Leeds United decision maker refutes Elland Road development 'myth' and reveals work already being done

The expectation, had promotion been achieved this season, was that spades could then go into the ground to begin the much-talked-about redevelopment of Leeds' stadium. Marathe has spoken previously of maintaining the ground's atmosphere and 'Hallowed' nature. He once told the BBC: "I’ll be honest with you, the main thing is to protect the magic and electricity that is in Elland Road. The answer then is [it] probably means that it’s more of a stadium expansion than a new stadium because I don’t want to take away from that. Players from the other 19 [Premier League] clubs, if they are going to list the three worst places that they want to play on the road for an away match, Elland Road is probably one, two or three for them. I don’t want to take that away.”

Attendance figures of 50,000 and latterly 55,000 have been mooted in council reports as Leeds have explored plans for a ground capacity more able to meet the ticket demands of the Whites fanbase. But last Sunday's play-off final defeat by Southampton was accompanied by a suspicion that work will not begin on new, bigger stands. So Elland Road was one of the hot topics when Marathe sat down to speak to the local press on Tuesday morning. He insists that work on stadium redevelopment is not contingent on divisional status, even if major construction itself will not yet be evident.

"We have already earmarked a certain amount of investment to make some improvements at Elland Road, things that I know supporters have been asking for," he said. "And while it might be, you know, not the whole new shiny toy, we are doing different things like improving the bathrooms and improving different concourses and lounges and things like that. We've already earmarked investment that we're going to use for that."

Leeds remain on course to make Elland Road bigger, he claimed, because the behind-the-scenes efforts at the planning stage are an ongoing process that will not cease just because next season will, once again, bring Championship football. 'Significant' money has been and is still being pumped into that project.

"The bigger, greater development - we're still very much on the timeline and on the path to doing that," he said. "It's been reported that nothing is going to happen until we get to the Premier League. That's a little bit of a myth, at least for this season. What I mean is, all of the make-ready work that we have to do for shovels in the ground, it really didn't matter this season if we're in the Championship or the Premier League, there's still work to be done that we're doing anyway. And I don't want to say work, I mean a significant investment, as well, to line up the rights that you need to do to work with the city council to get all the approvals, to do all of the drawings, all of those things before you put a shovel in the ground that whether we were in the Premier League or the Championship we will be doing anyway. And so that money is earmarked, committed. And we are continuing down that path. If you're asking me this question a year from now, it might be a little bit more complicated because at that point I'd be ready with a shovel. But everything right now is greenlit as it would have been in either case."