‘It did start with Cellino’: Leeds board member makes interesting claim about Cellino & fans

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James Mooney is head of communications at Leeds United.

James Mooney has shared how the vast improvement in the communication between Leeds United and their fans started with their previous owner, Massimo Cellino. 

Mooney, who is head of communications at Leeds, believes Cellino ‘to a certain extent’ deserves ‘credit’ for setting up the recent road the club have been on, in terms of interacting with fans, along with their former chief executive, James Mansford. 

In January 2017, Italian businessman, Andrea Radrizzani, purchased a 50% in the Yorkshire giants before a full buyout many months later from his fellow countryman. 

Nonetheless, speaking to Talking Shutt, Mooney, shared an interesting insight into how the communication between Leeds and their fans has improved over the years.  

“It did start with Cellino,” Mooney told Talking Shutt. “I think towards the end of Massimo’s reign, he was very aware of the fact that there had been some communications issues and Ben Mansford brought me in, it wasn’t Andrea [Radrizzani] or Angus [Kinnear].

“He [Cellino] started the trajectory we are on now. That season we had under Garry Monk, we re-engaged the community, we performed on the pitch and we became a better club that year and that was under Cellino and Ben [Mansford]. 

“But, they were doing that knowing that Andrea was on the way and that’s the way he would want to run things. Andrea has been the inspiration behind it all, but you have to give Mansford, and to a certain extent, Massimo, the credit for setting it up really.” 

Under Garry Monk, Leed had narrowly missed out on a top-six finish, although the feeling around the club was that things were looking positive – Monk’s decision not to extend his stay perhaps surprised many. 

Either way, that day has somehow led to Marcelo Bielsa being charge of Leeds where he has made a serious difference to the club and brought back the belief that they can end their 16-year absence from England’s top-flight. 

The Whites are sitting top of the tree in the Championship, at this moment in time, as there is a lot of uncertainty surrounding the current global health pandemic.