High aims: Andrea Radrizzani looks to help Leeds United realise potential again

The Italian businessman has bought a 50 per cent stake in the Yorkshire club from Massimo Cellino. Last Friday, United moved up to third place in the Championship – their highest standing since Christmas, 2010.

However, along with that burgeoning promotion push and an acknowledgement head coach Garry Monk must be supported in the January transfer window, the future of a stadium sold for £8m in November, 2004, is on the very top of Radrizzani’s in-tray.

“My first priority will be to study carefully the situation with the Elland Road contract, the opportunity and option to buy it back,” he admitted to The Yorkshire Post. “And to look at what it also brings in terms of financial cost for the club and to study the alternatives.

“This, for sure, will be one of my priorities. It is very important for the club, as this is an iconic venue in English football.”

United sold both Elland Road and the club’s Thorp Arch training ground, the latter’s sale raising £4.2m, in an attempt to stave off creditors.

Sale-and-lease-back agreements for the next 25 years were agreed that see the club pay rent on both properties – which in 2015-16 amounted to a combined total of more than £2m per annum. That rent also goes up three per cent compound every October, as does the purchase price due to it being a multiple of the rent.

Away from bricks and mortar, United’s most pressing potential purchasing revolves around the January transfer window.

Monk, whose one-year contract Radrizzani is keen to extend, is happy with his squad but would like one or two additions. He also wants to hold on to Charlie Taylor amid interest from several Premier League clubs.

On the need to strengthen during the window, United’s new co-owner said: “We are sharing information every day with the management.

“Our CEO (Ben Mansford) is leading the negotiations and trying to satisfy Garry’s requests – which are, to be honest, not so difficult.”

Radrizzani, 42, arrived at Elland Road on the back of a successful business career in the sports media industry.

Born in Milan, he has been a key player in distributing broadcasting rights for the world’s major football leagues. A 65 per cent stake in MP & Silva, the agency he co-founded in 2004, was sold last May to a Chinese investment group for around £685m.

Less well-known, however, is how Radrizzani fell in love with football and who set him on the path to taking joint charge at Elland Road.

A Juventus fan as a boy, Michel Platini was his hero, along with Ian Rush. Coincidentally, another Anfield old boy was behind his interest first locking onto Leeds.

Radrizzani was dining with Kenny Dalglish before a Champions League game when the Scot is understood to have named United as the club with the biggest potential to grow in English football.

Interest piqued, the Italian, who had long harboured ambitions to take over a football club, started to investigate the Elland Road outfit and soon found himself in agreement with Dalglish.

Contact was made with Cellino last May and they watched the opening game of this season together at Queens Park Rangers.

Such was the close understanding built up between the pair last summer that Cellino ran all decisions on transfers and the appointment of Garry Monk by Radrizzani.

Just how this 50-50 partnership will work in the future remains to be seen. On Saturday, Cellino admitted such a set-up is a “new experience that I have never had in my life”. He also joked: “If we have to fight, we fight in Italian!”

Radrizzani’s investment deal is understood to include a clause whereby he can take full control in the summer and Cellino admitted his new partner’s age was a factor in agreeing to the deal.

“It was the right time to take someone on board,” said the 60-year-old, who is facing an 18-month ban from February 1 after being found guilty of breaking FA regulations on agents. Leeds have already indicated an intention to appeal.

“He is 20 years younger than me. That is important because I am getting a little old.”

For his part, Radrizzani is already looking to the long-term with a five-year target to get the club running profitably.

“There is a lot to do,” said the new co-owner. “Obviously, we are playing in the Championship now and we can’t do everything. But we can start to make the club a little bit more ready. What I found here is a lot of things are still very old. Not only the facilities but also in terms of services and operations.”

Cellino’s two-and-a-half-year reign has been rancourous and, at times, chaotic. Monk is the seventh manager to work for the Italian, who has already served a Football League ban following a conviction for tax evasion in his home country.

Radrizzani, however, has paid tribute to how his new co-owner has transformed the club since buying a majority share from GFH in April, 2014.

“I am definitely happy that I didn’t enter into the club two-and-a-half years ago,” he said. “The club is better positioned.

“There has been a lot of cost-cutting in the last two years and now the situation is better. But still, they are not investing to progress. We need to find the right balance for that. It is difficult to do.

“I am not here to make losses or to lose money for many years. But I can promise I am happy to invest to reactivate the engine, let’s say. That is a good expression.

“To make the club progress year-by-year and gradually, even in the Championship. I am happy to make investment and take some losses for a few years but, of course, I have a timeline that in my mind is five years to see good results from this club – and, hopefully, before.”