Radrizzani

Leeds United news here, transfer rumours, club affairs, players, fans, etc.
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isrodger
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Radrizzani

Post by isrodger »

There is no doubting that Radrizzani is a world apart from that p-stained parasite Bates, and the likes of GHF, however the fact we have had appalling owners should not cloud our judgement on Radz’s tenure.

It may seem harsh, however anyone with an ounce of business sense knows what they are getting into when acquiring a club like leeds. I remember our eternal suitor Steve Parkin, sadly lamenting he just didn’t have enough money to do the job properly - acquire the club; repurchase the ground and be prepared to run the club at the maximum permitted loss level until promotion is achieved.

Radz has made safe investments. The club, which has so much brand equity, the ground which was undervalued & actually held in a separate company. The operating losses have been largely covered with the sale of playing assets like Wood, Taylor & Viera. He would be safely out at a profit, indeed he could sale and lease back the ground for £60/70m in a heartbeat.

There is no doubt he has provided stability and the clubs infrastructure has improved. However whilst the introduction of Bielsa was an ambitious, inspired move, the sale of Viera and failed to capture of Dan James (£5m was the asking price on 1st Jan), serves to demonstrate how tightly managed the purse strings are. Ultimately these ‘moves’ probably cost us promotion & Radz £200m. Interestingly had Cellino presided over over the fiasco that was the January transfer window, he would have been slaughtered!

We’re now into year 3 of Radz 3 yr plan It is now time for him to put up or ship out. On a positive note, I can’t see Bielsa staying unless he’s give assurances in terms of transfer budget. £15/20m in fees and £5m on the wage bill would do it IMHO. If Clarke & Philips are sold I’m sorry but it will be same old same old. New contracts for them would be massive statement of intent - Nothing less than £25m should even be considered.

The championship like business is not a level or fair playing field. Instead of moaning at Mel Morris he should be applauding him & copying him. Morris has invested significantly more in his club. His sale of the ground to himself was an inspired move, clearly orchestrated to get round FFP. Villa will probably copy the move this summer to wipe out legacy debts and generate another £50m - if they fail to get promoted on Monday. That’s our competitor, who turned down £30m plus for their talisman, Jack Grealish, and who found £80k a week for a 25 goal a season striker.

I believe there will be less money in the championship next season so relatively the competition will be weaker. Last years squad with replacements for Viera & Saiz, with a winger and Striker would surely see us promoted as champions. I’m not suggesting for one moment we spend excessively, however anyone owning our club in the championship & not being prepared to swallow the maximum losses of £39m over 3 seasons, has entered into the venture with a level of naivety.

Leeds united provides Radz with the perfect platform & profile to promote his other business interests. If it’s not a success it will badly reflect on him and his associated companies. It’s time for him to show some balls and get your money out, failing that, he needs to sell up to one of his many business contacts - Your mate at PSG being the obvious candidate.
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Another Northern Soul
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Re: Radrizzani

Post by Another Northern Soul »

Ah yes, how I miss those halcyon days of Cellino in charge, the fella who made Thorp Arch look like a derelict Butlins camp, complete with swimming pool gone green and workers having to bring their own packed lunch in.

We've just finished third after playing some of the best football and gaining best results for over a decade, but obviously NONE of the positives are anything to do with the owner!
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Re: Radrizzani

Post by Deleted User 728 »

ISR, you are being harsh. Very.

The difference between Villa and us is the parachute payments : they've only been down here three years compared to our fifteen.

The difference between AR and Cellino is that AR is a successful businessman who knows how to grow something : he doesn't just make cutbacks to show year-on-year improvements on a 12-month P&L sheet.
Two years is nothing in terms of turning a leaky old tub like Leeds United into a seaworthy and EPL-bound cruise liner.

How many times do you see a manager sacked months into a job by a knee-jerking chairman only to rock up somewhere else and do a superb job because he's allowed a couple of years to get the balance of his squad right ? Now, extrapolate that to the running of an actual club - something that's a lot more permanent in nature than an ever-fluid playing staff - where you not only have to be ultimately responsible for the various teams and coaching staff's performance, but also maintain the stadium, training facilities and physical infrastructure, the "brand", the massive staff behind the front-line, the links to various stakeholders - including local and national authorities both within and without the game, the community, the fanbase, local businesses, sponsors, national and international partners, etc ..

And you say he now needs to put his money where his mouth is ?


One word : goldfish.

I'd prefer to stay down and try again the season after next than ever go through administration again ..
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Re: Radrizzani

Post by Deleted User 728 »

While I'm at it, you also don't take into account the magic that Bielsa has worked this season.

NONE OF US - not a single one - expected us to go up automatically this season.
We hoped, we prayed, but nobody could possibly have expected to be where we were at Christmas.

Bielsa improves players significantly, like Guardiola, and he wrings the most out of the players he chooses to have at his disposal, like Warnock or Harry Redknapp : the difference is Marcello doesn't sign the same ones from club to club.

So, put the two together : AR and MB.
Both successful in their own fields.
They should be able to multiply their effects on the club over time.

Bielsa's not even been here a year :crazy:
isrodger
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Re: Radrizzani

Post by isrodger »

Just for the sake of clarity Villas parachute payments last season were £15m .... their wage and transfer budget exceeded that of ours by a multiple of that figure. I am not expecting Radz to match that figure but he should fund the club to the maximum (with the permitted owners capital injections) if he wants to give us a fighting chance of going up, which he hasn’t done to date - that is an indisputable fact. In terms of the reference to administration- This would not jeopardise the clubs financial future as losses are Funded by the owner.

