Leeds United were one of three clubs promoted to the Premier League for this season and they returned to top flight for the first time since 2004.
Having struggled under the ownership of Massimo Cellino for over three years, their fortunes changes after the Italian sold the club to his compatriot, Andrea Radrizzani.
Cellino initially bought the English club in January 2014 and sold all his shares to Radrizzani by May 2017. The former invested at the Elland Road club just months before selling Cagliari.
Gianluca Festa came up through the ranks of the Serie A side’s youth system and had two spells there as a player. He started his coaching career as an assistant manager at Cagliari in 2010 and also had a short spell as their first team manager in 2015.
During Cellino’s management at Leeds, he took Festa’s help and the latter has detailed his experience of dealing with the former owner of the English club.
“I respect Cellino, however, from my point of view, sometimes he did not behave well. I had a contract with Cagliari for Serie A and I left because I did not feel full confidence around me,” Goal Italia quoted Fest as saying.
“I have a good relationship with him, I also went to Leeds to try to help him out. There’s a lot of tug-of-war between us, but I have nothing to complain about.”
“He is someone who knows how to intervene at the right times… After my debut as a manager in Serie A, he called me on the phone and we talked for a long time, but on many things, we did not agree, everyone goes his own way.”
