Rolling Italian news channels may well be tuned in across the screens at San Francisco 49ers’ Santa Clara offices. Or at least in Paraag Marathe’s office.
49ers Enterprises would, ideally, be heading towards the end of its time in the shadows at Elland Road right now. Had Leeds United’s Premier League status been assured, the investment arm of the NFL franchise would have been pushing the final few buttons on their surge to control in LS11.
Marathe may have had the decorators in, Collin Meador could have been sizing up a new chair or, more importantly, they could have been getting on with the critical business of hiring a director of football, appointing a head coach and getting ducks in a row for the coming transfer window. As it is, everyone is in a holding pattern.
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The USA-based investment vehicle, which includes numerous shareholders like board member Peter Lowy, has been putting the pieces in place for this takeover since 2018. In the weeks before Marcelo Bielsa was appointed, Marathe would front the initial investment made before that grew to 44 per cent in November 2021.
It has always been the plan to take control of Leeds from Andrea Radrizzani and this was the summer they wanted to do it. The small matter of a football team faltering for the past two seasons is denying them that straightforward reality.
They may yet get their summer wish, but the parameters are likely to be far different with the monumental obstacle of the Championship between them and the Premier League millions they were hoping for. Ultimately though, it’s all reliant on the Italian they are watching on their TV screens in California.
If Radrizzani and Marathe’s friendship is as close as they would suggest, then the American is fully aware of every move his associate is making in Genoa. It will surely have come as no surprise to see Radrizzani sticking his head out a car window outside Sampdoria’s training ground like Harry Redknapp earlier this week.
While the value of his English investment is about to see hundreds of millions of pounds wiped from it, Radrizzani has been very publicly laying the groundwork for his football homecoming. Sampdoria, relegated to Italy’s second tier, are ready and waiting for their next chapter.
Taking on the Genoa outfit would scratch Radrizzani’s football itch, give him that figurehead status in the public eye and the timing is no coincidence. Using money from a decisive sale of Leeds shares would surely provide the foundation for his Sampdoria vision.
The more Marathe et al see Radrizzani on their screens, the more emboldened they will surely feel the Leeds owner of six years is ready to cede control. The 11th-hour re-entry of Qatar Sports Investments onto the agenda may have prompted some wry smiles in Santa Clara.
French newspaper L’Equipe reported QSI, the owner of the French club Paris Saint-Germain, is keen to back Radrizzani with Sampdoria. There was even a throwaway line about QSI's interest in the Whites long term too.
That’s a story which has rumbled on for several years without going anywhere beyond Radrizzani's insistence he and Nasser Al-Khelaifi are just friends with an open-minded view on investing together down the line. Marathe, Radrizzani’s other friend, is sure to watch closely how that storyline develops.
Leeds are yet to announce any vision of the future with the end of the season three days away. Until they do, the speculation about third parties spoiling the 49ers party is only going to spiral.
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