And now for today’s silly story. Our former loan winger Cameron Stewart (now surplus to requirements at Ipswich Town and on loan at Barnsley) is taking us to arbitration in a dispute over the cancellation of his contract last summer.

You’ve probably forgotten Cameron Stewart as so much has happened since he was with us, but he was one of a number of highly disappointing Brian McDermott signings who graced our first team last season. He came to us on loan from after dropping down a division from Hull City in January last year, with a view to a permanent signing.

A few weeks into his loan spell I posed a question on the Leeds e-mail list “Is Stewart’s problem that he is a right footed player being played out of position on the left?” (to accommodate the even less impressive Jimmy Kebe in his preferred position). The answer came back “no, Tim. Stewart’s problem is that he’s Sh*t”.

Massimo Cellino obviously agreed with the latter assessment, as he refused to ratify a three year deal under which Stewart was supposed to become a permanent Leeds signing at the end of last season. That contract had been signed by the former GFH regime, but by the time it was lodged with the Football League some of the signatories had left the club, (including David Haigh) and Cellino used this as an excuse to argue the contract was now invalid.

Stewart then moved on to Ipswich (that home for Leeds United rejects) where he must have been similarly unimpressive. After managing only two substitute appearances in the FA Cup he began a loan spell at Barnsley in March, to continue his search for a division where he doesn’t look out of his depth. At Oakwell he has managed three starts and one appearance coming off the bench.

He is now claiming £800,000 from Leeds, the amount representing the difference between the amount on the contract he signed at Leeds and the wages he’s now getting at Ipswich. Clearly he’s not even worth the lower amount he’s getting from the Portman Road mob, but legally that isn’t the point.

So Stewart and his legal team will do battle with Leeds United at an FA arbitration hearing tomorrow. My guess is that his original Leeds contract will be ruled to be enforceable, as those who signed on behalf of the club had authority to do so at the time, so Stewart and his lawyers will become the latest bunch to grab as much cash as they can from our debt-ridden club.

That’s another fine mess GFH and Cellino have got us into.

Photo: Action Images

fergolph added 07:55 - Apr 22 So you really believe the Massimo is responsible for getting us into this situation do you???? Let's look at facts shall we. MC had two choices over stewart (bearing in mind that the contract had already been signed before he bought the club). Firstly he could have done as he did and refuse to ratify the contact thereby risking the chance that stewart may come looking for the difference between what he could have earned and what he actually earned at witchpiss. His only other option was to honour the contract and keep a useless player and pay him his full wages for the full term of his contract. What he did was weigh up the POSSIBILITY of having to pay out a lesser amount against the other option of having to DEFINITELY pay out THE FULL AMOUNT OF HIS CONTRACT. So which would you choose? Yes so would I yet you still try to say he has done something wrong. Haters will always hate.

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TimWhelan added 13:36 - Apr 22 Of the two choices, I thought he should have reluctantly accepted that a binding contact was in place, but to move him on as soon as possible, so someone else picked up at least a portion of his wages. By trying to be clever Cellino had landed us with legal costs as well as Stewart's outstanding wages. As for "Haters will always hate", I've tried to be objective about Cellino since he took over and I admire his enthusiasm, but in too many ways he is making a mess of our club.

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