Speaking on a recent episode of The Phil Hay Show, Hay looked back at former Leeds United chairman Massimo Cellino’s time at the club, and revealed that the Italian attempted to hire Paul Clement and Steve Clarke before eventually hiring Darko Milanic as full-time boss.
Cellino, who was chairman of Leeds United between February 2014 and May 2017, endured a rather turbulent spell at the helm of the club, with ‘chaos‘ as well as ‘EFL bans, court cases and managerial sackings‘ being said to be the hallmarks of his time at the Whites, prior to Andrea Radrizzani completing a takeover of the club.
Speaking on The Phil Hay Show, Hay stated that following Dave Hockaday’s sacking as Leeds boss after just six games in charge of the club, Cellino attempted to hire both of Paul Clement and Steve Clarke for the manager’s job.
He said: “[Cellino’s] first plan of attack was to get in touch with Steve Clarke and to try and line that up as his next appointment, and Clarke ultimately wasn’t interested. I think at the time, there was some quite serious interest in him from Fulham and he, I think, could probably see how things were looking at Leeds and decided not to bother.
“And Cellino then phoned Carlo Ancelotti – who he knew – to speak about Paul Clement over at Real Madrid and he liked the idea of Clement coming but Clement was on something – with it being Real Madrid – in the region of about €2m a year – from what I’m told by people who were at Leeds at the time and were aware of this conversation – and that killed that stone dead. It was well beyond the club’s spending power as well as beyond what Cellino wanted to invest, so he left it there.”
TIF Thoughts…
It would appear that the club could have gone in a very different direction under Clarke or Clement than they did under Milanic, who, much like predecessor Hockaday, lasted just six games at the club – failing to win any of those fixtures.
Would you have liked to see either Steve Clarke or Paul Clement appointed as Leeds coach?
Yes
No
