Paraag Marathe on Leeds United's 49ers benefit, feeder club and time concerns after Rangers EGM
Leeds United chairman Paraag Marathe has addressed 'feeder club' concerns and how he will split his time between Elland Road and newly acquired Glasgow Rangers.
Marathe became vice chairman at Rangers this summer after a takeover by a consortium involving 49ers Enterprises and led by new Ibrox chairman Andrew Cavenagh. They took a 51 per cent controlling stake and on Monday the club's shareholders gave approval for the new owners to invest £20m.
Speaking to the media after the general meeting, Marathe was asked what he would bring to Ibrox that he has learned as a senior executive at 49ers and from his two years running Leeds. There will be a familiar refrain to his response for Leeds fans, who are growing accustomed to an ownership group who say little publically.
"It is going to sound simple and basic, but it is the discipline to stay true to these things is what I think matters," he said. "First, if we are doing a good job, you are not going to hear from us much. If we are doing a good job then we will let our actions speak for themselves and we will speak when we have something to say. But if we are successful at what we are doing then that means we have hired the right team, we have empowered them to make decisions and not be afraid to make challenging decisions and not be afraid of where the idea comes from, however high or however low, inside or outside the club. We have given that team the right resources to be able to succeed and then we have held that team accountable.
"That is pretty simple and basic. It is the philosophy that I applied at the 49ers, that I apply at Leeds now as well. Ultimately that foundation is built upon discipline, thoughtful, analytical, data-based decision making. We don’t want to be in a position where we are just shooting from the hip and just making gut decisions. There is time for gut decisions, not everything is done by a calculator. But the more we can stack the odds in our favour and have proper thought to a decision that we need to make before we make it, the more often we can do that with the hundreds and thousands of decisions that we make we will be right more than we are wrong. That is essentially the blueprint."
Leeds and Rangers time share
Marathe was already a busy man before ever setting foot in the Elland Road boardroom, never mind once he added a Rangers vice chairmanship to his position of chairman at Leeds. On Monday the Scottish media put to him a concern that has been voiced by both fanbases surrounding the time and attention he can devote to each club, and asked him to address the idea that a feeder club arrangement could develop.
"It would be a disservice to Leeds and Rangers to consider one a feeder club to the other," he said. "Consider them both closed-loop universes that deserve proper attention and nurture and care - we will designate and assign resources approximately. But look, there are opportunities to learn from each other, whether it’s commercially or competitively on the pitch. I mean, it could just be simple things. If there’s a plumbing issue and we go through certain plumbers who are terrible and certain ones who are good. If Elland Road had a plumbing issue, we’re certain to want to call and figure out who the best plumber is. You can apply that analogy to an agent, so there’s lots that you can share. So me being able to sit across both means I can help navigate those too. In my mind it’s a real positive to have two clubs like that but there’s not one that is subordinate to the other. That would be a disservice.
"As far as my time, I don’t see it as hours in a day, days in a week or weeks in a year. I really don’t. To me, I hate losing and I want to win. I will do whatever I need to do to keep me on the winning side of the ledger at any club. That is all I care about. I don’t even know where I was two days ago. Honestly. Right now I am here and thinking about this. That is all that drives me."
According to Marathe, bringing what he calls a globally-recognisable presence from the NFL's 49ers has brought benefits to Leeds United and vice versa. He expects that to be the case for Rangers too, commercially and in the transfer market.
"I think it is pretty objectively true that the San Francisco 49ers are one of the biggest sports brands in the world," he said. "And certainly one of the most recognisable. Rangers is a gem of European football. What the 49ers can bring is a certain global gravitas and awareness to Rangers. Now, take the States or other places where the 49ers are top of mind, now all of a sudden Rangers are in that same sentence. Why does that matter? It matters when we are out with commercial partners who care about how many times they are going to be mentioned, how many times their name will come up. That has monetary value.
"It has helped us with Leeds. In terms of one not being subordinate to the other, selfishly speaking it actually helps the 49ers too. Bringing it more into the conversation globally and bringing that awareness, I know from my experience at Leeds and I am already seeing some of the early returns, it matters to players that we are out recruiting. Oh wait, a second, the 49ers are involved in this. This must mean that there is a certain extra gravitas that comes to it that helps us in the recruitment of players."