Leeds United chief executive Angus Kinnear has revealed that owner Andrea Radrizzani sinks around £1million into the club on a monthly basis to cover wage expenditure.

The Whites have been dogged in their pursuit of promotion under the ownership of Radrizzani, trying with various methods to bring in-field success, ranging from the model of bringing in unknown foreign imports with the hope of striking gold to looking more domestic with proven recruitment. This obviously was coupled with the immense acquisition to bring Marcelo Bielsa to the club.

Bielsa’s arrival obviously coincided with Leeds looking to bring players in to do his management justice, such as the marquee signings of Barry Douglas and Patrick Bamford, and more recently Helder Costa and Jean-Kevin Augustin.

With players of this calibre arriving, Leeds’ wage bill obviously took a huge spike, which is more or less the game that most Championship clubs have to play if they are serious about pushing for promotion.

As quoted by the matchday programme (28/01/2020, issue 15), Leeds Chief Executive Angus Kinnear reflected on how the club has transformed under Radrizzani’s ownership and the harsh reality for the owner of a side gunning for automatic promotion. He stated: “The reality is that Andrea is still writing a cheque for £1m every month to subsidise a wage bill that we have consciously doubled under our tenure.

"Furthermore we are working right on the margins of the league's profit and sustainability rules. Despite all of this, we were able to table three separate [transfer] bids, all of which would have equalled the club's record transfer outlay.

"It was telling of Jean-Kevin's quality that a Premier League club tried to hijack our move for him at the 11th hour.

"That team's board should now probably be questioning their scouting department as to why their recruitment strategy is based on reacting to newspaper reports of whom Leeds might be targeting. It was a testament to Jean-Kevin and his agent's commitment to Leeds United that their heads weren't turned.

"We believe that both Augustin and Poveda have the ability to make an immediate impact to an already strong squad that has put us in a fantastic position but, as importantly, we have signed two players of undoubted Premier League quality. This was a critical part of our recruitment brief."

Kinnear has alluded to the fact that while it not seem like it on face value, Radrizzani is pumping a lot of his own money into Leeds United to ensure the club remains on balance with the EFL’s profit and sustainability guidelines.

He also outlines how the club has moved forward in terms of recruitment and the club’s ‘draw’ to potential signings that they can bring players in that have interest from the Premier League there as well, as it was revealed that Manchester United had made a late attempt to hijack the Whites’ deal for Augustin.

Can you remember the first 12 results from Leeds this season?

The verdict

Radrizzani has undoubtedly lifted the club from the dark places they were at before his takeover, despite some very clear mistakes.

The expenditure that a football owner goes through is eye-watering and Radrizzani is doing extremely well to put Leeds in such a strong league position whilst abiding by the EFL’s rules on spending, which cannot be said about some other clubs.

It does seem like this season is a ‘now or never’ scenario for the Whites as they push for promotion, so there is no surprise that they tried so hard to get the signing of a top drawer striker done in Augustin.

If Leeds don’t manage to clinch promotion this season, then it might be curtains for Radrizzani’s tenure at the club and he can certainly look back with positivity after putting some much-needed stability back into Elland Road, both on and off the pitch.