Leeds United: The number 17 comes back to haunt Cellino despite programme alteration
Massimo Cellino tried to ensure his least favourite number did not cost Leeds on Saturday.
The Italian owner, or someone else at the club, made sure that the programme for the match against Nottingham Forest was not issue 17, despite the fact that the game was the 17th match played at Elland Road this season.
Instead, it was marketed as issue 16b.
Cellino is famed for his superstitutions about the number 17. Leeds have not assigned a player that shirt number since the summer of 2014, the first summer in which Cellino had decision making power in LS11.
However, Cellino did not reckon with Nottingham Forest’s own number 17.
Nelson Oliveira put all of that pre-match preparation to waste when he got on the end of Eric Lichaj’s right-wing cross to score and secure all three points for the visiting side.
That goal will have been particularly galling to Cellino.
The corn magnate has already had one curse lifted from Elland Road this season, inviting Monsignor Philip Moger of St Anne’s Cathedral to bless the centre circle and dressing room after a period of eight months without a home victory in November. That paid immediate dividens as Leeds beat Cardiff.
It will now be up to Cellino to figure out how to avoid the curse of the number 17 again.
Can we suggest a ‘Mathmagician’?