Andrea Radrizzani has been chastised by Paul Robinson for publicly criticising Leeds United manager Angus Kinnear on social media last week.
The ex-Whites owner resorted to X, previously Twitter, to criticise the club’s CEO. When Radrizzani sold Leeds to the San Francisco 49ers in July, Kinnear stayed in his position.
Kinnear spoke with The Square Ball about a variety of issues, including managerial appointments, relegation, transfer dealings, and the contentious usage of loan terms, which hampered Leeds to some extent this summer. Radrizzani attacked the man he selected over six years ago while reacting to a fan on social media.
“My good friend (Kinnear) should have taken good responsibility for the contracts with exit clauses, which I have never read, as well as many other contracts and company,” Radrizzani tweeted first on Friday evening. “That’s why management is compensated!”
“I don’t believe AK, who made millions working with me, can judge how much money I have or how much money I can invest in football.” Second, just to be clear, even if I wanted to, I couldn’t sell (the club) earlier because I had to follow the 49ers’ schedule and procedure…”
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Radrizzani then deactivated his account, and Kinnear has declined to get involved in the internet feud. Former custodian Robinson, speaking to MOT Leeds News, slammed the Italian for publicly criticising the Whites’ boss.
“It’s disappointing that Radrizzani feels the need to air those types of thoughts and feelings on social media,” he says. “I don’t believe it. There were problems in the football club and the way he handled it, and I don’t think you can aim bullets like that.
“Kinnear, I believe he’s been an outstanding asset to the football club, and the business side of things has been absolutely flawless in recent times.” Look at Radrizzani, and then look at the individuals surrounding him, such as Victor Orta.
“When Kinnear was telling Radrizzani one thing, perhaps Orta was telling him something else, and he may have been listening to the wrong person too often, costing him a lot of money in transfer fees and players who didn’t succeed.”
Robinson also feels Leeds might have avoided relegation if Radrizzani had placed greater faith in Kinnear as owner. The 43-year-old called the fight “disappointing” and mocked Radrizzani’s character.
“When you leave something, it’s very easy to decry other people’s work after you’ve left and moved on to other things,” Robinson continued. “If Kinnear had been more involved in the day-to-day operations of the football club, certain things might not have happened.”
“When someone leaves a football club, there is always going to be a breakdown in relationships.” I simply find it extremely unfortunate that, in this day and age, someone like that feels the need to air their dirty laundry on social media when they have such a powerful position at the football club.
“From the standpoint of a fan, we have a pretty clear indicator of the sort of person you’re dealing with. Angus, I believe, is extremely cool, collected, and calculating, and will express everything (he has to) in a sentence. He will not respond on Twitter (X).”
