Andrea Radrizzani's unthinkable Leeds United scenario as Sam Allardyce takes the wheel and ownership legacy - YEP 17/5/23

Leeds United’s ownership situation remains at the forefront of minds, even if a second successive relegation battle is pulling focus and jangling nerves, and YEP chief football writer Graham Smyth asks if the time has come for change regardless of how the season ends.

By Graham Smyth

"Maybe one day when I am tired I will give up and be happy for Paraag to be in the driving position more than anyone else but it will take some time."

Are we there yet?

It has been two years and four months since a smiling Andrea Radrizzani spoke those words in a Zoom call with the local media. Not even in the Italian's worst nightmare could he have glimpsed the reality he and they would be facing in May 2023, when he held court along with Paraag Marathe upon the 49ers' grab of an increased stake in January 2021.

The idea that by this stage Bielsa would be long gone and Sam Allardyce would be in place for four games only as the third successor to the Argentine, or that Victor Orta would have had to depart amid a second all-too-near brush with relegation, or indeed that fans would have spent a significant portion of this season in open revolt, was entirely unthinkable for Radrizzani and his boardroom partners.

They were comfortably in midtable in January 2021, living the owner's primary Leeds United dream.

"I would like to be remembered as the chairman who brought back Leeds United to the Premier League," he admitted in October 2020 at the club's centenary celebrations.

“That is enough for me but when I will be there I will keep enjoying it and have another achievement, but for now I am focused on that goal.”

The next dream - European football at Elland Road - he was happy to reveal once promotion was secured, but right now it is every bit as unthinkable as the reality he has lived out for the past two seasons.

"To make me tired takes a long time," he once said. Two campaigns of struggle, specifically the two Leeds have put together, have been enough to sap the life from supporters so there seems little reason why Radrizzani would be immune. He certainly seemed driven to despair in a message he sent to a YouTuber as the Bournemouth game became a rubber-necker’s delight.

On Saturday afternoon he stood in the Elland Road tunnel prior to kick-off against Newcastle United and smiled as he greeted the players on their way out to do battle. How many more times he will enjoy that prerogative remains to be seen. Maybe only once more, should he be there to see the final game of the season against Spurs.

It was only fair that Radrizzani stuck around to enjoy the fruits of his efforts and investment, the Premier League joyride that was delivered as a direct result of putting Bielsa behind the wheel.

But things have careered so out of control that in time Radrizzani may look back on the two summers that followed that glorious first top flight season and wonder if that was when he should have made his exit and passed overall control on to the 49ers. Perhaps the Americans were not ready to leave the passenger seat, perhaps Radrizzani was not ready to let them but certainly the further Leeds have travelled down the road since the summer of 2022 the worse it has looked in the rear view mirror.

And whether this season ends in a crash back into the second tier or a last-minute swerve to safety, is there anything more unavoidable than the feeling that the current regime has run out of road?

Are we there yet?

Undeniably, supporters have run out of patience with a project that came to a juddering halt with Orta's exit and Allardyce's deployment. There is no escaping the dints this has all put in Radrizzani's legacy but the outcome of these two games and the finished table will decide the extent of the damage.

Should Allardyce do his thing and wring from this squad the points they need, then the 49ers will surely accelerate their takeover and bring Radrizzani's time as majority shareholder to a close. In that case, the Italian will point to Premier League status, those glorious Bielsa years, the club's commercial rebirth, the growth of the women's team and the Leeds United Foundation as his legacy. He will indeed go down as a chairman who brought Leeds back from the EFL wilderness.

Should it go the other way, Radrizzani can still point to all but one of those things because only Premier League status can be taken away in the blink of an eye or the swing of a boot. The club would land relatively softly, on their feet at least, in the Championship thanks to commercial revenue, parachute payments, saleable squad assets and wage-reduction clauses. But if, as feels likely, he departs this summer even after a relegation then he will go down as a chairman who led Leeds out of the EFL wilderness for a time, before returning them to it. The 49ers, by the way, will start an era of their own with some work to do in order to scrub the relegation from their record, having played a part in the navigation.

Radrizzani might view another promotion charge as do-able, he might be tempted to stay put in order to regain Premier League football and drive the price of the club back up. Supporters, however, will not see that as the way forward.

What makes Radrizzani's exit feel likely, regardless of what happens in the next two games, is how necessary it has started to feel. The club needs souping up. It needs to be jump-started. Elland Road needs a new paint job, at the very least. Vital parts in the team need replacing. The fans need to feel that they're strapped into something they can believe in, a vehicle taking them in the right direction.

And though the football will require full attention on Sunday, then hopefully again the weekend after, a question should be ringing in Radrizzani's ears, it's one tens of thousands are asking. Are we there yet?