By Massimo Cellino’s own admission, he doesn’t like ‘magicians’. In pursuit of a manager, the former Leeds United owner looks not for smoke and mirrors or card tricks, but instead honesty, hard-work, discipline and grit.
And Massimo Cellino certainly feels that he’s found those qualities in the 60-year-old tactician who is leading Brescia to a top-half finish in Italy’s second-tier.
A manager who, had things worked out differently, may have joined Cellino at Elland Road during the madcap owner’s typically drama-filled spell in the Leeds United chairman’s lounge.
Cellino, in just two-and-a-half years in West Yorkshire between 2014 and early-2017, hired no fewer than six different head coaches, doing little to dispel the ‘Manager Eater’ reputation he arrived with. David Hockaday, bizarrely poached from non-league, lasted about as long as to be expected. His successor, Darko Milanic, came and went in a month.
Neil Redfearn, Uwe Rosler and Steve Evans lasted a little longer before Andrea Radrizzani took control. But it’s difficult to imagine that Rolando Maran – no matter how highly Cellino regards him – would have enjoyed a Marcelo Bielsa-like, three-season stint in charge of a club who’s hair-trigger owner made long-term success almost impossible.
Massimo Cellino wanted Brescia boss at Leeds United
By Cellino’s standards, Maran has done well to last as long as he has done at Brescia, the man hired back in November seeing his contract extended and his seat on the bench confirmed for 2024/25.
Has the ‘Manager Eater’ altered his diet? Or will his bloodlust return, should Brescia endure a tough start to the next campaign?
“If we play so well, the credit goes to the coach,” Cellino begins, full of praise for Maran in conversation with Gazzetta dello Sport. “It’s not true that I stay close to my technicians to asphyxiate them.
“With Rolando I found, first of all, a man. When I’m not in Brescia, he takes my place. Will he stay? Of course. The contract was automatically renewed for another season with survival. We both want to do well.”
“I came close to (hiring) him in Leeds and Cagliari. A mutual friend gave me the idea to call him (to Brescia), and in five minutes we agreed. He has profound human values before football ones. I don’t like magicians, but real people.”
Cellino does not explain at what stage of his tenure Maran was in contention for the Leeds job.
Leeds face Norwich City in Championship play-offs
These days, it is Daniel Farke patrolling the touchline at Elland Road. His own status has been damaged somewhat, however, by a disastrous run of one win in six games. A run which saw Ipswich Town snatch automatic promotion from under Leeds’ nose.
A side with a truly dreadful record in the play-offs now faces the prospect of history repeating itself, a semi-final against Norwich City looming ahead of a Wembley decider against either Southampton or a West Brom outfit managed by Bielsa’s old West Yorkshire protege, Carlos Corberan.
“It’s a bit special,” Farke says ahead of Sunday’s reunion with a Norwich side he led to the Championship title on two occasions. “My first return back to Carrow Road was quite emotional. The second game, it felt a bit like business as normal.
“I will always be grateful to this club for special memories. (But Leeds is) my only focus right now. We deserve to reward ourselves with promotion. They deserve it, the fans, the club deserves it.”