‘They’ve been talking’ – Phil Hay delivers verdict on new £120m Leeds takeover report
Talk of a QSI takeover, which peaked in October last year when Andrea Radrizzani said investment could propel Leeds United into the same spending bracket as Man City, had gone quiet over recent months.
That changed on Tuesday when a report emerged that stated QSI had turned down the offer to buy three Premier League clubs to focus on Leeds.
That came from 90min.com who said that a £120m deal with Leeds was now close.
Athletic journalist Phil Hay delivered his verdict on the story after a Leeds fan claimed he had “dismissed this numerous” times and called it a “non-runner”.
Hay said, “I’ve never said a non-runner – they’ve been talking, that’s not a secret – but we’ve had enough ‘inching closer’ stories to last a lifetime.”
So Hay is saying there have been no significant steps forward and that makes sense.
The timing of the report yesterday seemed odd to us.
The time for Radrizzani to cash in on Leeds would surely be when they’ve secured promotion back into the Premier League.
That was looking very close a few weeks back, but while Leeds are still top of the Championship, no one actually knows if the season will actually get finished or not.
And if that happens there’s little to suggest that Leeds will be handed promotion.
We can’t see QSI buying a club that might be stuck in the Championship and facing another season there without Marcelo Bielsa and Kalvin Phillips – both are likely to leave if Leeds stay where they are.
The report is built around QSI turning down offers to buy three Premier League clubs, which is good news for Leeds but doesn’t bring the investment any closer.
However, Simon Jordan said previously that once the Coronavirus outbreak has been contained, it would be a good time to buy a football club. And he should know.
If the outbreak is contained enough for the season to resume and Leeds do get promoted, we’d expect to see big investment – whether that’s a total buyout or not – straight after.
In other Leeds United news, ‘Apoplectic’ – Simon Jordan claims £17.5m windfall will ease ‘nightmare’ for Leeds