George Overhill

Tue 30 May 2023 19:10, UK

Phil Hay expects 49ers Enterprises to immediately implement changes to the Leeds United board if they can complete a takeover of the club.

After the Whites were relegated from the Premier League there is still no official word on what the ownership situation is set to be at Elland Road going forward, in an absence of communication The Athletic’s reporter slammed as “incredibly poor”.

Andrea Radrizzani and the American prospective buyers are still attempting to thrash out a replacement to the sale that was due to take place if the club stayed up, and Hay expects that if and when it happens there will be major changes at the top as a priority.

He said on the Phil Hay Monday Club for the Square Ball (30 May, 15m 40s): “The management structure at Leeds is inadequate, and I think if 49ers Enterprises take over straight away you’ll see changes to the board, you’ll see appointments.

“And I’m not suggesting that will necessarily work, and I’m not going to paint 49ers Enterprises as a guaranteed white knight who are going to turn the club in a completely different direction, but it does need a fresh start and they do want to do it.

“And it just feels to me like Radrizzani has reached the end of the road. I don’t see much road out in front of him when it comes to Leeds, and I’ll say it again, the fact that he seems to have been preoccupied for the past week and a half with Sampdoria when this is all going on at Elland Road strikes me as incredibly odd.”

Hold up

Reaching the end of the season without clarity on the future will not have reassured fans about the direction of the club now that it has fallen out of the promised land of the Premier League.

The longer the limbo goes on with the club hanging in the balance between Radrizzani and the 49ers the longer the badly needed plans for next season will likely struggle to be put into practice.

Any decisions that are made by one side will presumably need the green light from the other, all while discussions continue over a deal that should have been sorted months ago.

If there is a distance between the two sides on a sale price then it could increase the distance on other matters as well, so an answer one way or the other is needed soon.

Premier League survival would have seen the 49ers come in, and there is every reason to believe they would want their own set up put in place as soon as possible, especially given the way things have gone behind the scenes this season.

And in the context of the massive underperformance on the pitch, while managers came and went and Victor Orta left thanks to differences of opinion among the hierarchy over those decisions, plenty of fans would like to see the back of the current regime.

But a clear future under the sole control of new owners for now, it appears, remains just out of reach.

In other Leeds United news, the sale is “hanging in the balance” after the chairman flew out to the US according to Sky Sports.