The new Leeds United joint-owner, Andrea Radrizzani, has vowed to fix Garry Monk’s contract situation and ensure that the left-back Charlie Taylor is not sold during the January transfer window.
Radrizzani spoke officially as a 50% investor in Leeds for the first time on Saturday, hours after Monk’s side produced an emphatic performance to beat Derby and strengthen their standing in the Championship play-off places.
The Italian TV rights mogul sat alongside the club’s chief executive, Ben Mansford, and his fellow joint-owner Massimo Cellino, who could sell his remaining 50% stake in Leeds to Radrizzani this summer. Last year a Chinese investment group bought a controlling stake in Radrizzani’s media rights group, MP & Silva, for $1bn.
Monk has surpassed expectations as manager but his one-year contract expires at the end of the season. Radrizzani said: “It’s not a big issue, to be honest. We are in communication – myself, Massimo and Garry. I see that all the three parties are convinced and have the intention to stay together. Sooner or later we will sit down. At the moment, everyone is focused on the day-to-day work. We will fix this, I am very confident we will fix it.”
Cellino, who became a 75% shareholder in Leeds in spring 2014 before buying a remaining 25% stake from the Dubai-based investment bank Gulf Finance House Capital to own the club outright, said there would be no flurry of incoming players during the transfer window. However, Radrizzani said Taylor – who has attracted interest from Premier League clubs including West Bromwich Albion, Middlesbrough and Crystal Palace – would not be leaving.
“The manager is working on it. We’ll try to do our best. But you need both parties,” said Radrizzani also said Leeds were confident of signing the defender Pontus Jansson on a permanent contract in the coming weeks.
“We need to find a balance. We need to try to keep the best players but when we look at the numbers and we have to sacrifice, then to do it with one player is probably better than to sacrifice the entire club and not progress.”
Unlike Cellino three years ago, Radrizzani has not promised promotion within a certain timeframe or definitively said he will buy back the stadium and training ground from private owners. However, he did say that a potential purchase of Elland Road would be explored. “It is an important topic,” he said. “Elland Road is an iconic venue in English football. All fans, including us, are loyal to this stadium, so it is one of my priorities to analyse and evaluate the opportunity to exercise the option to buy back the stadium. I am not promising this, but I will evaluate carefully in the next two, three months. We also need to make it a bit more modern.”
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