From Leyton Orient to the Leaning Tower, the majority of Cellino’s first signings are anywhere but Elland Road
If you thought the turnover of managers was rather rapid under Massimo Cellino, his playing staff changes quicker than a blurted Alan Brazil opinion.
In his first transfer window as Leeds United owner, the Italian went for the ‘kid in a candy shop with various bank accounts’ approach, collating a mammoth 18 players. Just over two years on, ten of his unknown imports find themselves scattered around the globe, with their impact at Elland Road ranging from the respectable to the non-existent.
Giuseppe Bellusci
From calamitous defending to sublime side-footed volleys, the endlessly erratic Bellusci certainly got Leeds fans talking. Well, swearing, mainly. It will come as a shock, then, to learn that he is currently playing first-team football in Serie A. With Empoli, who are 17th.
Casper Sloth
If you were going to share your name with a member of the animal kingdom, you would pick something brave, fearless or, at the very least, charming. Then again, maybe Sloth is a rather fitting moniker for a player whose short-lived Leeds’ career amounted to very little excitement.
The Danish international, the face of a hair wax company in his homeland if you must know, fell out of favour once David Hockaday bid his inevitable farewells after a matter of weeks, ultimately returning to the Superliga with Aalborg.
Mirco Antenucci
Unlike the majority of his fellow imports, Antenucci could not be classed as a) entirely forgettable or b) wholly useless. Nominated for the club’s Player of the Year award last season, the Italian netted 19 times in two Championship seasons in Yorkshire, his intelligent movement and sharp finishing making him an oddly okay signing.
He is now enjoying the culture and class of the gorgeous Ferrara city just north of Bologna. He also plays for Serie B side SPAL at the weekend.
Edgar Cani
Put-upon former Leeds boss Neil Redfearn recalled to FourFourTwo magazine recently that sporting director Nicola Salerno has positively raved about the potential of 6ft 4ins Albanian targetman Edgar Cani upon his arrival at Elland Road. Why? We’ll never know.
“I remember Nicola coming in one day, and telling me ‘we’ve got this Albanian centre forward, Edgar Cani – he’s brilliant,” Readfearn lamented.
“So I looked at some footage of him using one of our scouting tools. The lad looked raw and the level he was playing at wasn’t good, to put it politely. After one of the goals you could hear a lone bloke clapping.”
Needless to say, Edgar proved to be anything other than a ‘Cani’ signing, failing to score a single goal for Leeds before departing for Pisa under, bizarrely, Gennaro Gattuso.
Tommaso Bianchi
Serie A underdogs Sassuolo have a reputation for giving their best and brightest academy graduates plenty of opportunities to prove themselves on a weekly basis. It says a lot, then, that they were willing to part ways with Bianchi almost immediately after their promotion to the top flight.
The once-capped Italy under-21 international endured an injury-ruined debut season in Yorkshire, providing one assist and no goals in 24 Championship fixtures before scarpering back home with Ascoli just halfway through his four-year deal.
Granddi N’Goyi
At one point, Granddi N’Goyi was acting as a youthful protégé to a certain Claude Makelele at PSG. And, six years on, he is still in the French top flight, albeit struggling to cut the mustard at Dijon.
Injury meant the Congolese international was forced to wait for his Leeds debut. He needn’t have bothered. One single appearance yielded a 2-0 defeat to Norwich City.
Dario Del Fabro
Capped by Italy at every level up until the under-19s, the arrival of left-back Del Fabro on loan from Cagliari certainly offered some intrigue. He promptly made a grand total of zero league appearances before disappearing back to Italy, linking up with Cani in Pisa.
Brian Montenegro
The brilliantly named Brian Montenegro scored a sublime overhead kick for Paraguay against Greece at the under-20 World Cup in 2013. And that’s about it.
Five league appearances, no goals, for the most forgettable of loan signings, Montenegro is not exactly scoring freely in South America either, plying his trade in Argentina with Lanus. By the way, he also spent a brief, temporary stint with West Ham. There is a reason you didn’t know that.
Adryan
The sight of a young Brazilian prospect donning the number nine shirt for your club either elicits excitement or suspicion. And, inevitably, the skilful Samba starlet did not exactly cut it when pitched against your average bone-crunching Championship centre-half.
He is now back at Flamengo but he will always have the Fallon D’Or; the commemorative award bestowed upon him by Reddit users following a spectacularly pathetic belly flop against Norwich which yielded rather more embarrassment than penalty kicks.
Zan Benedicic
Not many players start their career in AC Milan’s fabled youth academy and find themselves at Leyton Orient within three years. Benedicic’s only action this season? The final nine minutes of a 3-1 defeat to Hartlepool.
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