Thanks for everything Redders

04 Jul 2015 05:01 pm, by YorkshireSquare


With the news that Leeds are negotiating a settlement with Neil Redfearn it looks as though his time at the club has come to an end. He'll have a lot more free time to play NetEnt's Wonky Wabbits. It is a sad end to a great career at the club, be it as head of the academy, caretaker manager or first team coach Redfearn has been a loyal servant and will be greatly missed by the majority of fans and players at the club. The writing was on the wall however after the disastrous break down in relationship between Redfearn and owner Massimo Cellino. In a now infamous interview with the Daily Mirror Cellino said;

“He thinks that he’s so strong that he can put me in the s**t because I’m worrying about the fans. He tried to play the fans against me to keep his place. Do you think that Neil Redfearn loves Leeds more than me? Neil Redfearn does salute. He challenged me. If you are good I can accept the challenge. But not if you are a bad coach. He wins two games and he disappears. He loses five games and he comes to me to ask my advice. Then he wins and disappears again. He has to respect the chairman. He has to respect the club. He’s like a baby. He is not a bad person but he has a weak personality.”

Whatever Adam Pearson said about Redfearn being welcomed back to his role at that academy and whatever Redfearn said about expecting to be still working for the club next season it was clear after that rant that it would never work. All respect had gone and there was no way back from that point. The revolt at the end of last season of six of the foreign players will also not have helped though many still suspect that it may have been a situation engineered by Cellino to undermine Redfearn.

But with the writing on the wall lets reflect on everything positive that Redfearn has done for the club. In 6 and a half years at the club Redfearn has seen perhaps the best crop of players emerge from the academy since the late nineties with the likes of Sam Byram, Alex Mowatt, Lewis Cook and Charlie Taylor emerge as first team regulars with what Redfearn says are better to come.

He isn’t solely responsible of course, there are a lot of hard working people at that academy behind the scenes making this possible but with Redfearn's history at the academy when he became first team coach he was able to integrate these young stars and mould the team and style of play around them. They appeared to play with confidence and without fear, with Redfearn's full backing and support they played with freedom which has allowed Mowatt and Cook in particular to shine. Sam Byram is also getting back to his best, his confidence had taken a beating but under Redfearn's guidance he appeared to be fulfilling his potential once more.

Never the strongest coach tactically, I’ll give you that, he was a refreshing change as head coach last season. After the negative disasters of Hockaday and Milanic his attacking style was a breath of fresh air and he turned our season around. Whether he was ever the man to lead us on to the next level we will never know but he saved us from relegation last year and for that I will always be grateful. With the team full of youngsters and a production line coming through we may not have yet reaped the full rewards of Neil Redfearn's time at Leeds. Thank you Redders!

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John in Louisiana wrote on 05 Jul 2015 01:45 pm

Well said.

Let's hope the terms of the settlement are generous. I'd like to think that even MC understands that, but for Redfearn, the club are making League One money this year.