Leeds United CEO Ben Mansford has admitted he does not yet have a close relationship with the club's owner Massimo Cellino, but is working on developing one.
Cellino recently raided Oakwell to tempt Mansford away from Barnsley and appointed him as the CEO at Elland Road.
Mansford is playing a big role behind the scenes at Leeds to shape the side for the forthcoming campaign, working closely with both Cellino and head coach Garry Monk.
Cellino has had a number of right hand men since he took over Leeds in 2014 and Mansford admits it is going to take time for him to build up a good working relationship with the Italian.
"It's good. I've lasted a month! I've got a clock!" he joked to LUTV when asked about his relationship with Cellino.
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"I'm still in an infancy of building up a relationship with him.
"Obviously at my former club I could speak very open and honest [to the chairman] because we'd worked together for three years and we knew each other really well.
"I didn't want to come out in the first month when there was a lot to do and settling in, in terms of making too many bold statements and pretending that I knew Massimo really well or that we'd struck up a wonderful accord on day one, because I don't think that would have been right", Mansford added.
However, the new CEO has seen enough of Cellino to know that he is passionate about bringing success to Leeds and driving the club back into the English top flight.
"What I can tell everybody is he is really passionate. He really wants to win and return this club to the Premier League."
