The Italian sports media mogul Andrea Radrizzani has taken a 50% stake in ‘sleeping giant’ he is intent on taking all the way to the Premier League

Andrea Radrizzani was not seriously thinking about investing in a football club before a chance lunch with Kenny Dalglish. Leeds United were not really on the Italian’s radar, until he heard Dalglish describe the size and stature of a club whose potential has been wasted for so long.

“It was a casual chat at lunch with friends, it was my first time meeting him,” says Radrizzani of an opportune meeting with Dalglish at the Champions League quarter-final between Manchester City and Paris Saint‑Germain last season. “We were talking about many things and for two minutes we talked about Leeds, the sleeping giant, the opportunity for someone coming here.

“He mentioned about the great opportunity if someone had a concrete project with a vision to bring back the passion. He also mentioned about how the city is passionate about the club and this is what I’m finding out.

“A few weeks later at the end of May I remember I was talking about different clubs and someone mentioned Leeds and then I got in touch with Massimo [Cellino], who at that time I didn’t know. I got his contact from my business partner and I called him, I pretended to be an agent investing for another buyer. Initially I wasn’t even thinking about making an investment in football at that time.”

Radrizzani has bought a 50% stake in Leeds from Cellino, his compatriot, and when asked if he would like to complete a 100% buyout in the summer, the TV rights mogul said: “Of course.” He arrives when there is a buzz at Leeds for the first time in years. Garry Monk’s side are third in the Championship and with momentum behind them; their performance against Derby County on Friday was one of the most impressive in recent memory and the club appear to be financially stable.

Andrea Radrizzani vows to fix Garry Monk’s contract situation at Leeds Read more

Radrizzani began negotiating with Cellino last May and perhaps it is no coincidence that since then the former Cagliari president has kept a far lower public profile than Cellino during his early months as Leeds’ co-owner. The duo appeared side by side at Elland Road on Saturday to announce the new agreement formally and they struck contrasting personas.

Radrizzani, who last year sold a controlling stake in his media rights group MP & Silva to a Chinese investment group for $1bn, did not make any bold promises about achieving promotion to the Premier League within a certain timeframe but put more emphasis on “sustainable growth”. He said: “I think the club has suffered too much. It’s been a rollercoaster where the club has been in and out of different ownership.

“Unfortunately, if you are in the Championship, you need to deal with the fact you are not making money and the revenue stream is very low. So you need to have a good recruitment system, because probably it is necessary to sometimes sell players to a bigger league. This allows you to have progression and investment in the infrastructure.

“At the moment the infrastructure is very old – in terms of management, services, and facilities.

“I hope we go up to the Premier League this year but if we don’t we need to be able anyway to progress the club and be ready for when we go up. This progression requires a balance off the pitch and on the pitch. It is not easy, it is very difficult, because I am also not here to lose money every year for the rest of my life.”

Leeds have not enjoyed a period of such sustained optimism since relegation from the Premier League in 2004. They almost returned to the top flight in 2006 only to lose in the Championship play-off final against Watford, and with the exception of a promising period under Simon Grayson in 2010‑11 they have never come close to a whiff of the Premier League riches they squandered so famously and frivolously after reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2001.

Monk, the manager who has performed wonders, has a one-year rolling contract that expires at the end of the season but Radrizzani has already spoken of his confidence in agreeing a new deal and also keeping the left-back Charlie Taylor beyond the January transfer window.

Getting Monk on board for the long term will be a significant step forward, as Radrizzani attempts to take Leeds back to the big time for the first time in 13 years. “At the moment I respect and am grateful that Massimo gave me the opportunity to be a 50% shareholder of Leeds,” he says.

“I’m honoured to be here, I’m very proud and I’m happy to work with him. Everything is going well.”