Paraag Marathe clarifies long-term Leeds United plan, Rangers role and Elland Road 'disruptions' — Leeds Live 5/6/26

The Leeds United chief is both optimistic and realistic about the near and long term future

Isaac Johnson Leeds United reporter

Paraag Marathe is unquestionably hopeful about the future at Leeds United, yet it is undeniable that the club needs a period of Premier League stability before thinking about loftier heights.

The 49ers supremo believes it will take three seasons to fully establish the Whites as a top-flight regular and is keen to not repeat the mistakes of when Leeds were last in the Premier League, amid the drop off after a remarkable first season.

Yet Marathe is clear on the potential of United, from the stadium to the academy and beyond. During a chat with reporters on Monday, the chairman portrayed a measured and promising blueprint for what comes next.

The Leeds chief was quizzed on the long-term goal for the club, what needs to happen next and his continued involvement with Scottish giants Rangers. Below is the second part of the Q&A transcript, with the other half free to read here.

Marathe starts off with an extensive eulogy of gratitude to the key figures around the club before delving into what the next phase of the Leeds project could look like.

Q: How did you find the season?

Marathe: “Obviously for me, I'm just stressed and anxious at every game. You guys see me pacing all the time. It's not like it's a show, it's my anxiety and my nerves. So to be able to have three games of just joy and bliss… It was such an incredible season for our first season up.

“Arguably, I think that the stats and the data would tell you that we should have been higher up the table even than we were, but to have a season where it's our first win at Old Trafford since 1981, our first time in the FA Cup semi-finals since 1987, it's just like such a rewarding and satisfying year. I feel like everybody at the club deserves so much credit.

“In fact, if you indulge me, I do want to just take a lap of appreciation for a second. With Daniel and Chris [Domogalla, fitness coach] and CJ [Christopher John, assistant coach] and Ed [Wotton, goalkeeper coach] and Edmund [Riemer, assistant coach] - those guys were phenomenal all year.

“They were steady. They were just unwavering in their confidence, and I love that. Our medical team and our performance team, how incredible - you've seen the stats, just keeping our guys healthy.

“It's been now a couple of years that we've had players who have injury histories or at least histories of not being available all the time and they kept them available. What a great job they've done.

“Our recruitment team, with Robbie [Evans, managing director] and Adam [Underwood, sporting director] and Alex [Davies, head of recruitment], I'm actually particularly proud of those guys because they took a lot of flak last season for being first-timers…

“I'm so proud of those guys because they ignored the noise, kept their head down, did their work and so it's just so rewarding.

“All the departments, [media staff] and our commercial side - everybody I'm just so proud of, and last but not least; you're only as good as the company you keep.

“And our board is a really special group with Andrew Schwartzberg and Gene Schneur and Pete Lowy and Andreas Dracopoulos and with [49ers chief] Jed York and even with Oliver [Mintzlaff] at Red Bull. Everybody's so invested.

“They're obviously all great business people and we all lean on each other for different points and different advice on different things, but they're also passionate supporters. I mean you've seen them all at various points at matches.

“It's a really collegial group. And honestly, I'm personally just humbled to be in the company of those guys. We have a really special thing going. And my hope is that we just stay on track and keep it going.”

You said in your recent statement about the next two years being strategic and disciplined. Three to five years, what's your long-term plan?

“I would say first of all, the lessons learned - they always say the best predictor of the future is the past, right? And I was a part of that last time we were fortunate enough to get promoted and what year one, year two, and ultimately year three look like.

“And there's a lot to learn there - we obviously didn't do a great job in recruitment and in financial structuring and things like that. And so we take those lessons with us now going forward and this is why we need to be very strategic and careful and thoughtful of how we go into this second season.

“Not too excited, not too jubilant thinking we've arrived and not too conservative thinking the world is ending, you know, now we're in another war. But somewhere in between.

“To me it's about establishing Premier League residency and that probably is for that three-year plan if we can establish residency through three years. We're obviously with the stadium redevelopment and everything like that.

“The next three to five years? Leeds is one of the biggest if not the biggest club city in the UK, right? The support around the country, around the region, in the world, is phenomenal. We sell more kits than many Premier League clubs combined.

“And so I don't want to sound too ambitious or make any statements that are too headline-grabbing, but we should be a really established Premier League side that has an opportunity to compete internationally, they're in that longer-term plan.

“As we switch to SCR [Squad Cost Ratio, new finance rules this summer], our organic potential, our local potential with stadium expansion and everything like that, I think that puts us squarely in the top eight of Premier League club stadium sizes, and so that should speak for itself.”

On the topic of lessons from yesteryear, you were on the board in 2021, so what mistakes were made then that you'll try to avoid now? Clearly the team fell away in that second season, so what will you learn from that summer?

“We have to do a very thoughtful job in recruitment. I think we were probably a little bit fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants that time, where we chase the shiny object of what player might be available and let's go do that, not necessarily thinking about what fits us.

“I think everything that we do, everything we did this past summer was, I guess, a three-part exercise in recruitment. One is... what fits our system and what Daniel wants in terms of how we want to play?

“Second is; what do we think, what do we take based on our own research and data? What do you think it takes to survive in terms? The mix of players in the squad. As you saw we went for size and physicality and probably a little more experience.

“That was very much by design because we thought that's what it takes us to survive. And then last is like, who fits within Leeds? One, our salary structure and our wage structure and who we can afford, but also, I think a really critical thing is love those who love you back. Chase the players that want to be Leeds.

“I saw Dom's [Dominic Calvert-Lewin] response to a tweet when he signed and some smart ass comment about like ‘you had nowhere else, and that's why you ended up at Leeds’, and he said, ‘actually, I had Champions League options, I chose Leeds, MOT’. I love that.

