'It gets uglier' - Leeds United boardroom publicly issue win-or-bust promotion verdict
Leeds United chief executive Angus Kinnear says failure to win promotion back to the Premier League this season will result in more difficult decisions being taken and players sold in order to meet financial controls.
United parted with the likes of Georginio Rutter, Crysencio Summerville and Archie Gray over the summer, raising a sum potentially in excess of £110 million when all payments are made. The Leeds boardroom figure, in an interview with The Square Ball Podcast, has revealed player sales is a necessity when coming down from the Premier League, in order to make weight, per se, with the financial controls imposed on clubs in the EFL.
Leeds' minimum loss limit over a three-year accounting period in the top flight was £105 million, which fell to £84 million at the end of the 2023/24 season. This year, that figure will drop again, allowing Leeds even less headroom, although sales this past summer will allow the club to operate more comfortably for the financial year ending June 2025.
That said, Kinnear has admitted the future is bleak if Leeds are unable to win promotion from the Championship this season, if not from a financial perspective, but certainly from the squad-building side of things.
"The reality is, getting relegated is really ugly, and not getting promoted is uglier still," the chief executive said. "If we fail to get promoted again this season it gets uglier.
"Nobody wants to sell Archie Gray, everyone at the club was genuinely devastated.
“It's very difficult for the fans to see anything positive from that scenario."
Leeds would likely be forced to make one big sale next summer if they were to remain in the Championship, although the club are among the division's favourites to go up and are unlikely to encounter another season in which their 90-point total accrued last term is not enough to earn promotion automatically.
United's squad is among the strongest in the league, their wage bill up there with those teams coming down from the Premier League and owners 49ers Enterprises not short of ambition, or cash. Meanwhile, first-team manager Daniel Farke has won the Championship twice already and presided over 12 wins in 13 matches at the start of the calendar year as his team really began to find their feet.
Leeds remain unbeaten in the league during 2024/25's opening four matches and will face their greatest test yet at home to Burnley on Saturday lunchtime.