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Thread: See you next season guys.

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
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    3,778

    See you next season guys.

    Disappointed you went down really wanted you to stay up. Massive club shouldn’t be in this position. All that work from Beilsa seems to have gone to waste.

    See you at Rotherham next season.

    Not a gloating post as Rev will confirm keep the faith.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 2011
    Posts
    14,707
    Cheers Pocket lad proper gent you are pal.

    See thi next season

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2020
    Posts
    640
    Thanks for that.
    Right now I don't believe we will make top 6. Struggle for top half maybe. Massive clearance needed asap then see what can be achieved.
    Wouldn't bet with any confidence on Leeds finishing above Rotherham.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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    15,359
    Quote Originally Posted by Sniffer999 View Post
    Thanks for that.
    Right now I don't believe we will make top 6. Struggle for top half maybe. Massive clearance needed asap then see what can be achieved.
    Wouldn't bet with any confidence on Leeds finishing above Rotherham.
    Unfortunately that seems a very likely outcome, and that's presuming we get the "new start" that would come from Radrizzani leaving for pastures new, but.......

    https://motleedsnews.com/boardroom/i...id-150m-twist/

    If that's anything like true, and the consortium of 49-ers Enterprises investors starts to disintegrate, we might be left with the Milanese hypocrite as some kind of lame duck owner, as he is (so the press are reporting) about to commit a fairly large chunk of whatever fund he has to the Sampdoria purchase, so funds for LUFC would be the last thing on his mind.

    Only at Leeds.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2012
    Posts
    5,225
    Well looks like the 49ers can get us on the cheap but will sell all the crap and get back their investment. The only problem is their stakeholders have woken up to how crap we are and now don't want us. Leaving us with the dirty Italian and the same players. Nahhhhh not looking to next season.
    The club statement is hilarious I wonder who wrote it lol.
    Everyone connected with Leeds United is deeply disappointed by the club’s relegation back to the Sky Bet Championship, after three seasons in the Premier League.

    Relegation is painful, and we apologise to our fanbase that the performances this season have not seen the club consolidate our status as we had all hoped.

    However, Leeds United remains in a strong position to build a team that can challenge for promotion from the Championship next season.

    We know things have not been good enough, and we know we have to improve, but please be assured that behind the scenes we have worked hard to ensure that the past will not be repeated. Our focus is now on how we get straight back to the Premier League.

    Thank you for your unwavering support for the players and the badge, our objective is to continue to build the club into the one you deserve.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2011
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    15,359
    Quote Originally Posted by ozleeds View Post
    Well looks like the 49ers can get us on the cheap but will sell all the crap and get back their investment. The only problem is their stakeholders have woken up to how crap we are and now don't want us. Leaving us with the dirty Italian and the same players. Nahhhhh not looking to next season.
    The club statement is hilarious I wonder who wrote it lol.
    Everyone connected with Leeds United is deeply disappointed by the club’s relegation back to the Sky Bet Championship, after three seasons in the Premier League.

    Relegation is painful, and we apologise to our fanbase that the performances this season have not seen the club consolidate our status as we had all hoped.

    However, Leeds United remains in a strong position to build a team that can challenge for promotion from the Championship next season.

    We know things have not been good enough, and we know we have to improve, but please be assured that behind the scenes we have worked hard to ensure that the past will not be repeated. Our focus is now on how we get straight back to the Premier League.

    Thank you for your unwavering support for the players and the badge, our objective is to continue to build the club into the one you deserve.
    Words, nothing more, actions are required and soon.

  7. #7
    Rome wasn’t built in a day - enjoy the break before it all begins again and we can chew the fat over how it is panning out.

    It’s been coming for months so is t the greatest surprise.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
    Posts
    1,280
    Phil Hay/Athletic latest - kinda of summary of the Radz years published tonight.
    Kind of goes with my recent word-flow on here that Radz 'lost interest this season'.
    It's a subscription piece, long read but appears an honest assessment.

