Leeds signed Bellusci over Van Dijk

Leeds United may’ve signed Virgil van Dijk however controversial former proprietor Massimo Cellino turned down the prospect in favour of one other deal.

That’s in accordance with Graham Bean, who labored as an advisor to the Italian supremo throughout his tenure at Elland Street, as he revealed that ex-manager David Hockaday steered the Dutch colossus while he was at Celtic.

“I bought on nicely with Dave and he was a very nice bloke, as was his assistant Junior Lewis,” he instructed the Daily Mail. “However the actuality was they had been each out of their depth at Leeds.

Was Bellusci the worst signing of the Cellino period?

“Dave did, nonetheless, establish two excellent gamers that might have remodeled the membership. One was a sure van Dijk, then at Celtic.”

Cellino went on to signal an unknown centre-back from the Serie A in Giuseppe Bellusci, who value round £1.6m. “Sadly Cellino ignored him and signed Giuseppe Bellusci on mortgage from Italian aspect Catania,” he added.

“Bellusci thrived on an undeserved hard-man status. He made his debut in a 4-1 defeat to Watford and issues didn’t enhance a lot from there – he wasn’t preferred by a lot of his teammates or the membership workers.”

The 33-year-old went on to make 61 appearances for the Yorkshire giants, scoring simply twice, earlier than leaving for Serie A outfit Empoli on mortgage simply two years later after which left the membership completely to Palermo on a free switch.

In the meantime, in that point, Van Dijk swapped Celtic Park for Southampton earlier than sealing a then world-record £75m transfer to Liverpool in January 2018, the place he has since gained the Premier League and Champions League.

It’s extensively thought that the Netherlands worldwide, who has been lauded as a “monster” by Sky Sports activities pundit Gary Neville, is among the many greatest defenders in world soccer, so had Cellino listened to the recommendation of his supervisor, Hockaday, then Van Dijk might nicely have been an absolute colossus for Leeds, reasonably than Southampton.

What a catastrophic blunder that has turned out to be, although it’s not the one or worst that the unstable Cellino made throughout his time at Elland Street.

AND in different information, Misplaced 100% of duels: 13-pass flop proved Leeds’ determination proper in worldwide defeat…