Despite the ongoing uncertainty over who will be owning and funding the club for the rest of the season, Leeds are continuing to add to the playing squad.
The club have signed highly-rated 17 year-old striker Robbie McDaid on a two-year contract. McDaid
scored twice for the under-17s against Sheffield Wednesday in a trial game last month, and Professional development coach Neil Redfearn told the official website: "He’s a great signing for us. It’s a real coup given the interest in him from a lot of clubs.
"He’s done really well for Glenavon, and because he has been playing senior football for a while, he’s already got that experience, and the transition should be easy to cope with. He is a player who knows his position, he runs the channels well, and the most important thing as a striker is that he knows where the back of the net is.” As part of the deal, Leeds will play a friendly against Glenavon this summer.
We’re going to have to assume that McDaid is going to be on a relatively low-paid contract, given the trouble the club is already having in paying it’s existing wage bill. David Haigh has asked the Football League for a decision on the proposed takeover of the club by Massimo Cellino to be made by the end of today.
This is presumably because GFH urgently need Cellino to start funding the club again, or to speed up the process of looking for alternative investors. But if the League are pressed to make a quick decision on Cellino it is most likely to be negative, as they are hardly likely to be rushed into approving his takeover immediately after his conviction for tax evasion.
GFH have also had to deny any links with former Italian agent Pino Pagliara Italian, who was involved with a match-fixing scandal nine years ago after the Yorkshire Post reported he was part of the team put together by Massimo Cellino to complete his bid. Pagliara once represented Fabrizio Ravanelli but is no longer listed as a registered agent with either the Football Association or FIFA.
An Italian disciplinary commission found that Genoa paid Venezia more than £150,000 to lose the final game of the 2004-05 Serie B season, and Pagliara (who was Venezia’s general manager at the time) received a long suspension after Italian police found a bag of cash in his car a few days after the game.
The YEP have reported that two sources have confirmed to them that Pagliara has been seen at Elland Road during the past two months, but GFH have denied any involvement with him. "Neither the club nor the owners have any contractual arrangements with Pino Pagliara, nor are we doing any business with him.”
It’s probably nothing to worry about. The chances are that by the end of the week GFH won’t be doing any business with Cellino either.