    1.On the football side, Radrizzani’s tendency was to delegate. Kinnear, who also joined in the summer of the Italian’s takeover, was given responsibility for managing the finances and Orta directed decisions on the playing side, with a high level of influence over transfers and recruitment. When Leeds named Paul Heckingbottom as their head coach in February 2018, Radrizzani had been in the Far East for most of the preceding month. He appeared on the morning of Heckingbottom’s appointment to, as one person at Elland Road put it, “look in his eyes and be sure he was convinced”. Pursuing Bielsa later that year was Orta’s idea — as was the flawed punt on Jesse Marsch in 2022 — and, though Radrizzani was involved in one of the initial meetings with the Argentinian in Buenos Aires, negotiations fell to others in the senior management team. Likewise, it was Orta who often had the job of delivering news of a sacking, in one instance flying to interrupt Heckingbottom’s family holiday in Greece to tell him face-to-face that he was losing his job.

    Radrizzani, though, could be forthright when he wanted to be. He would make appearances at EFL and Premier League meetings, even though owners tended to skirt them and leave them to chief executives or similar. He mixed closely with the squad
    whenever he was in England and many of the players found him to be good company, an affable chairman and fairly approachable. But in other moments he demonstrated his authority. The first time former head coach Marsch came under serious pressure the season, Radrizzani spoke at a gathering of the squad. The impression he gave them was that, far from losing faith in Marsch, he might offer him a new contract — a public show of faith. It was a way of saying that, when it came to it, the opinion that mattered most was his.
    On occasions, that went for transfers too. Shortly after arriving as head coach, Bielsa told Radrizzani that by retaining Vieira, he would turn the talented midfielder into a £15million player. Radrizzani digested the advice but sold Vieira to Sampdoria for £7million anyway, using the money to pay for Patrick Bamford. More often than not, his patience with a head coach dwindled before that of those around him at senior management level. He was inclined to remove Heckingbottom’s predecessor, Thomas Christiansen, a month before he actually did. Bielsa’s dismissal in 2022 came two and a half weeks after the Italian first began pondering it. Marsch might have gone in January of this year had Orta not fought his corner after a 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa, buying the American another few games. Part of the reason for Orta’s departure as director of football a month ago was that in the wake of a 4-1 rout at Bournemouth, Orta was still backing Javi Gracia to keep Leeds up. Radrizzani and the board around him thought otherwise and the disagreement was irreconcilable.


    What is obvious now is that none of Leeds’ choices of manager either side of Bielsa have worked at all. Bielsa was Radrizzani’s golden goose, even if Bielsa’s last season and his unceremonious exit badly damaged the relationship between club and coach. At no stage did Bielsa and Radrizzani have much of a personal connection. They would interact from time to time, like in the summer of 2019 when Bielsa chivvied Radrizzani via WhatsApp to sign Helder Costa from Wolves, but Orta was Bielsa’s main point of contact and Bielsa liked to keep himself tucked away at the training ground. Though Radrizzani was the money, the crowd saw Bielsa as the icon and the genius, an attitude which has hardened in the months since he left. It is a long-held truth in football that no child has posters of their club’s chairman on the wall. Murals are reserved for men like Bielsa, for players like Pablo Hernandez.
    The success of appointing Bielsa was real and vivid, a unique moment in time. Interest and attention came from all quarters. In February 2020, as Leeds were starting to motor towards promotion, Bielsa invited two guests for a meal at Piccolino, an Italian restaurant in the Yorkshire village of Collingham. The guests were Pep Guardiola and Lorenzo Buenaventura, Guardiola’s fitness coach at Manchester City.
    They ate steak and drank soft drinks, tucked away in their own little corner, Bielsa in a plain white T-shirt and Guardiola in a black zip-up. If time allowed, Guardiola would not hesitate to accept an invite from Bielsa. That was what Leeds had acquired: a head coach who the best of the best-loved and whose football served as a magnet, so easy to admire and enjoy. The club went up into the Premier League five months later and Bielsa’s little flat in Wetherby was swamped with fans on the night that it happened. It looked and felt like Leeds had hit the jackpot. It looked as if Radrizzani had all an owner could wish for; like he had won the impossible bet.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
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    1,280
    2.Around 18 months ago, people close to Radrizzani began asking the question of how much further he could feasibly take the club. He was wealthy, undoubtedly, but not at the obscene level needed to drive a Premier League team on year after year. The division required an inordinate amount of cash and, though Radrizzani had talked publicly about future growth — a new city-centre training ground, major redevelopment of Elland Road, staying on as majority shareholder until Leeds qualified for Europe — their struggle through the 2021-22 season cast doubt over the likelihood of any of that happening.
    Criticism from the fanbase of him and Leeds’ stagnation grew and Radrizzani, a regular Twitter user, was acutely aware of it, keen for greater popularity or validation. Though some who worked with him would suggest that he come off the social media site or at least refrain from posting too much, he had a habit of tweeting in ways that aggravated the support. Last summer saw a shift in transfer policy too. Whereas in previous windows Leeds had made new signings without sanctioning major departures, this time they sold Kalvin Phillips and Raphinha for a combined total of close to £100million to finance their recruitment. “We cannot do another three years spending another £100million without any (transfer) income,” Radrizzani told The Athletic last August. Financially, they had their limits.

