Chris Wood has raved about “fantastic” Andrea Radrizzani and expressed his hope the Leeds United supremo will take the club to the next level.
Wood, 25, quit the Championship club in August to make an £18million move to Premier League outfit Burnley after topping the league charts last season and scoring 30 goals in all competitions.
The New Zealand international has made an immediate impact at Turf Moor, with crucial goals in his first two league matches as well as a penalty in Burnley’s League Cup defeat to Leeds.
Wood explained his respect for Radrizzani and how the Leeds owner did not stand in his way when he communicated earlier in the summer his desire to move to a Premier League club.
Wood told the Independent: “Throughout this whole process Andrea was fantastic, he always said, ‘we can come up with a deal if that is what you would like to do, and it is the best opportunity for you’. He said, ‘if you want to make that move to the Premier League, we will come to sort of arrangement’.”
Leeds accepted Burnley’s bid for the forward on 18 August, and Wood waved goodbye to the club and their popular new owner shortly afterwards.
“He thanked me for my services, and I hope he does well, he’s a good man,” Wood added to the Independent. “He just needed his team to look good and not be the villain in this case.”
Radrizzani took sole control at Leeds at the end of May after initially buying a half share of the club at the start of January.
He has implemented vast changes on and off the field, notably replacing Garry Monk with Thomas Christiansen, appointing Victor Orta as director of football and sanctioning 16 new signings this summer.
The Italian businessman has also made the hugely popular move of marking his takeover by completing the re-purchase of Elland Road for around £20million.
Leeds recouped around £25million on the sales of Wood and Charlie Taylor, who joined Burnley in July for a compensation fee of around £7million, but made a string of new signings, albeit relatively inexpensive ones.
The biggest deal was the reported £3million paid to Spanish second-tier club Huesca for playmaker Samuel Saiz, who has made an immediate impact at Elland Road.