Even by the standards of our recent history of our club, we lived through a completely bizzare 24 hours from Friday evening to Saturday afternoon, and the latest is that the club have bowed to pressure and restored Brian McDermott to the position of manager. But for how long?

We now know that Brian was informed of his sacking at 6pm on Friday evening by means of a telephone call from a lawyer he’d never heard of, one Chris Farnell, a representative of Cellino. How typical of the man, that he didn’t even have the decency to call McDermott in to tell him face to face.

But in my piece of Friday I asked how Cellino could be in a position to sack the manager when his takeover had yet to be ratified by the Football League, and it turned out that he wasn’t. David Haigh also left the club on Friday night, but reversed his resignation on Saturday morning and came into Elland Road to resume control.

Cellino intended that Gianluca Festa would take charge of the team against Huddersfield, but after Ross McCormack had made the players feelings perfectly clear, Festa backed down from and watched the game from the East Stand. At 12.15 Haigh told McDermott’s assistant Nigel Gibbs that he would be in temporary charge for this match.

And with the game still in progress and the ‘Oh Brian McDermott’ chants ringing round Elland Road’, GFH announced to the world that Cellino’s lawyer had no authority to sack McDermott, and that he was still Leeds United’s manager! A brief statement was posted on the club’s official website.

“The club would like to make it clear that Brian McDermott remains our first team manager. He has not been dismissed from his post as has been suggested and we look forward to him continuing in his role with us in taking Leeds United forwards.” And that was the entire article. There is so much that it doesn’t say.

McDermott is expected to take charge of training again on Monday, but will he want to come back after the way he has been treated? If he does come back it will be entirely down to the support shown to him by the players and by the fans, to whom he has already given his thanks, even before Friday’s shambolic events. But for how long will he survive?

Cellino has made it perfectly clear that he doesn’t rate our present manager and that he is determined to install his own man, if and when he succeeds in getting his grubby hands on our club. So everything now depends on the Football League and whether they decide that he can pass their ‘Fit and Proper Persons’ test.

That is presumably down to the League’s Chief Executive Shaun Harvey, who did of course deem Ken Bates to be a fit and proper person to work for while he performed a similar role at Elland. Like it or not, the fate of Brian McDermott and the club itself are now back in his hands

Photo: Action Images

Skygod added 12:13 - Feb 2 My interpretation of events Cellino expected paperwork to go through a lot quicker than it has and from what he has said, he's "pissed off " about this. That's probably because he wanted to get the 4 / 5 loan deals from Italy & France that he had lined up into the squad before the transfer window deadline. Having only managed to get 1 deal done though, there's nothing more that can be done this season with foreign imports as the Emergency Loan Window doesn't allow International players. To 'placate' the fans, he's simply made a quick U-turn and will no doubt look to terminate the services of BMD at the end of the season if he doesn't achieve promotion. Cellino - I couldn't fire BMD GFH Capital - We didn't fire BMD So did Chris Farnell, (Senior Partner at IPS Law) just decide to fire BMD on a whim?

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TimWhelan added 13:42 - Feb 2 Maybe, although on 'Match of the Day 2' this lunchtime the panellists said that McDermott has been advised by his lawyer not to take the job back! No doubt we'll know more tomorrow.
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Bluesman1 added 14:38 - Feb 2 Very interesting re BM. How can he go back when Cellino is there. He could not put himself in such a Dangerous situation. Interesting news ion the media in an Indian English paper that GFH have got to sell because they can't meet running costs at ER. Apparently they owe money to Haigh et al and need 4 million cto meet costs in February. Talk about an incompetent outfit and, interestingly, none of this is reported in Arabian press? Also, Flowers to mount legal case against FA if they approve sale to Cellino. So much eh, for having the interest of the community at heart?

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Skygod added 15:51 - Feb 2 From what I can determine, LUFC have to make a payment of c.4m to Ken Bates in February and Sport Capital have an amount of c.6m that they will want repaid with the failure of their bid. There also appears to a monthly deficit of c.1m which will need to be resolved. GFH also appear to have a cash flow issue at the present time, so the sale of 75% to Cellino does appear to be a bit of a 'firesale'. There's also the potential of a court case settlement with Ken Bates regarding his dismissal as LUFC president. There's a lot going on here that will probably never be made public, but it's definitely a mess. If Cellino were to fail the FL 'tests' , then LUFC will need to find c.12m in the next month. I think LUFC need a Cellino to 'do an Abramovich' and have sufficient capital to settle all the outstanding issues and buy back Elland Road / Thorp Arch In addition, IF promotion is attained within the next couple of years there's another c.5m that will have to be paid as part of the last exit from Administration fiasco.

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