wm72...what do you know about this Cellino fella from Cagliari?

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this Cellino fella from Cagliari

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First and foremost, Cellino is the prototypical maverick millionaire who goes out of his way to be a wild and crazy guy.

For example, he recently served a brief jail sentence for breaking all kinds of laws in the construction of Cagliari's new-but-now-to-be-demolished stadium. The day he got out of jail he shunned questions from the awaiting press by pointing to the "frick you" printed on the back of the black heavy metal band t-shirt he was wearing.

I actually met him once at a restaurant on the Poetto in Cagliari. He's an acquaintance of my ex-girlfriend's father and stopped by the table where we were eating. He fashions himself a real rocker and still plays guitar in some biker 70's metal type band. I've always been in bands and look the part so he started talking to me about rock -- ZZ Top it was -- and then did some Tush riffs with obligatory air guitar and --in a pleasantly goofy more than obnoxious manner-- advised me to keep rocking.

Anyhow, if I were a Leeds fan, I'd be cautiously optimistic.

Cagliari fans like him for the most part even with the stadium disaster because he really comes off as actually being a fan and goes out of his way to show he's in touch along with showing off.

He's made Cagliari a solidly mid-table club that gets a lot of young talent and also develops some good squad players. He's also done better than most would expect in convincing most of their star players to stay on an extra year or two (though some attribute that to the Cagliari area itself being paradise on Earth.)

I'm sure he's interested in Leeds because he wants to triumphantly return the club to "glory". I can't imagine he'd have near the resources to do that based on a wild initial sending spree but I do believe he'd inject some capital and try to put good football guys in place to at least do what, say, Southampton has.

I'd guess he'll try as hard as he can to get his fellow Sardo Zola. He --like most Sardinian football fans -- worships that guy.

In short, he's certainly no third world oligarch flush with billions but he has been good for Cagliari aside from the stadium disaster.