“And the reason I say that is because if you don't have players and people who want to be a part of Leeds and know what it means, then when things get tough, they might check out a little bit.

“And in some of those, both in the second and third seasons, you probably saw it yourselves - there were some guys who maybe were thinking about where they're going to be next as early as March.

“I don't think you saw that at all this season. November, December, even January were tough for us in terms of where we sat at the table, but I thought you saw real resolve among the group and testament to Ethan [Ampadu] for really keeping those guys on the steady.”

What did you learn from that episode in November, where the results were a little bit shaky? There was a bit of pressure building on Daniel and the team. What did you learn from the patience that was shown at that point and how that was then paid off?

“Well, it was a stressful time, that's for sure. You know, there's a lot of pressure on everybody, but obviously the most pressure is on the manager. [I was] just really taking in feedback from everybody and having conversations.

“I think the most important thing is internally, inside our building, to make sure that we're all on the same page and having really open, honest, transparent conversations.

“We set out at the beginning of the season with a plan. We recruited to that plan in terms of what we thought it takes to survive and how we want to play and we all signed off on that plan. We all agreed on it.

“And then we all sort of went forward and in any season in any match you don't know which way the ball is going to bounce, you don't know if your day is going to end in joy or in agony right?

“But you know if you just look at over a long period of time if you're doing it the way that you're supposed to be doing then over the long period it will average out. And like I said, in the end, we probably should have finished a little bit higher than we actually did.”

Since we spoke to you last time, you've stepped down as Vice-Chairman of Rangers. So can you explain your current situation?

“Yeah, so same involvement. very involved and very interested and very passionate about it. Also, there were the MCO [multi-club ownership] rules that prevented official board status for the moment - that could change back, but very much still involved.

Is that an avenue that you can explore more as a club, thinking in terms of player movement that Rangers make?

“Yeah, definitely, because we can maybe help influence the player's opportunity and ability to play, make sure we know the system fits, make sure we know the medical and performance side is good for him, the coach. Because we have more knowledge as opposed to sending a player off and not knowing how it's going to be.

“But ultimately, it also takes three; the player has to want to go. We're not forcing just because we're part of both clubs and operating both clubs, we’re not forcing the other club to take them.

“So they also have to want it. There were one or two opportunities last season that would've made sense. But you know in the end the player didn't want to go.

“But there would have been an opportunity there could have been an opportunity and hopefully or maybe there is one in the future, too.”

The big story for last season was the system change to the three centre-backs. Are you tempted to change that now or do you want to stick with it because you know it works?

“I don't want to be that person or that chairman who jumps into talking about what formation we should play. That's what we have our football experts for. So I leave that up to Daniel and his staff with Adam and Robbie and everyone to figure out what.

"There's an exercise happening right now in terms of what we think it takes to survive the second season. And it is different from what we think it takes to survive that first season out.

“So will there be tweaks to it? I'm sure there will be, but I'm certainly not going to sit here as if I am the expert and say we have to play with this formation or that formation. I just know I want to keep winning like that and that's why we have Daniel and his staff to go and figure that out.”

What about growing the organisation? A lot of big Premier League clubs, their headcount is absolutely enormous in terms of all their different departments. Is that something that has to happen progressively?

“Yeah, probably as we go over time. One thing that I've been so impressed with [the staff] - there's no hours in a day that stops anyone at the club. It's amazing. Everybody is just so passionate about Leeds United. It's almost like everyone grew up in Leeds or something because it's like something in the water.

“Because yeah, we are a smaller club in terms of staff size relative to the established Premier League clubs. But also, personally, I sort of like that underdog mentality. My whole life, my whole career, I've sort of operated with a chip on my shoulder.

“For better or for worse, I am motivated by proving myself right and proving others wrong. And I feel like that's a little bit of the club mentality too. And so, I almost want to give people the opportunity to continue to grow as well.

"I mean, Jordan [Owens, head of communications] stepped into his role via promotion, right? Scott [Gardner, Under-21s manager] stepped into his role via promotion. Adam stepped into his role via promotion. Robbie stepped into his role via promotion.

"Henry [McStay, head of medicine] stepped in his role via promotion. And there's something special about that, right? And it's something personally satisfying, rewarding for them as well. I don't want to stop that empowerment that's already naturally within the club.”

On the stadium expansion, what can fans expect to see around Elland Road, especially those in the West End, as we enter the next season and beyond?

“No doubt there'll be some disruptions here and there. The ticket office is gone. I know where we are up in the chairman's area, there's going to be some disruptions as well. I think that it's all by design because we're trying not to compromise or sacrifice seats during games during the season.

"It's all being done over a sort of a longer period of time so that we keep as many fans in their seats during matches. So there will be disruptions and probably some annoyances and hopefully everybody can just bear with us as we get through."

What's your approach to the academy? What is your approach looking forward to the under-21s or the under-18s?

“I talked to Daniel about this just the other day, and I talk to Robbie and Adam about it all the time, but for a club like us, there's no doubt that for us to be competitive and sustainable, we've got to be able to churn out young players.

"Whether it's through the academy or finding them somewhere else and signing them and developing them. I don't want to praise individual certain other clubs, but there are clubs that have done a great job of staying sustainable and very competitive by doing just that.

“And we're not in the category where we can just throw and splash money around, and if we splash money at one player, if it doesn't work out, don't worry, just splash money again at the same position. We don't have the luxury of being able to miss like that.

“And so we have to be really good at developing young players. And you know the recent history, we haven't had those jumps of players [come through].

“But you've got young Harry Gray that's chomping at the bit to come in. You've got other guys. You've got Jayden [Lienou].

"So we've got young players, but no doubt we need more and we need to develop them. And developing them means they've got to play, too. They've got to get minutes.”