1964white wrote:Are we taking bets on who'll be the first to post up "it's Cellino's fault" should young Sam leave LUFC
Allow me.
OK, the statement is vastly overstated. However that does not mean Cellino is entirely without some responsibility. Lets look at it from Sams perspective and see what things look like.
Firstly he is undoubtedly talented. I think we can all agree he would not be out of place in the premiership. This means he has several options available to him- he can earn more money, he can play in bigger matches, he can raise his own profile. All of these are absolute facts. Whether we like to think about it or not, this is a job, a career to Sam. He has things he wants to achieve. All the factors I mentioned above will be pulling Sam away from Leeds in order to further his career.
However there will be other factors holding him towards staying. These will include a sense of loyalty to those around him, a natural comfort from familiarity (also possibly interpreted as a lack of ambition), a feeling that he is being well looked after by the club.
I would suggest that the large influx of players over the last season and a bit will be destabilising. We definitely saw signs of this with tension between the Italian & domestic contingent last season. I am not suggesting there is civil war in the camp, however I am saying that group of youngsters that came through the academy together would be especially tightly bonded, but how far does that stretch? I might draw a parallel with the Leeds team when Bowyer & Woodgate were accused of the racist attack in the city centre. For all his other weaknesses, O Leary managed to create a very tightly knit team that stood together. This happened because the players knew and trusted O Leary. Ferguson was a master of creating that bunker mentality- "everyone hates us, so look after each other." It's much harder to leave a bunch of mates you know and trust.
The familiarity sort of takes care of itself. Depending on your perspective it might be a good or bad thing.
A feeling of being looked after by the club falls into 2 areas. Firstly the contract details. If he feels the club is doing everything it can, he might be happy with accepting a lower actual amount of money. If he sees himself moving up through the ranks from the lowest paid member of the squad as a junior to the highest paid leader of the team, then he might well accept that as satisfying his ego. Secondly he needs to trust the day to day running of the club and the team as being in his best interests. Is the training developing him as a player? Are the physios doing a good job looking after his body? Who can he talk to when he needs to?
I would argue that Cellino bears a direct responsibility for both the loyalty of the team aspect, and the feeling of being looked after. I would also argue he has been found wanting in these areas.
Cellino has signed too many seemingly random journeymen. It looks like he has learned his lesson to some degree this year, but whilst cutting the deadwood out with one hand he has been increasing it with the other. These players will upset the team ethos as they don't play, so are unhappy, and therefore moan and complain. Many would include Cooper in this list (I wouldn't), but also Bianchi, Sloth, Adryan, Ajose, Antenucci, Doukara, Cani. Some still here, some gone, but this is not the sign of a settled team, a group, a band of brothers that will be loyal to each other. Now I emphasise, Cellino seems to have improved this year- fewer signings of hopefully better quality (I am not convinced by Erwin, but he gets my support until I have seen him play). However this might be a year too late for Byram.
The feeling of being looked after. Well Cellino will offer a contract he feels he can afford, and that Byram deserves. Hopefully Byram will agree with it. No one will know the actual value of it, so speculation is pointless. Lets ignore it and look elsewhere. Who looks after Byram? Presumably Rosler- some German that turned up a couple of weeks ago. That's not Roslers fault, but it is a situation he needs to handle. Since Cellino has taken over the first team manager position has been a joke. Whether you liked them or not is irrelevant. What is relevant is that Byram has been expected to put his trust and career into the hands of McD, Hockaday, Redders, Darko, Redders again, and now Rosler. It is to be expected that Byram would have strong links with Redders, how do you think he feels about that situation? If he liked/trusted any of the previous managers, how do you think he feels about them being treated so shabbily (and I would argue they all have in one way or another)? If he didn't like them how does he feel about the relentless (poor in my opinion) appointments? How long do you think he thinks Rosler has? Up until a couple of weeks ago he knew- if nothing else- his long term mentor Redders was available for him- even if it might have been an informal link based on their time together.
So where does that leave us?
Well lets be clear- if Byram wants more money, there will be other clubs that can afford to pay him more than us- and there is nothing anyone can (or should) do about it apart from wish him well and get the biggest price possible. If he has lost faith/patience in our ability to reach the PL, well once again there is nothing that can now be done about that, and he has to go. Again, with best wishes & the highest transfer fee possible. Although in this case I think there needs to be some people that look at themselves and why this happened (I think the McCormack transfer fell into this category).
This isn't really about Byram though. Its about all our players. If we want to grow as a club we cannot compete simply on financial rewards. Until we reach the premiership we cannot offer the biggest stage to play football on. So we have to keep our players a different way. We have to build a team ethos, we have to create a dream for these players. We have to make them so happy in themselves they simply don't want to leave us. Some still might- the lure of the money or the bright lights might prove too much- but I want it to be a heart wrenching decision in these cases. One thing the much maligned Kevin Blackwell managed to do was sell the vision of Leeds United. He took over us in probably our darkest ever hour, and managed to cobble together a team from literally nothing. Yes, it was the birth of hoofball and mediocrity- but that was no surprise given what he had to work with. However that team fought for each other, and somehow made it to the play off finals (where we got battered).
Cellino is responsible for creating the environment where people want to be, where they want to work. It is his job to keep all the employees happy. If he can't do that then we will be doomed to lose any player as soon as another suitor comes along.
especially when you consider all the illegal immigrants living here in the UK with more to come looking at new bulletins of late
