence around season ticket renewals – it breeds a feeling of discomfort.
Someone needs to start talking. The presence of a plan makes a huge difference to a football club – how many of our League One peers have experienced Premiership football now? Southampton are a stable Premiership side and Leicester have done themselves no harm at all potentially winning the title. The absence of a plan is what makes Leeds 15th place in the Championship for yet another season, unsure whether we’ll retain key players, what staff changes are imminent, what the deal will be with season tickets or even if Cellino is hanging around.
The silence is deafening. I wouldn’t mind if Cellino came out, cap in hand with an industrial sized barrel of humility and admitted his mistakes. It’s the arrogance that I find so off-putting, that there’s a reluctance to do things properly. But year-on-year Leeds are getting nowhere, we’re as far away from the playoffs now as we’ve ever been (holistically that is, rather than with this specific points tally). There are fundamental flaws in the playing squad and (more crucially) the coaching setup that haven’t been addressed and don’t look likely to be addressed. For all the boasting that Cellino will make when he’s in PR mode about beautiful football, buying the stadium and promotion – we’re yet to see any traction on any of these statements.
I do get that an amount of that comes with his character – he’s a “shoot from the hip†kind of person, where he’ll make wild statements without feeling the need to back them up. But it’s not okay to fail to follow through with any of them. Aside from rampant cost-cutting, his period at Leeds has been one of continued misery and misdirection. It feels very much like trying to build an expansive Lego town with a toddler around; we know what we’re trying to achieve but there’s the continued risk that the entire place will get levelled, tears will get shed and we’ll have to start again. Oh, and the best pieces will be lost in the process. The man next door is also building a Lego town and he has bought the best pieces we had. If we want, we can go next door and look through the window to see how well they’re doing in their new role, but that only makes us sad.
There are 3 huge things that need addressing at Leeds (ignoring the ownership side of things for just a moment):
Coaching
Playing squad
Head coach
The coaching is not good enough and it’s been this way for years. We need the players to be properly drilled, disciplined (no more smoking, no more treats when performances have been poor, lots of work) and instructed. They must all know at any given moment what they need to do in any given scenario. I simply see no evidence of this (but see it in other teams). This needs to be rectified.
The playing squad has weaknesses. We don’t have a concrete centre-back pairing and our attacking options are weak. I don’t believe Chris Wood is capable of being a lone striker – proven by how much better he is with Antenucci around) so we need to consider this weakness as much as we need to resolve our defensive fragility.
The head coach is what underpins all of the above. We need the right one and we need them in long-term. If the decision is that Steve Evans is that man, fine, then let him build that “Steve Evans Leeds United†he kept promising us, the one that will get promoted. But if there’s a nagging doubt from Cellino that he’s not going to work, then we need that replacement made at the start of Summer. Let whoever takes over have the entire year to build the squad they want/need and coach those players. Sacking another coach by October just ruins another season. This needs strategy, not reactivity.
But this is all opinion. My opinion at that. The club has remained ominously quiet on all non-playing matters. The only things we’re hearing are related to Doukara’s biting and the Lucy Ward employment tribunal. Hardly things that positively affect how I view the 2016/17 season moving forwards. We need to see that lessons are being learned and that the club has a chance of moving forwards. Otherwise the number of people protesting for Cellino to go will continue to grow and unless he’s able to confidently, rationally and professionally tackle the obvious issues at the club, then it will absolutely be time for him to go. If it isn’t already.
It’s time to stop hiding and answer the question – are you able to take Leeds forward?