Radrizzani once told Orta that if Leeds pay £20m for this ex-PL manager, they would go up
Andrea Radrizzani has confirmed that Antonio Conte was a manager he considered hiring in charge of Leeds United before Marcelo Bielsa was appointed.
After Radrizzani’s first full season at the helm at Elland Road, Leeds were on the hunt for a new manager to replace Paul Heckingbottom after he failed to secure a play-off finish.
The Thomas Christiansen experiment failed before Heckingbottom’s arrival and results, if anything, got a lot worse once the ex-Barnsley boss was brought in.
Then came Bielsa, who has helped transform Leeds into a Championship powerhouse that is closer to the Premier League now than they have been since relegation 16 years ago.
However Bielsa wasn’t the only man Radrizzani and Victor Orta discussed, with ex-Chelsea boss Antonio Conte also on the shortlist.
“It was at the end of my first year here, which was tough,” Radrizzani told Gianluca Di Marzio. “I am someone who values money and I made myself. I was in the car with our sports director [Orta[, we were going to Leeds. I ask him: ‘Let’s make three names to be promoted’. Then I tell him that I could pay 20 million to Conte and I’m sure we will go up.
“But I knew that he had much higher ambitions, however I had tried in a friendly and nice way.”
As glittering a CV that Conte has, we’re all so glad that Bielsa was the man who was brought in.
Leeds are already an iconic English club but this era of having Bielsa in charge is bound to go down in the club’s history.
Bielsa has revolutionised Leeds and will no doubt go down in the club’s history if he can get them back to the Premier League.
For now, the Whites’ promotion charge is on ice but there’s no doubt that once football is back, the Argentine can help seal what he set out to do.
In other Leeds United news, this is how Che Adams has got on since Leeds failed to sign him.