Future of key Leeds player thrown into doubt as Evans says club has better options
By Coral Barry
Steve Evans believes Leeds have better options at the back than Giuseppe Bellusci as new doubts emerge over the future of the centre-half.
The Leeds boss has left Bellusci out of the match day squad for the last three Championships games, with the hat-trick secured when the Italian was ignored for the final match of the season against Preston on Saturday afternoon.
Bellusci then added more fuel to the growing fire by taking to social media this week to insist that Leeds were more solid with him in the team.
The move has seemingly done nothing to help his relationship with manager Evans who spoke briefly to LUTV about why he left the defender out of the squad to face Preston.
"Peppe Bellusci I have not put in the squad today because we are covered in different areas," said Evans.
Bellusci signed a four-year contract when he arrived from Italian club Catania in August 2014.
The Italian had been a mainstay of the Leeds defence before his surprise omission from the side to face Hull on 23.
It has been a chastening few weeks for Bellusci, who started just one of Leeds' previous four league games before being dropped all together from the squad two weeks ago.
Liam Cooper and Sol Bamba have emerged as the favoured centre-back partnership in the final weeks of the campaign.
Bellusci's freeze out has sparked speculation that Leeds are ready to cut their losses with the centre-back despite the Italian still having two years to run on his current deal.