Bielsa is a genius who has increased the value of playing squad largely inherited by Radz several times over. The fact he did this makes it all the more galling he baulked at buying the 1 outfield player Bielsa wanted in January ... who was available for £5m on the 1st of January. The club also failed to replace the 2 #10s who left the club in jan Saiz & Baker, and sold Viera against bielsas wishes.

I wouldn’t prefer any of our previous owners over the past 20 years at the helm. I do however believe Cellino (despite being barking) did a reasonable job getting our off field finances in order & probably would struck better deals for the sale of woods and Viera.

In terms of the stadium I do truly believe Radz is well intended, that said technically Leeds United do not actually own the stadium there is nothing to stop him selling the club and retaining the stadium or selling it elsewhere.
SG90
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Re: Radrizzani

Post by SG90 »

I'm generally bemused by the amount of fans who want to put us back into financial chaos again. So if we spend £20m but fail to go up and fail ffp then what? Spending money guarantees nothing. The loser on Monday will be in a mess and I personally would not want to be in their position.

There are a lot of things Radz has done that I don't agree with, Myanmar, Badge, PL2, not spending any money in January. The wage bill has shot up since he came in, yet we're still relying on the Monk team when the wage bill was much lower. One thing Cellino did get right was having us competing and making a small profit, Radz has messed up in that regard. So it is important the wage bill comes down this summer before adding to it. Far too many players on our books who won't get near the team.

Btw Middlesbrough are taking legal action against Derby so that stadium trick might not look so good after all.
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Re: Radrizzani

Post by Deleted User 728 »

isrodger wrote:I am not expecting Radz to match that figure but he should fund the club to the maximum .. if he wants to give us a fighting chance of going up, which he hasn’t done to date - that is an indisputable fact.
I'll dispute it.

There's no direct correlation between funding (transfer fees and wage budgets) and promotion.
If it was that simple, every club would spunk money on promotion .. and even then only three would go up.

Cardiff from last season, Hudders the year before, then QPR, Hull, Reading and Blackpool are obvious names from the last ten seasons that are examples of clubs punching above their weight by gaining promotion despite not being anywhere near the top 6 in terms of finance.
Brentford, Southampton and Midtjylland are all clubs run on the "Moneyball" system, looking to acquire talent at every level of the club that offers the best value for money.

Gaining promotion from this division is much more nuanced than just spending ..



I wouldn’t prefer any of our previous owners over the past 20 years at the helm. I do however believe Cellino (despite being barking) did a reasonable job getting our off field finances in order & probably would struck better deals for the sale of woods and Viera.
As I said elsewhere in this thread, Cellino slashed budgets everywhere he could. He sacked loads of staff, closed down several parts of the organisation and then proudly declared he'd done a brilliant job of getting us back on an even keel financially.
I would argue he did nothing of the sort.
He just saved himself spending more money than he thought necessary.
There's a difference.
Yes, every single business on the planet could save money (I've worked in plenty where I've done it myself and several more where I've not been in a position to) but to just bin off entire swathes of people and shut buildings down is bordering on criminal negligence.
When he left, we would've spent tens of thousands on recruitment and more than that again on bringing the various elements back to full operating level, not least Thorp Arch and the academy.

I simply don't buy him as a money-man.
He's as bent as a nine-bob note, doesn't pay taxes the way he should and applies the same attitude to his businesses.
It's not financial acumen.
It's wrong.
isrodger
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Re: Radrizzani

Post by isrodger »

If Radz had funded the club to the max he would have allowed the club to run at a loss of circa £13m a season which he would have written off - he hasn’t - that is indisputable. As regards financial chaos ... the is no danger of that if he finds the club as indicated above, as the club effectively operates at break even.

As regards Cellino what he did was undo a lot of the work Bates did particularly hiving off catering rights etc ... as a result our net revenue increased by £4/5m.
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Re: Radrizzani

Post by Deleted User 728 »

isrodger wrote:As regards Cellino what he did was undo a lot of the work Bates did particularly hiving off catering rights etc ... as a result our net revenue increased by £4/5m.
My mum always used to say to me "Two wrongs don't make a right" :problem:


If Radz had funded the club to the max he would have allowed the club to run at a loss of circa £13m a season which he would have written off - he hasn’t - that is indisputable. As regards financial chaos ... the is no danger of that if he finds the club as indicated above, as the club effectively operates at break even.
But we're not running at break even. Where did you hear that ?
We're about to post losses for the season again as I understand it.

Anyway, he's spent a substantial sum and should be applauded for everything he's achieved so far, not pulled apart for not hitting some mythical max, which presumably is any amount that gets us promoted ?? :wtf:
isrodger
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Re: Radrizzani

Post by isrodger »

rigger wrote:
isrodger wrote:As regards Cellino what he did was undo a lot of the work Bates did particularly hiving off catering rights etc ... as a result our net revenue increased by £4/5m.
My mum always used to say to me "Two wrongs don't make a right" :problem:


If Radz had funded the club to the max he would have allowed the club to run at a loss of circa £13m a season which he would have written off - he hasn’t - that is indisputable. As regards financial chaos ... the is no danger of that if he finds the club as indicated above, as the club effectively operates at break even.
But we're not running at break even. Where did you hear that ?
We're about to post losses for the season again as I understand it.

Doh ! Read understand and contemplate .... if Radz underwrote the losses it would be break even .... as Morris has done at Derby. Any club is allowed (as was) to lose £39m in 3 seasons, providing the owner injects capital to a similar amount. This gives lufc a competitive advantage against all clubs in the championship bar those on yr1 parachute payments (maybe yr 2 in a big clubs case) anyhow have a good day

Anyway, he's spent a substantial sum and should be applauded for everything he's achieved so far, not pulled apart for not hitting some mythical max, which presumably is any amount that gets us promoted ?? :wtf:
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