Andrea Radrizzani may be on the way out, but Leeds United’s next administration can be in no doubt the club’s fans have their card marked. The initial results from LeedsLive’s Big Leeds United Forum have come through and it’s clear where fingers are being pointed for the club’s relegation.
Thousands of you have already responded to our survey, which has been running for the past few weeks. We asked you where the overriding portion of blame for the drop should lie.
Across the six options given, 35 per cent of the vote said the board en masse was responsible for United’s relegation. That is Radrizzani, Paraag Marathe, Angus Kinnear, Massimo Marinelli, Peter Lowy and Sandro Mencucci.
Marathe, Kinnear and Lowy will remain on the board once 49ers Enterprises complete their takeover. Fans will not forget that trio’s role in what came before this new dawn and it is clear their decisions will remain severely scrutinised.
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Victor Orta, who parted ways with the club in May, was second in the poll on 23 per cent. Then came the players on 19 per cent, Radrizzani personally with 14 per cent, Jesse Marsch had eight per cent and Javi Gracia just one per cent. Marsch would be more prominent in a similar question.
When asked what was the single biggest factor in United dropping out of the Premier League, the majority of our readers said it was the decision to retain Marsch for as long as the board did. Forty-seven per cent of the vote felt the American was kept on for too long.
The other five options were a long way back in the voting. An overall lack of investment received 17 per cent of the vote, Marsch’s tactics took 14 per cent, injuries had eight per cent, Tyler Adams’s injury the same, while the collapse under Gracia recevied five per cent of the vote.
While Gracia escaped too much punishment in the questions with a wider focus, when our readers were pushed on the Spaniard, the majority felt he was sacked too late. The ex-Watford boss would oversee five matches without a win with an aggregate deficit of 18 goals to five before he was eventually given the push.
Sixty per cent of our voters felt Gracia went too late, 29 per cent felt Radrizzani was right to leave it until after the Bournemouth loss, while 11 per cent felt he should not have been sacked at all.
There is cautious optimism about the future with the imminent exit of Radrizzani, but 49ers Enterprises and the survivors of the Italian’s administration will know the parts they played in the past two years will not be quickly forgotten.
