Leeds United supremo Andrea Radrizzani has admitted that the Whites cannot afford their current wage bill indefinitely in the Championship. 

Radrizzani has allowed Leeds' player wage bill to rise over the last year, with head coach Marcelo Bielsa and his backroom staff also costing the club dearly.  

 



The Italian, who is juggling with three offers to invest in Leeds after receiving more than 20 proposals, concedes that the Whites' total wage bill is not far off the £40m mark when taking into account Bielsa.

Bielsa and his coaching staff cost the club £6m a year and Radrizzani insists that the level of expenditure cannot be kept up in the Championship.
 


The Leeds chairman told the Times: "It is very expensive, I invested over £90 million — with this level of money you could own a Europa League club in most of the European leagues, including Italy.



"The club makes losses, in this league it is impossible not to.

"We are still paying the consequences of my first year because I was inexperienced and we made some expensive mistakes with players.
 

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"But we haven’t stopped investing.

"Bielsa and his staff cost £6 million [a year], we bought many other players and I think we have a squad to be promoted.

"It’s financially not sustainable to keep this level of salary which is now over £30 million, probably £33 million with Marcelo and closer to £40 million with the coaches", Radrizzani added.

Leeds seemed on course for promotion to the Premier League under Bielsa last term, but suffered a late season collapse in form to slip out of the top two and then lose in the playoffs.

The Whites, working to remain within EFL financial rules, focused on loan signings this summer, while also selling several players to bring in cash.