Phil Hay has been speaking on The Athletic’s Leeds United podcast about the latest investment from the 49ers.
Leeds United have not been shy to splash the cash since their return to the Premier League having handed Marcelo Bielsa 10 new players totalling just short of £150 million and this has mainly come from owner and majority stakeholder Andrea Radrizzani.
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Now though, the burden on Radrizzani to pump money into the club could be coming to an end with the 49ers investment group having upped their stake in the Yorkshire based team to 44% and this may allow Leeds to be more flexible and aggressive in the transfer market with two separate people willing to pump money in.
Hay has been discussing what this latest investment could mean for Leeds moving forward.
(59:13) “From what I’m told about the 49ers’ latest investment that’s taken them up from 37% to 44% so an increase of 7% but it’s also the second investment of the year.
“There was the much bigger investment back in January, it was done in December but announced in January, that took them much closer to 50%, which everybody sees as the kind of magic number for the switch from Radrizzani to the 49ers.
“From what I’m told this has been planned for a while and we’ve spoken about it on a few podcasts about the fact that this was potentially coming and the expectation was that the transfer of shares would continue.
“The indication is that it doesn’t necessarily change the plan for January, but it does provide an injection of cash and you would think that they would be better placed now to do something in January if they need to.”
TIF Thoughts on the 49ers investment…
As Hay highlighted on the podcast, the next time that the 49ers decide to increase their stake in Leeds that could see them become the majority stakeholder in the club, given they are just 7% shy of owning 51% of the club.
Leeds fans may think they need a new owner after they failed to bring in a central midfielder over the summer, although they did splash a huge chunk of money on yet another winger in Daniel James and the fact that Radrizzani has overseen their rise from the Championship to a ninth-place finish in the Premier League, fans may look to thank Radrzizani before he departs.
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