Takeover imminent.

[Pacaman]

Part 2

49ers Enterprises, having briefly contemplated making an offer to bring back Marcelo Bielsa, is very keen on Brendan Rodgers but the indications are that the Northern Irishman is not tempted to work in the Championship. Other candidates have been under discussion too — Carlos Corberan, Scott Parker, Steven Gerrard, Daniel Farke — and that list of names suggests the club are minded to go with a fairly obvious option, rather than gambling on something unexpected or serving up a bona fide show-stopper. Whatever 49ers Enterprises decides, an appointment should materialise rapidly now.

On the director-of-football and recruitment front, the attitude is slightly different. Leeds know that they need to restructure after parting company with Victor Orta last month but they are prepared to take more time in working out who would fit best at the top of their scouting department and how they want their recruitment model to look. For the past fortnight, more urgency has been given to engaging potential head coaches.

daniel-farke
Farke is an option for Leeds as manager (Photo: Adrian Dennis/AFP via Getty Images)
Beyond that, transfer business in and out will have to begin rapidly. Departures will be high in number — most likely clearing double figures — and substantial rebuilding of the squad is necessary to get Leeds ready for the start of the Championship season. While 49ers Enterprises has much it wants to change in the infrastructure side, football is what matters here and now.

What does this mean for Leeds’ summer budget?

Had Radrizzani remained in charge, Leeds were preparing to be self-sufficient during the coming transfer window. Radrizzani did not appear to have significant amounts of money left to invest in the club and preparing for next season would have involved using player sales and parachute payments to finance business. Parachute payments in year one in the Championship are worth around £45million to Leeds.

go-deeper
GO DEEPER
Leeds United squad audit: Who stays and who goes this summer?
Those sources of income will still be used by 49ers Enterprises but this takeover is expected to lead to an injection of working capital by the U.S. fund, allowing Leeds to have a more active or aggressive window than they might otherwise have had. That is not to say that spending will be lavish or wildly excessive, and don’t be surprised if the club make use of the loan market, but they should be better placed to recruit and sell, and the takeover should give them more chance of retaining certain key players.

Will the Owners’ and Directors’ Test (O&DT) be an issue?

There is no suggestion it will cause any problems. Marathe and Lowy are already on the board at Leeds so the EFL is not going to obstruct them. The likes of Meador should come through the test quickly too. Only the major members of the investment group, the 11 or so main parties, will have to meet O&DT criteria. The more minor members will not be subject to it. Given that the fund is made up of established corporate figures, digging into their backgrounds and securing assurances about their wealth should be fairly straightforward.

go-deeper
GO DEEPER
Elland Road - 20 years a political pawn in the chaotic life of Leeds United
Beyond the here and now, what is the grand plan?

Needless to say, 49ers Enterprises’ vision has had to be adjusted somewhat. Starting in the Championship means it cannot implement the plans it would have activated in the Premier League. Those plans have not been shelved as such but the timeframe can no longer be the same. Stadium expansion, for example, might be delayed by at least two years.

But the bigger picture is the same as before. 49ers Enterprises wants to re-establish Leeds as a Premier League club and find a firmer footing in the division. It wants to rebuild Elland Road to create a ground with a capacity in the region of 60,000 and vastly improved facilities. In the long term, it wants to significantly increase annual turnover, hiking it closer to £400million to give Leeds an overall valuation, based on multiples of revenue, of somewhere between £1billion and £1.5bn. And in a lot of areas, not least commercially, it wants to see the club modernise.

Nobody involved with 49ers Enterprises has ever pretended this is a forever project. If the trajectory goes in the intended direction and Leeds do acquire the sort of value the fund envisages, there would most likely come a day when another buy-out was needed to drive the club onto the highest levels of European competition. But that is all for another day, a far-off vision as 49ers Enterprises steps into the breach with nothing bigger to aim for initially than promotion next season. For its first year as owner, the Championship promises to be quite a baptism.

[Pacaman]

So the validation if those who make up the 49-ers Enterprises "club" is all pretty much "standard practice", how ling until it concludes?

60 individuals, each with their own individual submission to the EFL made ASAP. Start on Monday, allowing half a day per to ensure due diligence is observed (and assuming that the vast majority of submissions are available on day 1), makes for 30 days elapsed before all have been vettted/approved and assuming a clean bill of health for all. Mid July at best before a single contract of any sort can be signed by whoever is appointed to represent our new owners. Tick Tick, tick tock.

Only the major members of the investment group, the 11 or so main parties, will have to meet O&DT criteria. The more minor members will not be subject to it.

[WTF11]

Only the major members of the investment group, the 11 or so main parties, will have to meet O&DT criteria. The more minor members will not be subject to it.

Appreciate the amount of effort spent on those posts, and also that some of the information is new news (the reduction in numbers of O&DT reviews for instance).

Still go back to the key paragraph in the club announcement which made mention of formalities taking "several weeks". Whilst discussion "in principle" with managerial candidates and the structure of the recruiting team can take place, no appointments of those or any others can take place until the EFL give the green light. Tick tock, tick tock.

[Billyni]

Well I really don’t know Vera.
Instead of being run by 1 person who knew fk all, we’re gonna be run by 60 people who know fk all.
Imagine trying to get a decision made from that lot.
Let’s see a show of hands, 1,2,3,4, oh shyt, I’ll have to start again,1,2……………..

[WTF11]

Well I really don’t know Vera.
Instead of being run by 1 person who knew fk all, we’re gonna be run by 60 people who know fk all.
Imagine trying to get a decision made from that lot.
Let’s see a show of hands, 1,2,3,4, oh shyt, I’ll have to start again,1,2……………..

Not as bad as that. The funding is the big issue and I suspect that all investors (big and small) will have had to commit specific amounts so both buy out funds and further investment capital was assured.

Kinnear is always going to be tainted by the last two seasons, but at least he knows Leeds and the English leagues. If he is joined by others who come from

[WTF11]

Not sure why but the last post was interrupted!

What I was going to say was that if Kinnear gets company on the board in the form of others who know English football, and in particular how to help the coaching and playing staff create a team that is formed with the sole objective of getting back to the PL (if they genuinely want that of course!), then we might be ok.

Long held the view that "Directors of Football" just by being there create a split in the responsibility of what happens on the pitch.

Based on what the club (owner) wants to do, the coach/manager creates a requirements definition of the players required to achieve the objective, and this is used by "Head of Recruitment" (NOT DoF) as the shopping list, with players identified so the coach/manager can "run the rule" over them before the negotiations around Ts & Cs starts. No split responsibility for what happens on the park. If players have been acquired with the approval of the coach/manager, there is no hiding place, as it should be.

[whitestomper45]

Not sure The Athletic will be happy reproducing their work verbatim

[WTF11]

Not sure The Athletic will be happy reproducing their work verbatim

Given the huge readership of these fora (even this one) I doubt they will give a rats ar5e

[WTF11]

For all those getting all breathless about the takeover and how "imminent" it is, read and weep............

https://motleedsnews.com/boardroom/l...tiny-phil-hay/

Until the green light/white smoke emerges from EFL, all the plans in the world can't be enacted because the 49-ers Enterprises won't own LUFC. In that respect, the article is incorrect when it suggests that "It is a major positive that the new regime appears free to start making moves at manager, and subsequently on transfers in and out of the squad,". Ownership has to transferred to whatever entity the 49-ers enterprises use as the "management" arm of their investment. That entity doesn't exist yet, and until it does, and ownership transferred to it, it's clearly impossible to issue contracts to anyone, as they wouldn't we worth the paper they were written on.

[ozleeds]

What. All is good this time next week we will be fixing the squad.