Anthony Onifade

Tue 27 June 2023 11:10, UK

49ers Enterprises may be guilty of wasting precious time in the Leeds United Championship preparations with a deadline now emerging for a potential managerial appointment.

After the takeover announcement on 10 June, 49ers Enterprises have now firmly placed their attention on filling the vacant managerial hot seat but with the EFL yet to complete their takeover approval checks and a long-standing interview process involving Angus Kinnear and Paraag Marathe, the immediate future remains uncertain right now at Elland Road.

Former Crystal Palace boss Patrick Vieira was reported as the “serious contender” for the role, however, the Daily Mail [23 June] reported Farke as the leading candidate following a meeting on Friday [23 June].

But with transfer talk growing around numerous players potentially departing Elland Road this summer the Whites desperately want the manager and ownership situations put to bed by the time the first players start arriving back at Thorp Arch for preseason on Sunday.

And the 49ers and the Leeds United hierarchy may be guilty of wasting yet another week in their Championship preparations after an update from Yorkshire Evening Post journalist Graham Smyth [26 June].

He wrote: “Leeds remain without a manager as they await the EFL ratification and full completion of the 49ers Enterprises takeover, but an appointment is expected to swiftly follow once the change of ownership is confirmed.

“The club hopes to be in a position to have announced both the takeover and their new boss by July 2 at the very latest.”

The Elland Road faithful have been desperate for a definitive deadline and update for a long while as the club’s takeover process and the managerial merry-go-round drags on. Sunday 2 July may sound like a definite deadline for some much-needed clarity but that may well push Leeds United further back in their preparations for the new campaign.

And according to the Daily Mail report [26 June], the Whites could be set to lose around eleven first-team players with the club’s relegation triggering clauses in a number of contracts which allows them to even leave on loan.

The Whites are set to be seriously depleted before the Championship campaign kicks off and are already in talks with Serie A giants AS Roma to sell both Diego Llorente and Rasmus Kristensen on loan.

Brendan Aaronson, Tyler Adams, Wilfried Gnonto, Crysencio Summerville, Robin Koch, Rodrigo, Jack Harrison, Georginio Rutter and Illan Meslier have all been namechecked for potential Elland Road departures before the season kicks off in August leaving Leeds United desperately short on quality and without some clarity on their playing squad before pre-season kicks off.

With a gruelling and testing Championship campaign on the horizon, this may well prove to be one of the most important summers over the past decade for Leeds United, especially with ambitions to make an immediate Premier League return this time next season.

A temporary figure has arrived to fulfil the sporting director vacancy in Nick Hammond, but with a lot of work to be done on the playing squad, none of that rebuild can happen without a manager which doesn’t look set to be announced any time before 2 July, which is hugely frustrating for the Leeds United support who are desperate to see some change before the new season kicks off.

To head into pre-season without a manager and with eleven of their first-team stars wanting to leave is absolutely criminal and truly showcases a club not serious about a swift Premier League return ahead of their rivals. What kind of message does this send to the aforementioned candidates? A pretty bad one.

The pressure is certainly on 49ers Enterprises, after their confirmed full takeover, to make the right choice in regards to the new boss as it could potentially have a positive or negative domino effect on how things pan out from here on in.

But it’s got to be done swiftly so their preferred candidate can have the necessary time and room to plan his squad, but it seems as though that may have to be now done in a rushed and anxious environment. The Sky Bet Championship is arguably the worst league in the country to face when you’re unprepared and that’s the kind of position the Leeds United hierarchy and the 49ers find themselves in right now.

The West Yorkshire can boast about the potential huge windfall they’re about to receive for a number of their key stars with the likes of Aaronson, Adams and Meslier all touted to leave for around £25m-plus, but none of that will matter if there is no plan in place to identify potential targets and move to secure them.

This week is a crucial week for Leeds United, they’ve simply got to name their ideal candidate for the managerial role and start to build around him to ensure that the Whites are best placed for an immediate Premier League return, because right now, that lofty ambition will remain an impossible pipe dream.

In other Leeds United news, the club are set to react to an impending Elland Road exodus with “ambitious” incoming transfer plans.