After Massimo Cellino decided that he won’t be offering the job of ‘head coach’ to Neil Redfearn after all, Alex Sabella has become the latest name in the frame.

We’ve already had the names of several former players put forward as possible contenders for the vacant position, in the shape of Robbie Fowler and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink. Somehow neither of those suggestions filled me that much confidence, but the latest candidate does at least have experience of coaching at the top level, being no less than a world cup final manager!

He resigned after Argentina’s defeat in the final, saying it was hard to take for him personally, yet he needn’t be ashamed of his performance in that tournament. The final was a tight game that could have gone either way, and it was only decided by a goal in extra time. Sabella has now declared that he’s ready to come back into management.

He told Argentine media last night: The Leeds situation is intriguing, and I feel I have unfinished business with that club.” That is a reference to his spell as a player at Elland Road, when he joined us from Sheffield United for a then expensive fee of £400,000 in the summer of 1980, but left after making only 23 appearances for the club.

The problem was that he came to Leeds at a time we were struggling, and Jimmy Adamson was sacked after we lost four of the first five games of the 1980/1 season. His replacement was Allan Clarke, who felt the priority was to make sure we stopped losing games, and we began to play in a very negative style.

Sabella had come to Leeds with a reputation as a skilful midfielder, but evidently he was not the type of player Clarke thought he needed to drag Leeds away from the relegation zone. So even though Sabella earned Leeds a couple of valuable points with goals in 1-1 draws away to Ipswich and Aston Villa, he found himself out in the cold and returned to Estudiantes in his native Argentina.

Thankfully that experience hasn’t put him off, and with Cellino now saying he wants an overseas coach to work with all the foreign players he has brought to the club, he could well be the best we could hope for, with his proven track record of working with skilful players at the top level. Our Italian imports might be a bit more limited than the players Sabella is used to, but hopefully he’ll be able to improve them technically.

After the win over Bolton Cellino hinted that he might offer the role to Redfearn, but now seems to have changed his mind, saying that Redfearn will be more useful in his current role in charge of the academy, where he has been doing a great job. This is probably for the best, as we wouldn’t want him to fall foul of Cellino in the top job and end up walking away from the club altogether.

Redfearn seems happy to be overlooked for the top job, but then he never seemed keen to take it on permanently anyway. He told the Yorkshire Post “It is nothing to me either way. I am happy working for the club. Obviously, Massimo understands how things work as regards setting managers and coaches on. He knows all that side of it and I trust in what he does and his decisions. I am sure he has got the club’s best interests at heart and I have got a healthy respect for him and he respects me, that’s obvious.”

But Cellino has promised that whoever the new head coach will be, Redfearn will have an increased involvement in helping his academy products making the transition to the first team. Redfearn said “If it means a little bit more of a closer link with the first team and coaching with the first team, then great. Obviously, we have signed a lot of young players as well from overseas. So that group is a really important one. If we are going to get this group in and around the first team squad, it is important they are looked after and it works closely with the first team.”

So hopefully, if Sabella does get the job he will be happy to give Redfearn this additional responsibility, and with his respect for the traditions of the club he will work well with a man who has served us very well for the past few years. You never know, perhaps Sabella and Redfearn will be the dream team that we have been looking for.

Photo: Action Images

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