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Leeds can spend big before deadline day as £190m issue now solved
With just over a week until the close of the transfer window, some Leeds United supporters have become frustrated with the club’s dealings throughout the summer.
Failure to win promotion back to the Premier League has set their financial plan back a few steps, and president Paraag Marathe warned that sales would be inevitable.
That was something of an understatement, with Leeds siphoning off nearly £140m worth of top talent in recent weeks.
Going the other way, Leeds have signed Joe Rodon, Jayden Bogle and Largie Ramazani for a combined total of £25m.
That’s still big money by Championship standards, but fans had hoped that the investment in Red Bull into Leeds United would have insulated them against such a fire sale.
To get the latest on the West Yorkshire club’s financial situation, TBR Football spoke exclusively to Liverpool University football finance and Price of Football author Kieran Maguire.
- READ MORE LEEDS UNITED NEWS: Graham Smyth confirms ‘dazzling’ Premier League attacker is on Leeds United’s potential transfer list
The new EFL TV deal – help or hindrance to Leeds?
Key to Leeds’ finances is media income, with the EFL having struck a huge new TV deal with Sky that will see an explosion in terms of the number of matches broadcast.
But how much will individual clubs and Leeds, as surely the club with the biggest profile in the system, earn from the new arrangement?
“The new EFL TV deal will be worth £2.5-3m to Leeds.
“There is no doubt that they are the biggest fish in the EFL pond, so Sky will be keen to get them shown in as many matches as possible.
“It won’t have an impact on attendances. Leeds fans will travel both home and away to see the team.
“I don’t see any negatives from a financial point of view. It will be an inconvenience for fans, with I suspect 3pm kick-off times likely to be the minority on a Saturday.
“That will cause some frustration for fans in terms of travel arrangements.
“The one positive is that the EFL has announced in advance which matches are being televised live in advance up until January, which will allow fans to organise themselves to travel to and from matches.”
The 49ers Enterprises Leeds investment strategy
In industry experts Sportico’s recent list of the top 50 most valuable sports franchises in the world, the San Francisco 49ers were ranked the 9th-most valuable team in the world.
With that in mind, what do the 49ers have in store at Elland Road given that the investment environment in football is far more unpredictable?
“The 49ers investments long-terms strategy is to establish Leeds in the Premier League, make them competitive in the top half of the table and, on the back of that, make them more of a global brand than it is already,” said Maguire.
“Paraag Marathe has been keen on Leeds for more than a decade.
“They are aware that the Premier League is very competitive and that there are giant brands in the likes of Liverpool and Man United.
“But the Premier League is so lucrative that there is no reason why Leeds can’t be a big hitter in that space, if not one of the biggest.“
Leeds’ fans frustration with 49ers ownership and transfer situation
The Championship’s PSR model allows clubs to lose £39m over a rolling three-year period.
Some reports suggested that Leeds were close to the edge this summer, hence the huge exodus of players for big fees.
“The main issue with regards to Leeds and their transfer activities over the course of the summer is that they owed £190m in outstanding transfer fees when they were relegated,” said Maguire.
“In 2022-23, under Andrea Radrizzani, the club’s strategy was to spend substantial amounts in the Premier League and have a very big wage bill but use the club’s credit to sign players.
“The trouble is, if you owe a lot of money on a credit card, that has to be paid off before you can necessarily spend more money.
“Also, some of the players who came to Leeds were willing to spend perhaps just one season in the Championship. We would not have seen this level of sales had Leeds returned to the Premier League.
“Perhaps some players had buyout clauses in contracts, such as the sales of Rutter. Their sales were not necessarily financial necessities but rather because the player in question wanted to play at a higher level and wasn’t too fussed who he played for.
“Leeds do have scope to spend big in the remainder of the window.
“Fans are frustrated at seeing some of the players they have become accustomed to leave. But this is a function of not being at the top tier, because that is where the players want to be regardless of the fact that Leeds itself is a very big football club.“