If you needed any proof Andrea Radrizzani has one eye on his Leeds United endgame you have had it today. The appointment of Sam Allardyce, 14 months after the sacking of Marcelo Bielsa, signals the death of the project the Italian first set out on and the final, desperate scramble to keep the club in the top flight.
Legacy, philosophy, image and a five-year plan have been dispensed with. The Italian and his chief executive Angus Kinnear, a former colleague of Allardyce’s, have picked up the phone and plumped for the cliche that sealed a thousand memes.
Radrizzani and the board are so bereft of ideas and time they have had to reach for the Premier League handbook distributed every August. They have thumbed through the index, found the chapter on relegation escape and followed the regulations.
