Good Morning. It's Thursday 20th February, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Are 49ers about to cash in at Leeds Leeds Chairman Paraag Marathe is spearheading a bid by 49ers Enterprises to acquire Scottish giants Rangers. The potential takeover, fueled by American investment, has been the subject of intense speculation, with Marathe, a key figure in the 49ers organization, leading the charge. Reports suggest that detailed discussions have been held between Marathe and Rangers in recent months, facilitated by John Halsted, an existing American board member at the club. While a Rangers spokesperson has refrained from commenting on the specifics, stating that it is not club policy to address such speculation, the rumors persist. Marathe's background is particularly interesting. The son of Indian immigrants, he worked his way up from the family pizza business to become a prominent figure in the San Francisco 49ers organization over a 24-year period. His business acumen and experience are undoubtedly factors driving the interest in Rangers. With Leeds United on the cusp of Premier League promotion, the timing of the Rangers takeover is intriguing. Does this signal a broadening of their football portfolio, or might they be considering cashing in on their Leeds United investment? Leeds won't be short of potential buyers, with Red Bull being a leading contender given their established presence at Elland Road. please log in to view this image The season defining cameo appearance Since joining on loan last summer, Joe Rothwell has quickly evolved from a questioned addition to an integral piece of the Leeds Utd jigsaw. While initial fan reactions were mixed, his dedication and skill have silenced any doubters. His influence on the pitch has grown consistently, culminating in a season-defining performance against Sunderland, which will be firmly etched in the memories of Leeds fans for years to come. His impact extends beyond mere statistics. Farke himself recognizes the unique talent he possesses. "Joe is a pure baller", "With a ball, (he is) one of the best players in this country. If you enjoy football, you enjoy watching Joe Rothwell playing football because what he does, especially with his right foot — in terms of passing, in terms of his technique, in terms of his tidy touches — is outstanding.” With just seconds remaining, Rothwell demonstrated exceptional footballing intelligence, technical skill and calmness under pressure. Instead of instinctively using his preferred right foot, he calmly switched the ball to his left completely outmaneuvering le Fee in the process. This clever shift generated a vital yard of space, 91 cm that could be the difference between Championship and top flight football next season. He had only been on the pitch for several minutes, when he set up Leeds equaliser fifteen minutes earlier. He unleashed a left-footed curler, an inch-perfect cross that landed perfectly for Pascal Struijk to finish from close range. It was a display of precision, skill and vision that had been missing that evening; the final ingredients that made the tie a classic! His contract expires on May 31st, at which time he becomes a free agent. Many will argue that he has earnt himself an Elland Road contract next season, but do Leeds need to be setting the bar higher? As Whites fans up and down the Country will tell you, nobody does a meltdown like Leeds Utd, but after Monday's win, the finishing line is finally in sight. please log in to view this image
For the 49ers to own a second club would be disastrous for us. They need to sell. Making Leeds into a mid table PL team will be a huge ask financially and in damn hard work with scouting etc, no time messing about with a disaster such as Rangers. If they want the Scottish gig they need to clear off out of Leeds at point of promotion. Any new owners would need the summer for recruitment etc and that probably wouldn't be long. For me its put all their eggs and supposed wealth into Leeds or fck off.
I don't see the appeal for them to invest in Rangers, in a country where only 2 teams are competing most years for the major honours, where is the financial growth they'd be looking for coming from? To me Rothwell is a consistent 7.5/10 player, best dead ball player in the squad, no idea why Gruev is allowed to take them when Rothwell's not playing, surely Solomon would be the better option.
Leeds will get a minimum £106.4m for just being in the PL. Then 3.1m for every place they finish from the bottom up. Obviously have to get there first
But vast majority of that gets spent on players and directors wages. Celtic had 80m approx in bank in las accounts. Not many pl teams can boast that with many running at a loss. Just pointing out there are more issues at play than the other teams in Scotland. Now the European super league is approaching fast Celic and Rangers will want to be involved but Rangers financial problems are like a noose around their necks. There is also the attraction that top two teams in Scotland can never be relegated same as England whereas were probably 50/50 to go back down again and a financial mess same as two years ago. Rangers might be a safer bet to a bunch of bankers
Either way, we don’t need this distraction as we head to the crucial point of our season. It’s squeaky bum time and from 12 games in we caught diarrhoea last year.
The reason Celtic have so much money in the bank is because they can’t spend it on top players. None of the world’s very best players want to play in a two team league.
Afternoon all The 49ers have spent a lot of money on plans to expand Elland Road. If they really are looking at Rangers it won’t be something that’s cropped up in the last week/month it must have been in the pipeline for a while. They either have no intention of selling us, or a deal has already been struck with Redbull and stadium plans will continue to go ahead. Redbull are marketing geniuses, it wouldn’t surprise me if a deal had been spoken about 12 months ago, we’ve had Redbull on our shirts for a season nearly already, would we kick up as much of a stink playing in the Redbull Stadium if we were doing well in the PL Has it always been the plan to introduce us slowly to our new owners. Alternatively the 49ers want two British teams, Rangers would need very little investment to make them better than Celtic, they could become a cash cow with guaranteed European money and as Eire pointed out, very small wages compared to the PL Rothwell is not good enough for the PL so no don’t sign him
As a matter of interest have we even applied for planning to extend the ground. All I see is the same clickbait for last few seasons being rehashed time and again. There isn’t even an artist’s impression of new stadium that I’ve seen. If such a thing exists created by architects I’d be curious to see it
If run identically, you’d imagine they’d be on par with each other when it comes to profit and money in the bank. The fact Celtic have made £45m profit while Rangers are losing millions suggests one is poorly run, it’s the ideal scenario for the 49ers and doesn’t rely on promotion, it basically means beating one team and even then it doesn’t mean a financial loss if you lose. Edit * It looks like Celtics ground holds 10,000 more fans, maybe that’s another area the 49ers feel they could improve on
Saw similar but given the world we live in, if there was a planning application it would be leaked same as if there was an architects model. All this stuff was available for at least a couple of seasons before Everton for example began construction. Personally, I think we're a Lon way of seeing new seats at Elland Road. Mind you, Im not as bothered as many because contrary to some stories, tickets are still readily available for all games so maybe there is no urgency
Our ceo might be on move https://x.com/elbobble/status/1892572121991192885?s=46&t=xSZiK2Vhq9NQTsfPGBk7mQ
May have mentioned this before but a chance meeting with a guy whose company did the plans for the work being carried out at Thorp Arch told me it's all but done and dusted, that was back in October, so presume it's been given the green light now.
