49ers Enterprises chief and Leeds United chairman Paraag Marathe is closing in on another British football club, but what will it mean for his ‘first love’?

49ers Enterprises fell short of achieving their primary Leeds United objective at the first attempt and no chickens are yet being counted while the second attempt is ongoing, but their takeover at Elland Road has felt a lot like it needed to feel.

The feeling that Leeds United required in the summer of 2023 was one of calm. It needed to feel like the adults had entered the room, taken control and restored sanity. Out with the emotion-led social media reactivity, insecurity and West Stand shouting matches with angry supporters. In with the sober, sensible, steady hand on the tiller. It was suggested early on by sources in Leeds and in San Francisco that Paraag Marathe would be a different kind of chairman to his predecessor Andrea Radrizzani, a different animal. Social media is not Marathe's natural habitat and you won't find him in avoidable tangles in the jungle of X.com. It was also said that 49ers Enterprises would do their business on the quiet, with no bluster, no talk until business was done and a distinct lack of leaks to transfer journalists and the like. So far those suggestions have proven true.

What else can be said is that the recruitment work at Leeds has been sensible, to date. Ethan Ampadu is as solid a signing as you can make in the second tier, Joe Rodon runs him close and Joel Piroe will reliably score goals at this level. Maybe in the first summer it was a little too sensible and could have used more of a wildcard, yet Leeds still looked to the left field, here and there - Ilia Gruev of Werder Bremen was not a name on many lips before he rocked up at Elland Road.

Glen Kamara was solid business, lacking only the spectacular in the final third. Lessons were duly learned. In their second summer transfer window they brought in midfielders capable of the spectacular and the explosive, in Joe Rothwell and Ao Tanaka, adding creativity to the solid and stable base created by Ampadu and Gruev. Again Leeds went with a mixture of lesser-known quantities and the well known. They gave Farke the German second tier diamond he wanted in Tanaka and took Largie Ramazani from the Spanish second tier. Jayden Bogle was a solid addition with potential to be spectacular at this level. Manor Solomon was a speculative one only in terms of his physical ability to withstand the Championship season, because his quality was not in doubt.

READ: Why Largie Ramazani continued to watch from the bench on Saturday

Throughout all of that recruitment work Leeds maintained a consistent approach, speaking only when business was done. That is how it is expected to go with 49ers Enterprises' attempted takeover of Glasgow Rangers. Marathe briefly touched upon the subject in his chat for the Financial Times Business of Football Summit but, as is often the case, he danced around it so delicately that you would hardly have known he was ever there. 49ers Enterprises are nothing if not polished in their public-facing engagement and perhaps that will come as a tonic for a club like Rangers, where fights have been picked so readily and unnecessarily publicly with other clubs, the media and the authorities.

Having not yet seen them deliver promotion or the promised development and modernisation of Elland Road and with the jury very much out on how they will cope with the top flight in financial and recruitment terms, it is difficult to give a ringing endorsement of 49ers Enterprises as an ownership group. There are, however, some similarities between Leeds United and the side they faced in the 1992 Battle of Britain, that help make sense of this latest takeover attempt. Two huge, emotional fanbases with global reach and the potential to make a killing from commercial activity, matchday revenue and, if a lot of things go well, from European involvement. Two boardrooms that needed one clear, authoritative voice and a sensible head on the collective shoulders. Two clubs that will need owners with deep pockets to get to where they need to be and stay there. Two clubs where if you make a series of good decisions you will make lots of people happy and, more importantly from any investors' point of view, make money. Two clubs where you will be held to account in the strongest way if your decision-making ability is found lacking.

You cannot yet say that Marathe is a football man, in the British sense. He is a sports and business man though, with an eye for an opportunity and, at Leeds at least he has shown the ability to get his hands on what he wants. Other opportunities were always going to be intriguing to this investment group, conversations have taken place about various projects and it would not take a flight of fancy to link Gretar Steinsson's ascension to a broader role within the 49ers Enterprises organisation and this latest development for the footballing umbrella they wish to create.

Leeds United is the only concern for Leeds United fans, however. That will be something for Marathe to acknowledge when he does his planned sit-down with the local media once this season comes to an end. Should it come to an end in the way that currently looks likely then the depth of 49ers Enterprises pockets and their ability to back Daniel Farke with the necessary funds to make Premier League survival even possible will be the hot topic, far and above any Rangers talk. But Marathe can expect some curiosity around how he intends to divide his time and attention between an NFL franchise and two big, needy football clubs on the other side of the pond. "Just like there is to love all of your children, there's enough room in your heart to love all your sports properties," he told the Business of Football Summit. Sufficient love is one thing but the attention to detail required to keep Leeds in the top flight, should they get there, is quite another.

Marathe is expected to rule out any suggestion of feeder club status for either Leeds or Rangers, the two will be seen as very separate, standalone projects and in Red Bull he has Elland Road boardroom partners with knowledge they can pass on when it comes to the difficulties and intricacies of multi-club ownership, but Whites supporters will want assurances that there will only be benefits and no drawbacks for their club when the 49ers Enterprises' British footballing presence increases. What it means for Rangers is to be seen. What it means for Leeds United is to be clarified in no uncertain terms.