Massimo Cellino
Cellino will hold talks with McDermott in the coming days.

Leeds United owner Massimo Cellino and thrown the future of manager Brian McDermott into doubt after revealing talks will be held in the coming week regarding his future.

The final day draw with Derby County saw The White finish the season in 15<sup>th, a full 15 points adrift of the play-of places amid a torrid campaign.

Upon completing his takeover of Leeds, Cellino targeted promotion next season but has expressed concern about McDermott, who is a former promotion winner with Reading, following a dire season.

"I must be 100% confident in my coach at the start of the season," Cellino told BBC Radio Leeds. "I must have a coach that is very good on the field and helps me manage by choosing players.

"I am looking for that and then when the season starts, I must be sure - if it's McDermott or anyone else - that we must not be insecure. We must be sure about what we are looking for.

"We have to let things cool down. Maybe in a week or 10 days' time both of us will be ready to talk about the future.

"We are engaged in another two years of contract and that is also very important for us because we cannot waste money changing (managers). If we have to face that we have to be sure.

"Me and Brian have to sort it out very fairly and in a sporting way."

Cellino arrives in English football with a reputation for sacking managers during his ownership of Cagliari and the 67 says he feels McDermott has underestimated the challenge at Elland Road.

"I think when Brian came here he thought he was coming to a club that could buy a lot of players and he found something different," the Leeds owner added.

"They (the previous owners) were expecting miracles from him, expecting him to be some kind of magician and bring the club into the Premier League straightaway.

"I don't think he got a company/club with enough experience to support him not just with money but with experience so he became a very lonely manager.

"He wasn't ready to manage the club. He was maybe a good coach but did not have enough managerial experience to manage a confusing situation like the one he found at Leeds.

"So I cannot blame him. Maybe he was the right manager at the wrong moment at the wrong club."

McDermott's future was thrown into further doubt last week when former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Benito Carbone arrived at Leeds in an academy role but Cellino says the Italian will not step into a first-team position.

"I brought Benito Carbone here because his dream is to manage in England because he played here in England and he loves English football," he explained.

"He knows about soccer but he is not a manager for me that is ready to manage a club in the Championship. He's still too close to a soccer player to be a coach. He's not ready yet."

The greatest challenge facing Cellino in his Leeds tenure is to manage the club's debt and balancing cutting the substantial wage bill while delivering promotion.

Cellino was highly critical of the wage bill upon his arrival and says he will plan to invest in young players in order to guide the club back to the Premier League.

"Our overheads are still a little bit too high for a Championship club," he said. "Some of them are more like Champions League than Championship.

"We have to spend our resources on buying good young players with talent and keep the wages down."