Speaking recently on the Football Writers Podcast, Seb Stafford-Bloor discussed a potential takeover at Leeds United following their promotion to the Premier League.
Leeds have been linked with a potential Qatari-backed takeover for a considerable length of time due to the friendship between the Whites’ owner Andrea Radrizzani and Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) head Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
However, since United secured promotion to the Premier League, fresh talk has emerged about a potential takeover, with Radrizzani himself commenting on a potential deal, albeit slightly playing it down, stating: “We have been talking, but to be honest we haven’t received any concrete point of negotiation.”
A potential takeover of Leeds was a subject of discussion on the Football Writers Podcast, with Seb Stafford-Bloor offering his opinion on QSI’s interest in Leeds.
He said: “I don’t think it’s a secret that Andrea Radrizzani, the owner, enjoys a close friendship with Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the PSG chairman, and I think that there’s always been a suggestion that Radrizzani wants Leeds to be a power in the Premier League, but he also concedes that he’s probably not the right person to make them that power, [he was] the right person to deliver them back into the league, but what happens afterwards?
“So it’ll be really interesting to see whether, on their immediate re-entry, whether they do adopt that slightly Sheffield United-sort of approach of ‘let’s consolidate, let’s do what we absolutely need to do’, and then in a year’s time, when that stability exists, whether potentially a sale happens and then that next step occurs after that, I think that’s what I would expect.”
TIF Thoughts…
As such, it would appear that Stafford-Bloor seems to believe that Leeds may just look to consolidate their Premier League status next season, with the view to a potential deal being done once they have Premier League ‘stability’.
Would you welcome QSI investement at Leeds?
Yes
No
With Phil Hay recently stating that every time he asks about QSI ‘people at Leeds shake their heads’, it would indeed appear that there is nothing concrete on the horizon in terms of a takeover deal for Leeds just yet.