There is a fine line between ambition and recklessness. It is a line former Elland Road chairman Andrea Radrizzani toed pretty regularly during his time at the helm of Leeds United.
It’s not long since Leeds were fearing what at the time felt like inevitable financial sanctions, the club making a loss of over £100 million up until June 2023.
Leeds United spent heavily under Andrea Radrizzani. Considerably so. Not only on players but on coaches too. According to reports, Marcelo Bielsa was the fourth-best paid coach in the Premier League at one point, above even Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the Manchester United dugout.
Eight of the Leeds’ ten most expensive ever signings came on Radrizzani’s watch. Arguably only three of those – Dan James, Georginio Rutter and now-Barcelona talisman Raphinha – could be considered an unquestionable success.
The likes of Diego Llorente, Robin Koch, Rodrigo Moreno, Helder Costa and Marc Roca were all let go for substantial losses.
Perhaps the most eye-opening indication into Radrizzani’s sky-high ambitions, meanwhile, is provided by those Leeds missed out on rather than those they would eventually sign instead.
Photo by Matt McNulty - UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images
Photo by Matt McNulty – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images
Andrea Radrizzani said Victor Orta wanted Federico Chiesa at Leeds United
Radrizzani spoke openly, and perhaps a little naively, about his attempts to lure Nicolo Zaniolo, Edinson Cavani, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and more to Elland Road.
Zaniolo was one of the most coveted young midfielders in Europe a couple of years back. Cavani and Ibrahimovic, while a little past their best, were two of the highest-earning centre-forwards on the planet.
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Unsurprisingly, none would arrive in West Yorkshire.
In Radrizzani’s defence, though, it was his director of football Victor Orta who hatched the idea of Leeds United bringing Federico Chiesa to Elland Road, per Tuttomercatoweb. While not quite as pie in the sky as Ibrahimovic rocking up to Beeston, it was still a pursuit conducted probably more in hope than expectation.
Following some electrifying performances during Italy’s European Championship triumph in 2021, Chiesa would eventually make a £34 million switch from Fiorentina to Juventus.
A fee that, if Leeds had paid instead, would have made Chiesa the most expensive signing in the club’s storied history. Though, at a time in which Chiesa was being tipped to become a future Ballon D’Or winner and a winger with bonafide superstar potential, 40 million euros felt like a pretty safe investment.
“For Chiesa, it will be extremely difficult to meet the expectations. I have heard talk about him winning the Ballon d’Or in three or four years. I agree [that he can],” Juventus legend Alessio Tacchinardi said at the time, shortly after Italy triumphed on penalties at Wembley.
“I see the same ‘poison’ that Pavel Nedved had. He has enormous qualities. He dribbles left and right and can shoot with very little space.
“Last year, he touched the border of the top players. I believe he will get there this year.”
Four years on, however, Chiesa is further away than ever.
Chiesa scores at Wembley but Liverpool spell has been disappointing
Chiesa might have added a goal in a Wembley final to his CV over the weekend – he scored a consolation in Liverpool’s League Cup final defeat to a jubilant Newcastle United – but a tally of two goals, two assists and only three starts in all competitions was hardly what he had in mind when moving to Anfield in an attempt to arrest an alarming slide.
Liverpool’s £12.5 million acquisition of Federico Chiesa last summer always felt like a case of ‘masterstroke or madness’.
While it would be unfair to frame it as the latter, that Chiesa has played fewer than 400 minutes across the entire campaign means a place in Arne Slot’s XI looks about as unattainable right now as the Ballon D’Or does.
Who knows what would have become of Federico Chiesa at Leeds, presuming he avoided the ACL rupture which stalled his career just as it was starting to accelerate?
Would he have made a Raphinha-esque leap to the elite? Or was his peak always destined to remain frozen in time in the summer of 2021?