Paraag Marathe on being 'aggressive' in transfer market to achieve promotion with Leeds United, a hands-on role and a Daniel Farke pledge - Yorkshire Post 18/7/23

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NEW LEEDS UNITED chairman Paraag Marathe has pledged that the club will be as 'aggressive' as they can be in their quest to make an instant return to the Premier League at the first time of asking in 2023-24.

By Leon Wobschall

The eagerly-awaited full takeover of the Championship club by 49ers Enterprises was finally confirmed on Tuesday evening after United received approval from the English Football League.

Marathe has taken over as chairman and oversee all aspects of club matters, including football and business operations.

Chief executive officer Angus Kinnear will remain in his current position and continue to direct day-to-day operations. Rudy Cline-Thomas, founder and managing partner of MASTRY, will join the board as co-owner and vice chairman.

On the playing side, so far this close-season, the focus has been on moving on a number of big-earners with relegation clauses in their contracts to provide Leeds with room for manoeuvre in the transfer market.

Rodrigo, Diego Llorente, Brenden Aaronson, Marc Roca, Robin Koch and Tyler Roberts have all moved on.

With the start to the season just over two-and-a-half weeks away, Leeds will now re-focus on incoming business.

Chelsea midfielder Ethan Ampadu is set to become the club's first summer recruit, with the Wales international currently undergoing a medical ahead of a £7m move.

Marathe, speaking in a wide-ranging interview on the official Leeds United podcast, said: "The short-term plan is to put as competitive a squad together on the pitch as we can - obviously governed by the rules of the EFL and what we are able to do and not able to do.

"We want to go as strong as possible. There is a history of odds with bounce-back clubs and things like that. But we also want to double-down with having a very high-quality squad as best we can to keep as many guys as we can to bounce back up.

"I want to give him (manager Daniel Farke) all the resources that he needs off the pitch, but also trying to maximise the resources we can keep on the pitch."

Marathe's role with the San Francisco 49ers sees him work, among other things, as the club's chief contract negotiator and salary cap architect and in United's current transitional period, he will take a hands-on role regarding recruitment and contractual decisions.

He continued: "I do think especially now given this transitional period and my expertise, it is not just I am ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work, but I think I have a particular expertise to help do that and navigate P and S (profit and sustainability) and FFP (Financial Fair Play) and all those things.

"The truth is we want to do this, not just because we are trying to do this balancing act and maintaining good finances.

"We want to be aggressive and get right back up as soon as we can and do what it takes. Because to us, the Championship is hopefully just a speed-bump in our way to a much longer path that we are going on.

"We want to be as aggressive as we can be, which is probably going to require us to be as creative as we can be as well."

Confident that the club have the right manager in Farke to not just restore the club to the Premier League, but kick on again in the top-flight, he added: "He did not just win the Championship twice, but dominated it twice.

"He knows what it takes and knows the grit, fight, blood, sweat and tears it's going to take to get through the Championship. Let me be clear, it is not a short-term thing either. I don't think he had a fair deck of cards when he went back up to the Premier League (at Norwich) in his two shots at it.

"That's one thing we are going to rectify and give him the deck of cards he needs to be successful once we get back up as I think he can be a very successful coach across Europe. This isn't just 'hey, get us through the Championship.'

"He has a style of play which resonates with our supporters and the players we have. It fits the players we have and he's been known to develop youngsters. And we know we have a great crop of youngsters at the club."

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