Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani has admitted he has set a deadline of five years at maximum for the club to secure a return to the Premier League before he is forced to sell up.
The Italian took over at Elland Road back in the summer of 2017 but oversaw a difficult first season in charge, Thomas Christiansen and his successor Paul Heckingbottom only able to guide the Whites to a mid-table finish.
However, with Marcelo Bielsa at the helm Leeds are pushing for an automatic promotion spot this season and Radrizzani has revealed how important it is for both his and the club’s future that they find themselves back in the top flight as soon as possible.
He told OneFootball: “This league is not sustainable and I will not be able to play in this league too long, but we are fighting hard to be in the Premier League soon.
“There is no income for the clubs, so everyone loses money. I don’t think anyone in the world wants to own a business that at the end of the year is making losses. Therefore, there is a timeline in my mind – three years, maximum five – to make it to the Premier League. If we’re there, everything changes.”
Opinion
Radrizzani has made up for the club’s difficult first season under his leadership with a second which has taken them to heights the Elland Road faithful could only have dreamed of 12 months ago. To be pushing for automatic promotion all comes down to the Italian’s ambitions, which included getting someone as revered as Marcelo Bielsa in the dugout, and it is now clear why he has taken such a significant step to try get back into the Premier League. As the Elland Road chief highlights, there is not an awful lot of money in the Championship, especially not when compared to the top flight, and teams who push for promotion are often left facing a financial loss regardless of the outcome of their campaign. Wolves were left out of pocket last season and so were Newcastle a year before. Radrizzani cannot afford to be throwing money down the drain, hence his deadline, and if Leeds stumble at the final hurdle then there could well be a change of ownership in the not too distant future.