£9m Leeds deal will kickstart hugely exciting summer of business for Orta
COMMENT
Leeds fans got some big news that will also have come as a shock today, when it was reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post that Andrea Radrizzani was going to sell a minority stake in Leeds.
The injection of cash into the club would leave him as majority shareholder but would dilute his stake to 90%.
This came on the back of the sale of £9million worth of shares – a conversion of a loan from Greenfield (Leeds’ parent company).
Company finances are notoriously complicated but what this means is that Leeds owed a loan to Greenfield. That loan has now been converted into shares to make investment easier.
New details then emerged which would have been music to Leeds fans’ ears as senior YEP reporter Phil Hay said that the money coming in would be used for transfers.
Plenty of fans have piled onto Twitter to berate Radrizzani for being skint, but this would be oversimplifying the situation and putting an incredibly bad spin on things.
Leeds is obviously investable in. It’s a big club with a huge fanbase that’s just waiting for the dream move back to the Premier League.
Radrizzani will be aware that he’s got a limited time frame in which to make this happen.
He’s already done a lot of good things, including buying Elland Road back and he tried (and admittedly failed) to reshape the squad last season.
He doesn’t have an inexhaustible supply of money, but seeking investment doesn’t make him skint or on the verge of bankruptcy.
Rather it’s an option that he can use to bring in money when it’s needed – just before the summer transfer window.
He’s said that it’s to be used to buy players with and this should be a cause for celebration, not for more hand-wringing and misery – this season’s already provided enough of that for Leeds supporters.
The exact amount of investment is unclear but so far we’ve got this £9million deal that has gone through, and while £9million won’t be enough to revamp the squad, it will be a huge help.
Players going out will add to the pot and there will already have been a contingency for new players before this new investment transpired.
That means more players or better players this summer – and that’s good news, no-matter what some fans will try to say.
In other Leeds news, Cracking signing, Make it happen – Leeds fans want 5ft 9 assist king at ER after big development
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