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Cellino's supposed target wants the Italian job
Wednesday, 23rd Mar 2016 18:25 by Tim Whelan

The Daily Mail have followed yesterday’s article by naming the mystery foreign coach as former Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro, but the man himself has other ideas.

The paper is still claiming that Massimo Cellino is dissatisfied with the progress Leeds have made on the field under Steve Evans, and although he’s not going to fire the scot straight away, he won’t be renewing Evans contract when it expires at the end of the season.

As you would expect, Evans was dismissive yesterday’s article in the Mail when he spoke to the Yorkshire Post today. “I treat stories like that with the contempt they deserve. My only focus is on preparing the team for Rotherham. You have to take it from the remit when you came in as head coach and that’s what I’m doing.” Which as far as this season is concerned was to stabilise Leeds in the Championship.

And looking to the future, Evans added "I’m trying to make sure this club is a Championship club going forward and then I’ll try to build something, to put a side in place which challenges. It’s easy to talk, it’s harder to deliver, but as I’ve said many times I’ve got a track record which says I deliver.”

But Evans long-term plans involve asking Cellino for funds to to improve the squad in the close season, and the Mail are claiming that Il Presidente doesn’t have sufficient faith in Evans to trust him with a lot of extra cash.

They are quoting ‘an insider’ as saying “Massimo would never open his wallet for Evans. There may be an appointment of a director of football to follow but they are at early stages of that process. They would like someone to support the manager in that sense.”

Talk of a director of football suggests a young up and coming coach could be appointed, and the paper has named Fabio Cannavaro as the man who can expect an approach from Cellino.

Cannavaro was the captain of Italy’s World Cup winning side of 2006, and at club level he played as a central defender for Real Madrid and Juventus. His managerial career so far consists of spells at Al-Ahli Club of Dubai and Chinese Super League club Guangzhou Evergrande, before his most recent job at Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabian, who he left last month.

But Cannavaro has expressed interest in taking over as manager of the Italian side next season, as current national boss Antonio Conte is reported to be heading to Chelsea.

On Tuesday Cannavaro dismissed comments that he hasn’t got enough experience for that role "When you say to someone who has been in football for 30 years he has no experience... I struggle to understand. It's a difficult role but I have the right experience because I know the environment, I was there for 15 years."

But the Mail are claiming Cannavaro ‘is understood to not be considered a candidate by the Italian football federation.’ If that is the case then he might consider the Leeds job, as we would at least be a higher profile club than those he has managed so far, and if it went well it could enhance his credentials for the Italian job the next time it came up for grabs.

But what matters to us is whether this would be a good move for Leeds United. On a points per game basis Evans has a slightly better record than Rosler, and despite the inconsistency he does appear to be slowly turning things round. I would prefer to stick with him for now, and give him the chance to show what he can do with players he chooses to bring to the club.

Given Cellino’s record with coaches Evans must almost be due for a long service award, and replacing him now will just bring us yet more instability. Cannavaro has yet to manage anywhere in Europe, and the best we could hope for was that his status as a World Cup winning captain would attract Italian players of a higher calibre than those we’ve had so far. He might turn out to be a good coach one day, but we all know Cellino won’t give him much time to work out how to succeed in English football.

If there is any truth in this story and Cannavaro is appointed I will be hoping for the best, but as ever with Cellino, you have to fear the worst.

Photo: Action Images



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