News that Massimo Cellino has bought out Leeds United's other share-holder GFH capital has sent Twitter and message boards into meltdown. Il Duce now owns 100% of the club and the word is he's ready to sell-up at long last. However this is Leeds United, things can't be that simplistic can they?

On Thursday evening the news broke that GFH capitals turbulent four-year association with Elland Road was finally at an end. Cellino reportedly bought out the 25% stake the Bahrain based finance house had clung onto since selling 75% of the club to him in January 2014. Cellino (pictured above) had occasionally complained that reluctance to invest in the club by the Arabs hindered his plans; such as re-purchasing Elland Road which has been owned by a Manchester based businessman since the mid-norties.

It's fair to say that there will be few Yorkshiremen crying into their Tetleys in the fine watering holes of Leeds tonight that our last link with GFH has been severed. On December 21st 2012 on the very same day our Mayan forefathers predicted the end of the world was nigh, we felt liberated that TOMA (take over my a***) had finally been signed, sealed and delivered. Seven long months had passed from the embryonic revelations that Ken Bates, reviled by many fans because of his Chelsea connections and his perceived curmudgeonly attitude towards modern-day greedy Footballers who wanted more that £100 a week, was selling up after seven desperate years which saw the club suffer the ignominy of going into administration and relegation to the third-tier of English football for the first time ever.

To sum up my belief is that GFH saw Leeds United as an opprtunity to make a fast buck based on the whites' returning to the Premiership rapidly thus being able to "flip" the club, something they always denied. One of Bates's last acts had been to put Neil Warnock in charge, a proven promotion-winner seven times over. The word on the streets was GFH had financed all of Warnock's summer signings, albeit a collection of largely journeymen signings including his prodigal adopted son Paddy Kenny, Paul Green and Luke Varney. As 2013 dawned, the whites' slipped further and further off the promotion pace and by Easter Warnock had left the club. However GFH moved decisively and highly-rated ex Reading boss Brian McDermott was a popular appointment as GFH replanned their strategy.

However January 2014 was a watershed month. The stories leaking out of LS11 verged from the sublime to the ridiculous. The criminal lack of football knowledge by the club's power-brokers was exposed when there was a call by them to sign Brazilians because Brazilians are naturally good footballers, unfortunately those of us who remember Roque-Junior and more recently Adryan may beg to differ. With Leeds trailing 3-0 at half-time to Sheffield Wednesday, then MD David Haigh was ordered to sack manager Brian McDermott at half-time.

McDermott's goose was cooked when in what proved to be a desperate move by both parties, GFH sold 75% of the club to Massimo Cellino. The rumour was that GFH had overspent on wages and the club was losing £1m a month. Cellino having unsuccessfully courted West Ham was desperate to own an English club. He'd spent 22-years with his hometown club in Calgiari and sacked 36 managers in that time. After a whirlwind "takeover" which barely gave TOMA 2 to take its first breath, Cellino clearly didn't do due diligence into the financial state of affairs the club was in. He also made a serious misjudgment of error and sacked the popular McDermott on the eve of a feisty derby clash with Huddersfield Town. The fans chanted McDermott's name as Leeds finally turned in a performance long overdue to their beleaguered manager and long suffering fans by crushing Town 5-1. McDermott was reinstated but it was an uneasy truce and even though Cellino had more pressing matters on his mind, like his protracted battle to pass the Football League's so-called "Fit and Proper Persons Test" it was no great surprise when McDermott left the club in the summer.

Cellino's mad and rash acts are too plentiful to list here. So what is his game and can we start speculating on TOMA3? Do we finally have a reason to be cheerful, I'd guess that unless you are seriously deluded or are on the £500 PCM #inMassimowetrust payroll then like me you'll be longing for the day Cellino packs his bags and goes home to his farm, Sardinia or Florida wherever takes his fancy as long as it ain't here.

Last month, Cellino met with fellow Italian businessman Andrea Radrizzani, believed to have backers from China looking to invest in an English football club. Radeizzani who was present at our shambolic 3-0 opening day defeat at QPR played down the link as a "simple conversation". In late July, Steve Tappin a lifelong Leeds fan and BBC presenter claimed that there was "definite interest" in buying the club and claimed to be putting together a consortium using money from China.

Tonight, an old mate excitedly texted me to say that Aidan Revie, grandson of Don reckoned that the takeover was about done and Leeds fans should be prepared to be "rich and happy". Now I'm as cynical as the next man, after all since we faced financial Armageddon in 2003 following Peter Ridsdale embarking on a "spend, spend, spend" spree not seen in this city since Viv Nicholson won the pools in 1961, we've has enough "Knight in Shining Armour" fables to fill the Fiction section in the Central Library on Calverley Street a dozen times over!

But I can't help feel that Cellino has done this for a reason, that reason to better himself. Clearly he is on the ropes, bedraggled, punch-drunk by the vitriolic abuse he's sustained for over a year now. Although he cited the Arabs as being an Achilles heel to his plans to develop the club, surely he's now planning his exit strategy? Maybe he'll wish to keep a minority shareholding himself? That's my most likely conclusion, ignoring my own natural ability to dither and also ignoring the Devil's Advocate inside of me screaming why didn't GFH keep hold of the shares knowing that there is interest in buying the club.

So let's hope that the Cellino Circus is at the very least reduced to the role of a sleeping partner. Let's hope that at last, at long last we are about to see owners/investors with ambition, capital and a little bit of planning and patience wouldn't go amiss. I hereby declare that TOMA3 is officially open for business!

Photo: Action Images

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