How 49ers Enterprises has restructured Leeds United hierarchy - The Athletic 21/7/23

Phil Hay

The takeover of Leeds United on Monday yielded the closest thing anyone might get to a mea culpa from Andrea Radrizzani.

Radrizzani was vacating his position as majority shareholder at Elland Road and in an interview with Sky, there was contrition about the way it had ended: Leeds relegated from the Premier League, his standing as chairman diminished, mistakes in running the club laid bare.

One of those errors, Radrizzani conceded, lay squarely with recruitment. For almost six years, scouting and transfers at Leeds had been the domain of Victor Orta and Radrizzani found himself saying what others had been telling him. Too few of the more expensive signings came good. Not enough were ready for the Premier League. The model of focusing on players with potential had been flawed, as relegation proved.

“If I would go back, I would be more careful of a couple of things,” Radrizzani told Sky. “First of all, following unconditionally Victor — who is very talented — in our phase of the club, in only three years in the Premier League, could be dangerous. Why? Because Victor tends to focus his scouting on players that still have to show they are good enough.

“If you spend over £100million in one transfer market in the summer, you need to consider having maybe one or two players who are mature and have national team experience, and character to stay in the picture. I think that’s what we lacked. Victor’s challenge was too much — to take coaches or players that come from the Austrian league and expect them to perform in the Premier League. With all respect, the gap is too big.

“But I am responsible the same because I was not somewhere else. I was here. So I have to (accept) blame as well.”

Leeds, under new ownership, want to be mindful of lessons learned. The process of getting the club back out of the EFL is underway in earnest after 49ers Enterprises’ buy-out of Radrizzani this week and already, a new hierarchy is forming at Elland Road: in the boardroom, in the recruitment department and at their training ground. They intend to be a different outfit with different ideas and the process of change is underway, both with personnel and management structure.

Here, The Athletic outlines the chain of command…

Paraag Marathe (chairman)

Marathe is the head of the board at Elland Road, an appointment which was in the pipeline from the moment 49ers Enterprises turned its initial investment in Leeds into a plan to buy the club outright. At present, he is one of four United directors, alongside businessmen Rudy Cline-Thomas and Peter Lowy and chief executive Angus Kinnear. It remains to be seen if further appointments to the board materialise.

Lowy and Kinnear were existing directors prior to this week’s takeover, as was Marathe. Cline-Thomas, one of the biggest players in the 49ers’ fund, has taken on the position of vice-chairman — the post that Marathe held while Radrizzani was chairman. Radrizzani’s ties with Leeds have been cut completely.

Marathe will continue to be based predominantly in the USA, balancing overall management of Leeds with existing responsibilities at the San Francisco 49ers and 49ers Enterprises, the NFL franchise’s investment vehicle which put together the bid to buy United. But as the ultimate point of authority, he will have more involvement in day-to-day strategic operations at Elland Road than Cline-Thomas or Lowy. Kinnear as CEO, for example, answers directly to Marathe.

Angus Kinnear (CEO)

Kinnear, formerly employed by West Ham United and Arsenal, has been Leeds’ chief executive since 2017, appointed in the same summer Radrizzani bought the club from Massimo Cellino — and Orta became director of football.

Though Radrizzani sold up on Monday and Orta left Elland Road in early May, Kinnear was earmarked to remain in his existing job once the buy-out went through. Despite Leeds’ relegation, and despite Kinnear attracting criticism because of it, Marathe and 49ers Enterprises saw him as an asset at executive level, a CEO they rated and wanted to hold onto.

Kinnear played a very active role in finalising the post-relegation takeover agreement between Radrizzani and 49ers Enterprises after the end of last season. Prior to that, there was no contingency for whether Leeds would be sold — and, more specifically, precisely what price 49ers Enterprises would pay — if the club dropped down to the Championship. The US group relied on Kinnear to help get a fresh deal done and secure EFL approval for it. He was also part of the process which led to Daniel Farke arriving as first-team manager two weeks ago.

Kinnear’s remit, as a whole, is typical of a chief executive at a large football club. It is his job to oversee the finances and keep close tabs on the EFL’s Profit and Sustainability limits. He has long been the club’s representative at Premier League and EFL meetings, and final completion of transfers and contracts falls to him. While others above him give final approval, he is the person who signs the paperwork off.

In the revised structure at Elland Road, he is also the person who other key figures will answer to in the first instance: from Farke to new technical director Gretar Steinsson, head of medicine and performance Rob Price, new head of football operations Adam Underwood, head of football administration Hannah Cox and interim football advisor Nick Hammond. That tier of staff is managed by Kinnear, who in turn feeds back to Marathe. Radrizzani’s exit has in no way lessened Kinnear’s seniority.

Daniel Farke (manager)

Leeds went through three head coaches last season — Jesse Marsch, Javi Gracia and Sam Allardyce — and the specific job title at Elland Road has effectively been in place since Garry Monk’s departure in 2017. It was very much a feature of Orta’s setup.

Farke, in contrast, specifically asked to have the title of manager, rather than head coach, and his request was not semantics. He wanted meaningful authority and a big influence on the recruitment of players. Leeds agreed when they appointed him that Farke would have the freedom to recommend targets. Any bids tabled would be sanctioned by him before they were submitted. In effect, Farke has been given final say on incomings.

On Orta’s watch, recruitment was dictated far more by him. It was not that head coaches had no influence — Marcelo Bielsa was strict on refusing signings he didn’t fancy — but there were occasions when Orta’s ideas won out. In January, for example, Marsch was keen on Wolves forward Hwang Hee-chan. Instead, Leeds plumped for Georginio Rutter from Hoffenheim, with Orta judging it to be a better investment. 49ers Enterprises appears to be placing more power back in the hands of Farke.

