According to the Guardian, the decision not to bring the keeper on a pre-season tour of Italy has nothing to do with his fitness and he may never play for the club again.
At 36, it looks like Paddy Kenny’s time at Leeds is over but the reason for the Irish keeper’s woes has nothing to do with the twin demons of fitness and form.
According to reports in today’s Guardian, the reason why Kenny will not be travelling to Italy for a pre-season tour is bizarre in the extreme and it involves something Kenny can’t possibly change; his date of birth.
Leeds are now owned by Italian Massimo Cellino, who the paper euphemistically call ‘maverick’. It seems Cellino has a dislike of the number 17. A really serious dislike. At former club Cagliari he had all the number 17 seats taken out and replaced with ones that read ’16B’.
Unfortunately for Kenny, his birthday is May 17 and for that reason coach Dave Hockaday has been told to leave him out of the squad and Kenny may never play in white again.
Michael Brown wore 17 in the Leeds squad last year but he has been released in the summer and the shirt will likely remain unfilled.
As for Kenny, at £10,000-a-week, he is the second highest paid player on the books at Elland Road so while that may be a bonus for Cellino, we tend to believe that he has so much faith in his superstition that he would let the player leave.
As for the reason behind Cellino’s dislike of the number 17, it is reported to stem from a belief that Cagliari only won or drew one game played on the 17th over a 20 year span. It is now the time to introduce Cellino’s other dislike, the colour purple.
The Guardian reports some recent quotes he made about that solo win on the 17th. “The whole stadium was purple on the 17th. We won because I think that bad luck is like algebra: minus and minus is positive. Purple and 17 … they became positive and we won. That’s the only time.”
We find it hard to believe we’ll have a weirder football story all season.
