Leeds United takeover news: Andrea Radrizzani won’t make sale easy for 49ers Enterprises amid Sampdoria deal collapse
Andrea Radrizzani is “prepared to play hardball” with 49ers Enterprises over a Leeds United takeover this summer after the club were relegated, the Daily Mail reports.
The club failed to escape on the final day of the season (28 May) as a 4-1 defeat at home to Tottenham condemned the club to return to the Championship after three seasons, meaning the previously-agreed deal between the two sides did not come into effect.
Relegation has seen the valuation of the club fall from around £420million to £150million, and with it Radrizzani’s 56% share from £235million to £84million, meaning new agreement has to be reached on a sale price for the American outfit to complete their desired takeover.
According to the Daily Mail report: “The 49ers are still keen to own Leeds but Radrizzani, whose plan to buy Italian club Sampdoria was rejected on Monday, holds all the cards and is prepared to play hardball over the price.”
Not conducive
The interest in Sampdoria throughout the final week of the Premier League season indicated that the chairman appeared minded to move on.
But the obvious financial hit his asset has taken with relegation makes selling far less fruitful for him, although he surely has to take most of the responsibility for that.
It is not going to be in the club’s interest for wrangling at the top to drag on through the summer when so much work needs to be done to put Leeds United in position to mount an attempt at an immediate promotion.
It would be presumptuous to assume everything will be right with the world with 49ers Enterprises in charge, but at this stage it is them who are clearly in line to be the next owners sooner or later.
So delaying the apparently-inevitable is only going to waste time with the Whites stuck in limbo, and if the failure to stay in the Premier League before the takeover went through was damaging it will only get worse if parachute payments also end up running out.
There is some time before that happens, but since talks prior to the conclusion of the season didn’t land on a relegation-scenario deal it would be logical to assume there is a distance between the two sides.
The wild-card element of Radrizzani’s failed (so far) attempt to acquire Sampdoria only complicates matters further if his time, focus, and finances are tied up in Italy.
If his money doesn’t get him what he wants with the stricken club on the continent he could be more minded to hold out for a bigger windfall for his current stricken club in England.
Either way that windfall has reduced in a big way and unless the two sides can sort out a deal, or at the very least an interim way of running things to share responsibility for a push for promotion, it is only going to reduce further.
In other Leeds United news, an update has emerged on the Americans’ preferred choice to bring in at manager once they get a deal done.