Since taking over fully at Leeds United, Andrea Radrizzani has gone about reshaping the Whites in his own image and, in doing so, washing clean the Cellino era.
Italian Radrizzani took full control of the club in late May 2017, purchasing the remaining 50% ownership of Leeds United from his then partner at the club, former sole owner Massimo Cellino.
Radrizzani has made cosmetic changes to the stadium’s exterior, a stadium that he has now brought back under the ownership of the club itself. He has also gone about restructuring all aspects of the club in terms of the playing staff, the backroom staff and the commercial side of the club.
Not all has gone smoothly for the Italian and a flavour of that was his post-match Twitter rant about Wolves’ links to Portuguese super-agent Jorge Mendes. Immediately after Leeds had lost 3-0 to a rampant Wolves side, Radrizzani tweeted that the Black Country side’s links to Mendes and his agent power rendered the Championship a not level playing field.
This didn’t go down particularly well with Leeds United fans, nor did it resonate well with the Wolves hierarchy with the Wanderers’ chairman Jeff Shi dismissing his claims as “laughable.” Shi also hinted at the surprise nature of Radrizzani’s tweets saying, “I also had several lunches with him, together with Jorge. So it’s very strange.”
However, according to BBC Sport, Radrizzani has gone a step further and has reported his concerns to three of football’s governing bodies in the FA, EFL and Premier League. Radrizzani’s raison d’etre behind writing to this footballing trio is for clarification of the relationship between Mendes and Wolves.
The Leeds United owner said that he didn’t regret posting the tweets, instead seeing them as necessary to raise the issue. He then told the BBC that he had sent a “formal letter requiring clarification” which was delivered to the above three bodies yesterday morning.
Yet, in a little twist in this story, Radrizzani adds some colour to his request saying that clarification would have added benefits to his outlook at Elland Road. He admitted that, “If it’s possible I would do the same as it’s been proven to be successful for the team [Wolves].” Later in the article he added, rather tantalisingly, that “I might not even need an agent [such as Mendes] because I have good relations with many football teams in Europe personally.”
A fascinating thought there to leave this on for Leeds United fans.
