Leeds United ignored Virgil van Dijk in order to sign Giuseppe Bellusci from Catania instead in something of a Massimo Cellino blunder.
The Cellino years at Leeds were truly unbelievable.
From appointing the unknown David Hockaday as his first managerial move to sacking Darko Milanic after just six games, Cellino’s time at Elland Road will go down in history.
There were some good points of the Cellino era too, but most will remember the bizarre decisions – and another one is only just emerging.
Leeds United ignored Virgil van Dijk
Graham Bean worked as something of an advisor to Cellino during his time at Leeds United.
Bean has now spoken to the Daily Mail about his time working with the Italian and has made a couple of transfer claims.
One was that Hockaday wanted to sign Andre Gray – who ended up becoming a Premier League regular – but Cellino signed Mirko Antenucci instead.
The real shocker comes with Bean’s claim about Virgil van Dijk.
Bean claims that Hockaday wanted to sign defender Van Dijk, who was just a year into his time with Celtic following a move from Groningen.
A deal would have been expensive even then after Van Dijk’s strong first season at Parkhead but Hockaday seemingly had hope of a deal.
Instead, Cellino overruled Hockaday, ignoring the suggestion to sign Van Dijk.
Not only that, but Cellino then also signed Giuseppe Bellusci from Catania instead, again preferring an Italian player to somebody Hockaday recommended.
“I got on well with Dave and he was a really nice bloke, as was his assistant Junior Lewis, but the reality was they were both out of their depth at Leeds. Dave did, however, identify two outstanding players that would have transformed the club,” said Bean.
One was a certain Virgil van Dijk, then at Celtic. Unfortunately Cellino ignored him and signed Giuseppe Bellusci on loan from Italian Serie B side Catania. Known as “The Warrior” in his native Italy because of the way he played, Bellusci thrived on an undeserved hard-man reputation. He made his debut in a 4-1 defeat to Watford and things didn’t improve much from there — he wasn’t liked by many of his teammates or the club staff.
Bellusci spent three years at Leeds, playing 57 times before spending his final year with the club out on loan at Empoli.
That’s nothing compared to what Van Dijk has achieved having eventually joined Liverpool for £75million and then won a Champions League and a Premier League.
Leeds fans will just have to wonder what could have been had Cellino picked the Dutchman over Bellusci eight years ago.
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