The German is expected to work closely with Steinsson and Hammond on that front but he will not be dictated to when it comes to which players to take. Ethan Ampadu, Leeds’ £7million ($9m) arrival from Chelsea, was approached with Farke’s say-so. It will work like that for the rest of the summer window.

Below him, Farke has a familiar backroom team: an assistant in Eddie Riemer, a first-team coach in Christopher John, a performance coach in Chris Domogalla and a goalkeeping coach in Ed Wootten. Between them, they have a range of responsibilities for training and analysis. All have worked with Farke before and were with him at Norwich City where Farke won promotion from the Championship twice.

Gretar Steinsson (technical director)

The former Tottenham Hotspur performance director was appointed by Leeds on Tuesday after emerging as the top choice from a recruitment process carried out last month. Interviews for the position were held around the same time United’s hierarchy was meeting candidates in London for the manager’s job.

As technical director, Steinsson is not a like-for-like replacement for Orta. Orta, in the guise of director of football, was higher up in the chain of command and was considered to be more senior than Leeds’ head coach. In the Radrizzani regime, he would take part in board meetings whereas Steinsson, like Farke and others, is set up to report to Kinnear. It creates a degree of separation from the top tier of management which, on the basis of Radrizzani’s remarks this week, might be a sensible move, preventing too much authority lying in one pair of hands.

Steinsson will manage the scouting team at Elland Road and work on implementing a future strategy for player recruitment, alongside the task of pursuing and courting specific targets. Hammond is continuing to work on that front too and Craig Dean remains in post as head of emerging talent, focusing on deals at academy level like the £200,000 purchase of 16-year-old Lewis Pirie from Aberdeen last week. A key to the success of the model will be Steinsson’s relationship with Farke who, as mentioned above, intends to have a big influence on the rebuilding of his squad for the Championship.

The structure as it is does leave scope for Leeds to revisit the option of installing a director of football if, in time, they decide they need one. When Hammond was brought in on an interim basis last month, United indicated they were in the market for a new director of football and would aim to appoint by October. But Steinsson’s interview was impressive enough to land him the technical director’s position, despite interest in other options like Brentford’s Lee Dykes. Leeds saw value in bringing him on board in this window and for the time being, they will let this set-up evolve.

Nick Hammond (interim football consultant)

Enlisting Steinsson so soon has not signalled the end of Hammond’s time with Leeds. Hammond came to the club on a short-term contract with the responsibility of taking charge of their transfer business in a period when they had no head coach and no director of football, and he is expected to see that deal out.

Though United’s first new signing (Ampadu) did not arrive until Wednesday morning, Hammond — the former Reading director of football — initiated the process of moving players out of Elland Road and making enquiries about potential recruits. Leeds have seen multiple departures from their first-team squad to this point, the most recent of them Marc Roca’s loan switch to Real Betis. His input avoided Farke from having to attack the transfer market cold as soon as he arrived.

Steinsson’s permanent appointment increases the size and clout of the recruitment department but Leeds have been impressed by Hammond and, although his contract only runs to the end of the summer, the club are considering whether he might have a part to play in the longer term. For now, the priority for him, Steinsson and Farke is to follow up the capture of Ampadu with further additions and use the rest of the window to make United properly competitive in the Championship. It is a window in which transfer business is highly likely to run to the wire.

Adam Underwood (head of football operations)

Underwood has been at Leeds for more than a decade and is a well-known face at Thorp Arch. He has managed the club’s academy since 2009, heavily involved in the job of bringing it up to category one status in 2020.

For now, academy duties will continue to be his, although Leeds are considering recruiting someone else to take on that task. Under-21s coach Michael Skubala, part of the first-team setup towards the end of last season, will liaise with Underwood as before and run the development squad in the campaign ahead.

But Underwood’s new title, head of football operations, gives him senior responsibility for first-team logistics and player care, along with the management of the training ground itself. In effect, he will handle all aspects of preparation and organisation which go on around Farke’s work and attempt to ensure that different departments function properly. This is not a coaching or analytical position; more about keeping the wheels turning smoothly.

Rob Price (head of medicine and performance)

Price is another well-established member of staff, the man who has run Leeds’ medical department for the past five years. His role is unchanged following the takeover and he holds the same job title as before — head of medicine and performance.

His duties are as you would expect: dealing with injuries to players, overseeing treatment and operations, monitoring physical performance data, managing medicals for prospective new signings and arranging rehabilitation programmes. One of his biggest tasks in the past few years was leading and advising on Leeds’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Hannah Cox (head of football administration)

Cox’s time at Elland Road precedes even the Radrizzani era. She came from Bradford City as head of football administration in 2016 and has held that job ever since — another existing employee who 49ers Enterprises decided to stick with.

While it is Kinnear’s job to formally sign off deals and transfers in and out, Cox does much of the work in putting contracts together and handling the administrative aspects of signings or player sales, some of which — like Raphinha to Barcelona last summer or the contract negotiations Leeds would conduct with Bielsa — can be highly complicated and protracted.

Other people at Leeds identify targets, conduct negotiations for new players or hold talks about improved deals but it is Cox who oversees the paperwork and has the task of registering everything properly. Often, senior football administration roles also cover compliance with governing bodies’ rules and regulations, disciplinary matters and match-day documentation. All told, the remit is fairly vast and calls for major competence.