Andrea Radrizzani suggests Leeds’ target for next season

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Leeds’ new full owner Andrea Radrizzani wants the Whites to improve on their performance this past season, but perhaps promotion is not essential.

New full Leeds owner Andrea Radrizzani has set the target for next season

Andrea Radrizzani has told Radio Yorkshire that Leeds should be looking to reach the play-offs next season, but hinted that promotion to the Premier League is not necessarily essential.

The Whites are beginning to prepare for what should be a crucial summer for the club following their impressive performance in the Championship this past season and Radrizzani’s full takeover of the club.

Leeds finished agonisingly close to the play-offs this past season

But while some supporters may be hoping that the Italian’s buy-out in conjunction with this past term’s seventh place finish in the second tier will make the Whites one of the favourites to go up, Radrizzani suggested that missing out on promotion next season will not necessarily mean that the club have fallen short of expectations.

“This year, we’ve been close to the play-off so I think we need to improve,” he told Radio Yorkshire.

Garry Monk will not have necessarily have fallen short if promotion is not achieved

“This means to be in the play-offs, to go up is a dream but it’s probably a dream for 14, 15 clubs in the Championship with the same or higher budget than Leeds so we need to be realistic.

“I want to go up but we need to be realistic and I think the play-offs will be a realistic target, but with the right mentality and determination, maybe we can do better and reach the dream.”

Leeds have been set a target of reaching the play-offs

As Radrizzani alluded to, almost every side in the Championship goes into the season with some reason to believe that they can challenge for a spot in the promised land, thus making the division often so difficult to predict.

What will encourage Leeds supporters is that the owner appears to be under no illusions that the Whites will face an uphill battle trying to better what they achieved this past season.

Those comments suggest that he will not get carried away if things are not going to plan straight away and that he believes that encouraging stability amongst the team could be the key to the side exceeding expectations.