There’s nothing that really beats a settled side and that’s a philosophy that Marcelo Bielsa employs rigidly with Leeds United at the moment. It is a philosophy that has worked with a much-improved Whites side last season and a pretty much similar set-up that tops the Sky Bet Championship at the moment.
However, it hasn’t always been a settled outfit at Elland Road and definitely not so in the quite recent past. You only have to dig back a few years, to the maelstrom times of Massimo Cellino and his early overtures at the club to see evidence of this.
Cellino breezed into the club and rescued them from the rather inept control of GFH Capital, a Bahraini investment bank who were as far removed from rich Arab investment as Leeds fans could have wished for. With Madcap Massimo’s arrival, there also came a flurry of players, arrivals from the Italian leagues. Of what came with him, only Gaetano Berardi remains.
The bulk of players who arrived with him failed to make a mark at the club and were like wisps of smoke as they drifted in then drifted away from Elland Road. Some, such as Mirco Antenucci and Giuseppe Bellusci, made waves at the club, although those two did so for varying reasons.
Below are six players who arrived at Elland Road and pretty much left with a whimper…if any real noise at all.
Six of the ‘best’ failures for Leeds United – where are they now?
Edgar Cani (arrived June 30, 2015 – Catania – loan)
Cani came up through the youth system at Italian club Pescara, graduating into their first-team set-up and earning himself a £1 million move to fellow Italians Palermo in 2008. From July that year, he was bounced around on loan to the likes of Ascoli and Padova before a free transfer to Polonia Warsaw who currently play in Poland’s 4th tier. He left Palermo having never made an appearance for the first-team but did play 34 times for Polonia Warsaw and his some form with 13 goals and two assists. A free transfer back to Italy and Catania in late January 2013 beckoned and Cani ended up at Elland Road two years later. He made four largely forgettable appearances (48 minutes) for the Whites before heading back to Catania.
Status – currently without a club after leaving Serie C-C side Vibonese in late-January this year.
Dario Del Fabro (arrived August 31, 2014, from Cagliari – loan)
Del Fabro was one of the initial influx of Italian who joined the club in Cellino’s wake. He arrived on loan from the club that Cellino gave up, Cagliari, to pursue his Leeds United dream. Del Fabro didn’t cause much of a ripple on the pitch, appearing only once in the 1-0 FA Cup Third Round defeat away at then-Premier League Sunderland. The six-cap Italy Under-19 international had to make do with a handful of bench outings for the Whites in the Championship, warming the bench rather than playing from it. He returned to Cagliari at the end of June and did enough whilst out on loan, at Ascoli and Pisa, to earn a £4 million move to Juventus where he is yet to make an appearance for the first-team.
Status – currently on loan at Kilmarnock – played 24 times this season (one goal/one assist)
Granddi N’Goyi (arrived January 26, 2015, from US Palermo – loan)
This was a strange transfer even by Leeds United’s standards back then. The former France Under-19 and Under-21 international, who was on the books of Paris Saint-Germain at the start of his career, arrived at Elland Road from Palermo on loan in late-January 2015. He played one Championship game for the Whites on Valentine’s Day in a 2-0 loss to Norwich. After that game, he was injured and never seen again in Leeds colours before shuffling off back to Palermo.
Status – dumped by Palermo in early August 2016, N’Goyi popped back onto the football radar with French club Sénart-Moissy in mid-January 2018. Sénart-Moissy play in the Championnat National 3 league – the fifth tier of French football.
Zan Benedicic – (arrived August 4, 2014 from AC Milan U19 – loan)
There was much excitement when news trickled through that Leeds were getting a youngster from famous Italian club AC Milan’s youth set-up. It didn’t last. Slovenian youngster Benedicic arrived and left without making a single appearance for the Whites and left AC Milan at the end of that campaign for Italian Serie-C side Como, later moving to Ascoli. he did return to England, somewhat bizarrely, to sign for Leyton Orient in mid-September 2016, appearing in two games for the League Two side before a January move to Italian side Olbia – another Serie C side.
Status – signed for Slovenian Prva Liga side NK Celje in mid-February 2018, Has featured 22 times for them this season, scoring three goals and adding an assist.
Adryan (arrived August 30, 2014 from Flamengo – loan)
There was proper excitement around the convoluted manoeuvres that brought Adrian to Elland Road. This lad was a bona fide talent. He’d won the Under-17 World Cup with Brazil featuring in the same side as Lucas Piazon and Marquinhos. He’d come up through the famed Flamengo side before a loan to Cagliari where Cellino had some influence. Pulling of strings led to Adryan arriving at Elland Road. There were flashes of that skill, in the 13 appearances he made for Leeds, appearances that led to two assists. Yet, he will be most remembered for his reaction to an innocuous foul that had him rolling and leaping around in a reaction that won him that season’s ‘Fallon D’Floor’ prize. He returned to Flamengo, went out on loan to FC Nantes before being let go from Flamengo in a free transfer to Swiss side FC Sion.
Status – Currently back in Brazil on loan from FC Sion with Serie B side Avai FC. Hasn’t featured for them since the COVID-19 lockdown of football.
Nicky Ajose (arrived August 5, 2014 from Peterborough – £170,000)
Ajose signed for Leeds United from Peterborough in early-August 2014 and featured in just four games for Leeds without troubling the scoresheet – only three of these appearances (198 minutes) were in the Championship. He was loaned out to Crewe Alexandra before Leeds United let him go on a free transfer to Swindon Town just over a year after he’d arrived at Elland Road. Swindon sold him to Charlton Athletic in the summer of 2016 for £900,000.
Status – Left Charlton on a free transfer in early-July 2019 and signed for Exeter. Has featured 13 times in League Two this season, scoring two goals and adding one assist.
