'We support him unconditionally' - Andrea Radrizzani on Leeds United's backing for Marcelo Bielsa, ambitions and club value

The Italian media mogul has again put on record his belief that the Whites can break into the Premier League's top six, if they stay up this season.

Leeds sit 17th after 10 games and have thus-far struggled to replicate the swashbuckling attacking football that led them to a Championship title and a top-10 finish in their first Premier League season in 16 years. Over the past several weeks injuries have struck time and again to rob Bielsa of his first-choice centre forward Patrick Bamford, right-back Luke Ayling, new left-back Junior Firpo and German international centre-half Robin Koch. Defensive midfielder Kalvin Phillips also had a spell on the sidelines.

Although the head coach refuses to make an excuse of injuries and continues to insist he has the resources to cope with the absence of key men like Bamford, Leeds have struggled for goals and wins. The 2-1 victory at basement side Norwich on Sunday was only their second three-point haul in the league this season.

Radrizzani says Leeds have benefitted from giving full backing Bielsa since his 2018 arrival at Elland Road, reaping rewards on the pitch and retaining the Argentine's services for a longer period than any of his previous clubs.

"When I picked Marcelo Bielsa I knew it would come with challenges, but we support him unconditionally and I think the result has been seen on the pitch," said Radrizzani, as reported by PA Agency.

"Also for himself, this has been the longest spell of his career as a coach, with Leeds United because as a club we supported him unconditionally."

Staying in the top flight for a number of seasons has always been key to the grand plans of Radrizzani and ownership partners the San Francisco 49ers. They want to redevelop Elland Road and return the club to the upper echelons of the English top flight. Their European dream looked more likely last season than it does currently, but staying up remains central to their ambition. Leeds still need to walk among Premier League giants for a substantial period of time before they can run.

"Now we are partnered with 49ers, this is fundamentally very important because it will be very difficult to stay in the Premier League, but if we stay in it this year I think we can go much more than last year and go into the top six," Radrizzani told the Web Summit in Lisbon.

"Start to renovate the stadium and continue to grow the value of this club."

Radrizzani's confidence in being able to make his and Leeds' dreams a reality is rooted in what he says is a history of proving critics wrong. He says the club is now likely to be worth four times the £100m his Aser group invested in buying and transforming it.

READ: How Leeds United's brand value jumped to £100m"Leeds United like Eleven and other business in my life are always a challenge," he said.

"All my life I have been seen as an underdog, people didn't give me credit. It happened with Leeds United, people said it would crash, he has never done football before, he will lose money. Aser invested about £100million in buying and rebuilding the club from the Championship. We are now in the Premier League, we have a lot of international, not only in the first team.

"We have completely turned around the club and the value is now probably four times higher. It was a good investment, a great bet and a good challenge. We always come with rationale, people think I am crazy but there is always a rationale because we know with the right people and the right management and a right plan, give the time to flourish the project we could achieve the right result. That's what we did."