WITH A NEW OWNER AND NEW MANAGER... At last, Leeds can march on together
THAT perennial mood of early August Leeds United optimism is in the air.
The club’s young Spanish manager, Thomas Christiansen, is in flip flops on the immaculate training pitches, squinting into the sun as he speaks. ‘I’m not winking at you,’ he says, his mood as warm as the promise of all that might be to come.
These hopes are of a kind not known for years. The club have sold well over 18,000 season tickets — vastly more than in any summer since they dropped out of the Premier League — and there are unmistakable reasons why.
Massimo Cellino, the Italian owner who heaped destruction and derision on the club, is gone, bought out by his compatriot Andrea Radrizzani.
The new proprietor has already delivered substantially more than the eight new players which 44-year- old Christiansen finds at his disposal.
The club’s iconic Elland Road stadium, sold amid a crippling financial crisis in 2004, is back into Leeds’ own hands after its £17million purchase by Radrizzani’s Greenfield Investment company. The £1.5m-a-year which was going on rent is now at the team’s disposal.
The women’s football team, axed by Cellino, has been also brought back into the fold. The club’s Supporters’ Trust are in regular communication with Radrizzani, too.
It seems appropriate that Billy Bremner’s legendary quote about football — ‘ side before self every time’ — is being displayed at Elland Road.
‘It’s hard to believe that off-thefield stuff is finally secondary to the football,’ says Dave Carrington, of the club’s Supporters’ Trust.
With eight managers in a little over three years, Leeds badly need some stability in the dug-out.
The appointment of Danish-born Christiansen, three years into a managerial career which saw him take Cypriot side Apoel to the last 16 in last season’s Europa League, is certainly bold. Almost as eyecatching is the roster of new arrivals.
They include Samuel Saiz, for whom Spanish second tier side Huesca received a record £3m, Macedonia winger Ezgjan Alioski from Swiss side Lugano, and Caleb Ekuban, a £500,000 6ft 2in Italian striker from Chievo. The arrival of Vurnon Anita on a free from Newcastle United and Matthew Pennington on loan from Everton provide a knowledge of the English game.
It will probably add up to a faster Leeds side with more technical ambition than the often predictable outfit which Garry Monk took to the brink of last season’s play-offs.
But Christiansen, who played at Barcelona for five years under the tutelage of Johan Cruyff in the 1990s, is emphatic that traditional British physicality will be essential. ‘The Championship has remained a little bit more like English football was in the previous years because of the direct play and strong players,’ Christiansen (below) tells Sportsmail. ‘In the Premier League there is more quality individually and they want to play more.’ He has been watching English football since the age of 10, though in those days Leeds’ inveterate foes Liverpool were the team who caught his eye. ‘I was watching a lot of Liverpool at that time — Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish, Ray Clemence,’ he says. ‘That was something special.’ The physicality of English football did not appeal to Christiansen in 1995 when Cruyff was prepared to send him on loan to the Manchester City side managed by Alan Ball. City were bottom of the Premier league at the time, recalls Christiansen, who was capped twice by Spain. ‘There was good contact between Johan Cruyff and Alan Ball and they sent me over but I wasn’t so happy,’ he says. ‘I trained one day with them and saw them at Anfield against Liverpool and they lost 5-0. Niall Quinn was the striker. The possibility to survive was difficult. I turned down the possibility.’ ( City lost 6- 0, actually.)
There have been fewer uncertainties about his brief management career, which has seen him take AEK Larnaca to consecutive seasons as runners-up in Cyprus before his European exploits with Apoel. Radrizzani was also impressed by the Spaniard’s meticulous preparation for interview, including a detailed understanding of Leeds’ previous Championship campaign.
The Spanish connection extends to the man Radrizzani has hired as director of football, Victor Orta — brought from Middlesbrough following consultation with Ivan Bravo, who works at the Qatar Aspire academy but is also a director at Leeds.
Orta is clearly driving transfer business at a club which lacked any kind of scouting system under previous owners. ‘You can ask Victor one name and he will tell you “this player plays like this and this and this”. I don’t need to Google it,’ said Christiansen.
Radrizzani told the BBC this week that his total outlay so far at Leeds had been £100m but the club are having to invest in potential. ‘For the perfect player you have to pay millions,’ Christiansen says.
He and Radrizzani both say that the play-offs is the target, but supporters will tell you that the harmony will do nicely, too.
A new mural of Howard Wilkinson’s famous 1990s Leeds midfield is to adorn the walk-way up to Elland Road on the M621 underpass after a £3,500 crowdfunding campaign launched by the Supporters Trust.
‘We reached the cash target in six days,’ says Carrington. ‘It sums up how people feel.’