    In terms of annual revenue, Leeds were consistently in a healthy position. In the 2021-22 financial year, their turnover reached a record £189million. But while that money covered a lot of their day-to-day costs, the view internally was that a minimum of £30m to £40m was needed via additional shareholder injections to allow for sufficient transfer activity. It was that which encouraged the feeling that, if Leeds were to progress, Radrizzani would have to relinquish them to 49ers Enterprises. The US fund, which was pulling together investors in the States, had the capacity to plough in more cash. And overall losses of £34million in the 2021-22 season showed how much a Premier League outfit swallowed.
    Moreover, on the football front it was not going well at all. Leeds’ position as a competitive team under Bielsa had crumbled and neither the appointment of subsequent head coaches nor recruitment guided by Orta arrested the slide. Radrizzani was bullish at the start of this term, saying he expected Leeds to finish between 10th and 14th place. By the afternoon of a 4-1 defeat at Bournemouth last month, the final game of Gracia’s reign, he was describing himself in a Twitter message to a fan as “broken”. “I am responsible for this ****,” the message read. “Unacceptable. You don’t deserve this. Ridiculous.”

    It is five years since 49ers Enterprises first came on the scene at Leeds, making an initial investment in 2018, but its intentions became more serious in 2021 when it upped its stake to 44 per cent and agreed an option to buy Radrizzani out in full, with a deadline of January 2024. Though the group sought complete control, it was mindful of not disrespecting Radrizzani or being seen to push him out prematurely. Then, in the early part of this season, 49ers Enterprises made it clear that it was ready to do the deal sooner. But it was aware of financial liabilities waiting down the line, some comprising of future payments owed for transfers, and it was not willing to pay quite as much as had been agreed in the 2024 option, one which valued Leeds at just under £500million.
    In November, around the time of the World Cup, one member of the investment group was indicating that a transfer of ownership could happen before the end of the January transfer window but as time passed, there was no movement. The situation was complicated by the team’s second battle with relegation. In the EFL, 49ers Enterprises reckoned that Leeds would be worth closer to £150million than £500million, based on the drop in revenue they would suffer. At most, it would pay just under £170million. It was not prepared to finalise a takeover without relegation contingencies and an impasse developed, making the January window complicated. Every transfer involved negotiations about how precisely it would be funded. Orta, by then of the view that a takeover was essential, grew more and more frustrated with how slowly certain negotiations moved. A vacuum of leadership developed.
    Georginio Rutter’s arrival from Hoffenheim was one example. Radrizzani mooted the idea of taking Rutter on loan with an obligation to buy at the end of the season but 49ers Enterprises wanted a permanent transfer immediately and a protracted move was done for £30million. Radrizzani favoured selling Jack Harrison to Leicester City, a means of raising around £20million, but 49ers Enterprises preferred to retain him and the move collapsed less than two hours before the deadline, despite Harrison being sent to Leicester’s training ground just in case. Events like those made the point that the split of ownership at boardroom level was not sustainable indefinitely.

