Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani has described his time at Leeds so far as “exciting”.
Radrizzani was talking to Leaders in Sport and was asked how he had found life at Leeds since taking over the club in June 2017.
“Exciting,” said Radrizzani. “I think it was a difficult year, last year, but also a lot of things to learn for me, different business, a lot of ups and downs.”
He said that running a football club was markedly different to his other businesses in that he had to take more of a back seat with the players and manager.
He admitted that he let Marcelo Bielsa run things his way, with some basic guidance and strategy.
OPINION
This was a fascinating interview with a person who has made a huge impact at Leeds in the two years since he’s been there. Radrizzani came in for some criticism last year, along with director of football Victor Orta, after a promising season came crashing down with Leeds ending in 13th in the Championship. His masterstroke has been hiring Marcelo Bielsa in the summer and that has catapulted Leeds to second place in the Championship, where they’re now odds-on favourites to win automatic promotion back to the Premier League. But he’s done much more than that, including buying Elland Road back, and Leeds is now being run in a very holistic fashion now, with as much emphasis on the future with a strong base of youth players in the Under-23s. Leeds don’t have a huge amount of money and that might have forced them down this route but it means the future is looking very bright. Promotion is key though, or it could all come crashing back down.