49ers Enterprises' first Leeds United hurdle shows they are not ignorant to big mistakes made - Leeds Live 16/6/23
49ers Enterprises have chosen to take a patient and thorough approach to their director of football search in a clear acknowledgement mistakes need correcting inside Leeds United
Short-term contract. Summer transfer window. The process is
underway. October. January transfer window. Thursday’s Nick Hammond
announcement showed 49ers Enterprises are not ignorant to what’s gone on and
gone wrong at Leeds United.
Led by Paraag Marathe and Peter Lowy, the new faces
controlling the fate of the club have shown patience and judgement in the hire
of an interim football advisor. The last two seasons at Elland Road have been a
mess and while Marathe and Lowy have sat on the board which has overseen it
all, they are at least showing an awareness things need to change, and not in a
minor way.
This summer is already awash with a litany of problems the
new owners must address. The small matters of a head coach and playing squad
cannot be cans kicked down the road.
They absolutely have to be in a position to hit the ground
running from the first weekend in August. Marathe, Angus Kinnear, Hammond and
the board will face those matters head-on, but the wider ethos, project,
working pattern, approach and hierarchy require more thought.
These are deep-rooted standards and processes the 49ers
vehicle must instil over a long period of time. If they want to build their new
vision from the ground up it will require time and a fine-tooth comb.
The board cannot afford to rush that decision and,
evidently, do not want to simply transplant a new director of football into an
operation previously built and harnessed by Victor Orta. In delaying an
eventual appointment until the autumn, Marathe and the top brass are showing
they want to do this properly.
They want to carry out a root-and-branch review of United’s
entire football operation and that requires months, not days or weeks. In
showing they are not here to do things quickly, in a rush and carelessly, 49ers
Enterprises have cleared something of an initial hurdle.
They can see the last two years have not been good enough
and they do not want to bury their heads in the sand to that reality. Time will
tell how successful their investigation and subsequent actions prove, but it is
at least a promising early move.