    Through further talks, Radrizzani and 49ers Enterprises got themselves a point where contracts were in place to allow a full takeover to go ahead this summer, contingent on Leeds avoiding relegation. Up until the 45th minute of the club’s game against Crystal Palace on April 9, it looked like they would do so. Leeds led 1-0 and were on course to move onto 32 points with eight games to play. They conspired to lose 5-1 by falling apart in the second half and had Radrizzani turned up in the directors’ box for today’s clash with Spurs, he would have been staring at a team who were stuck on 31 and as good as down. In the timeline of decline, it was a huge Sliding Doors moment.
    On the Sunday of the Palace defeat, the marketing department at Elland Road were preparing for an announcement the following week. Leeds had been invited to join a pre-season Premier League tournament in the US and the six-team line-up for the event was about to be unveiled. But Leeds lost to Palace, the governing body got cold feet about whether Leeds would even be a Premier League team come July and, within 24 hours of the game, promptly replaced them with Fulham. Leeds were on the road to the Championship and would not get off it.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Oct 2010
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    1,280
    3.The spectre of relegation, and the realisation that it was probably coming this time, prompted 49ers Enterprises to initiate fresh discussions with Radrizzani about buying the club regardless of league status. Those negotiations have been ongoing for the past few weeks, urgent and tense. As time went on, the relationship between the two sides became more and more delicate and the US group is now clear on two things: that it will only buy at what it considers to be a fair price and that it wants Radrizzani to exit the building, as opposed to him continuing in an active, operational role as a minority stakeholder.
    Additional challenges for 49ers Enterprises remain, even at this late stage. Not all of the investors behind its project are enthusiastic about buying an EFL side. The fund was put together on the basis of Leeds being a Premier League entity. A major call with the investment group took place this Thursday gone, with 49ers Enterprises still determined to bring a takeover to fruition in the worst-case scenario of relegation. But Radrizzani holds many of the cards, with the prerogative to stick to the price he wants or to plough on and try to get Leeds promoted again.
    All the same, there is clear evidence of him looking for an exit plan. For a long time, he has had eyes on purchasing a team in Italy. Inter Milan are available to buy and Radrizzani has looked at their books, although the bank managing bids for Inter value the club at around £1billion and were not sure how he would fund that. In the past week, Radrizzani has openly declared his involvement in an attempt to acquire Sampdoria, a club who have bombed out of Serie A with horrible debts but, as a result, are more within his price range.
    Radrizzani was videoed driving into Sampdoria’s training ground on Monday, indicating to local media that he was hopeful of completing a buy-out. On Thursday it emerged that Qatari Sports Investments (QSI) had involved itself in the process, offering to support a buy-out in Genoa. Radrizzani is close to QSI’s chairman, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, and at points in the past, QSI was vaguely credited with an interest in acquiring shares at Elland Road, without ever doing so.
    A takeover of Sampdoria appears to hinge on Radrizzani selling Leeds, though, and progress on that front might be the tipping point for him and 49ers Enterprises to resolve and close out their own discussions. Yesterday, Sampdoria issued a statement announcing that the bid Radrizzani is part of had secured exclusivity to complete a deal. There was no sign of him or any of 49ers Enterprises’ representatives at Elland Road today.
    There are other things in Radrizzani’s life beyond football — other assets he owns, like his investment firm Aser. Eleven Sports, the broadcast business he established, was recently sold to DAZN and he runs the Play for Change charity, an organisation which supports the underprivileged through sports and education projects. For a while he was a director of the football agency Football Capital but resigned from that position before investing at Elland Road.
    But Leeds, by a distance, have been the biggest fish in his portfolio, the project which turned an unfamiliar media man into a recognisable face in the football world. And, six years on, it has taught him a lesson: that much like coaching and management, ownership often ends in disappointment, frustration and recrimination. Consolidating in the Premier League has been beyond him.
    Leeds were never intended to be forever for Radrizzani and it easy to imagine him asking himself if he hung on too long; to imagine 49ers Enterprises thinking it waited too long to take the club from him; that through two very troubled campaigns, relegation has been coming. The city waits now to see how movement in the boardroom plays out because, for all that Leeds are without a long-term head coach, a director of football and a squad which is demonstrably ready for the Championship, nothing is sure to affect them more than the ownership structure from here on.
    Three years ago, Radrizzani told Forbes that in future years he wanted to devote less of his life to business. “Let’s say that out of 100, the time I currently dedicate to work is 80 per cent,” he said. “I hope that in 10 years, it will be approximately 30 per cent family, 30 per cent for me, 30 per cent social projects.” A dabble with Sampdoria would make that very difficult, but as rising dissent rang around Elland Road for the final time this season, he must have been asking himself if the game at Leeds is up.

    In football club ownership, that question comes to them all.

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