Leeds United owner Andrea Radrizzani is ‘ready’ to submit a bid for Italian side Sampdoria, with rival bidder Alessandro Barnabas struggling to formulate a deal everyone can accept.
That’s according to Il Secolo XIX, who say Barnabas’ proposal to deal with debt at the club is likely to be refused by the banks, who will want more favourable terms than he is proposing.
That will leave the door open for other bidders to get their hands on the club and there are two other potential interested parties, Cerberus and Gianni Panconi and Radrizzani’s Aser Ventures.
They are the holding company the Leeds owner works through, and the newspaper explains he is ‘about to sell’ his shares at Elland Road to instead fund a move for an Italian club.
That potential move fell by the wayside but now, with Barnabas struggling to formulate a proposal everyone can accept, there is a belief Radrizzani could be brought back into the mix.
They would need about €90m to get a deal over the line, covering price and debt, a fraction of the price he would have needed to raise to get control of Inter.
Indeed, a recent report indicated he had pulled out of the race for the Champions League finalists, with a subsequent report yesterday indicating he had lowered his plans and was instead looking at relegated Sampdoria.
Il Secolo XIX now throw him into the mix of potential bidders should Barnabas’ efforts fall by the wayside and Radrizzani sell up at Leeds, which they seem to consider a guarantee in Italy at this point.
