Some friendly

I didn't do this one. Credibility can only stretch so far in pre-season and, after the World Cup, I've seen quite enough games being stretched over two hours and divided into quarters, thank you. I'm also lucky enough to see Leeds United play often enough to sit this one out, while I think it held more appeal for people who can't always get the tickets they would like.

Also, Leeds weren't playing against anything I recognise as a football team. Plenty is said, rightly, about the wrongs of RB Leipzig, but a lesser stated point is that they're straight up lying from the name on down. RB? They claim it's 'RasenBallsport'. Everything else about them says it's 'Red Bull'. If they can't even be honest about who they are, how can anyone trust them? And if they're only dishonest about the name to get around the rules, how is that any better? 

See also MK Dons. I mean, break that down: Milton Keynes Wimbledons. What? They're another soulless non-entity relying on fading memories to launder their reputation. They're almost as old as James Trafford, who is part of a generation of young adults who never experienced the sharp theft of Wimbledon FC. Milton Keynes' stolen team gets stronger as time goes by and fewer people remember: ancient history, innit. But I'm older, and I've been on about Red Bull getting their hooves into Leeds since 2013, and again when they actually got in the door. I'm not about to indulge one of their anti-football representatives rolling up for an afternoon of sponsor-activations at the Peacock Ground. I got enough of it from Jesse Marsch.

I don't actually think Red Bull will be the next owners of Leeds United, for what it's worth. And because it will be worth too much. According to their investor deck a couple of years ago, 49ers Enterprises want to sell Leeds United at a valuation over £1billion. Even to get a controlling 51 per cent of that Red Bull would have to spend about £500m. 

That's not their style. One of the great lies people believe about Red Bull is that they are cash-rich spend-a-lots who will roll into a club and throw money at success. It's not so. Salzburg were cheap. NY/NJ Metrostars cost them about $30m. Their most recent 100 per cent takeover, Omiya Ardija in the Japanese lower divisions, was reported as setting them back as little as £4m, almost certainly not more than £10m. Red Bull Racing, the flagship Formula 1 brand, began when they bought Jaguar Racing for £1, and it costs them around $50-$150m per year to run — the bulk of the team budget comes not from Red Bull but from their team sponsor, Oracle. Leipzig were a fifth tier club when Red Bull bought them for a song, and while they spent heavily to get them to the top of the Bundesliga, it was through loans, repayable with interest. In 2016, eight years into the 'project', RB Leipzig owed Red Bull €83.2m.

If Red Bull have an M.O., as much as obliterating the history of the clubs they take over, it's taking over small clubs on the cheap and only spending what they'll get back with interest or what they can raise mortgages on (new training grounds look good on the balance sheet). 

Their main chance of taking over at Leeds United will be if 49ers Enterprises don't make it to that big exit valuation, plunge us back into the Championship or worse and need to sell up fast and cheap. In a weird way we need 49ers Enterprises to succeed with transforming Leeds United into a modern commercial behemoth themselves, to keep Leeds out of the clutches of the cheapskates at Red Bull. Welcome to modern football, in which you pick your favourite capitalists and press play.