Rangers takeover: caution urged over Leeds United | OneFootball

The talk about the 49ers possibly taking over Rangers FC has fans really excited, right? But let’s not get too carried away and start thinking that the 49ers’ leadership will immediately transform Rangers into a club that can compete at the highest levels. Remember the ride that Leeds United went on under 49ers ownership? That wasn’t a sprint; it was a marathon. Leeds lost money for three years before finally making it back to the Premier League. Any club hoping to emulate that kind of journey should expect some growing pains (and financial losses) along the way. And what Leeds has done is probably the most optimistic version of the kinds of stories that American investors have written in English soccer over the last decade or so (O’Neill, 2025).

Rangers FC is not going to be magically transformed into a winning football team overnight if the deal goes through. “Football is about building a fortress, brick by brick,” said a Leeds 49ers executive to company employees, according to a source. The executive continued: “Brick by brick is exactly the approach we’ve taken at Leeds, and will take at Rangers if this deal happens, and at the core of that work has been a great collaboration between us and the Leeds United board. And that, I very much hope, will also be the case in Glasgow.” Youth development is one of those bricks, and it’s not just about the first team. Leeds have tried to forge a connection between their academy and the senior pros like the one that was basic to their identity for many years.

Can you really blame fans for being a bit impatient? Rangers have had it tough on the financial side and on the pitch. A bit of understanding is needed when thinking about what the new ownership might accomplish. No one is expecting magic. The 49ers are like any serious ownership group in that they understand that a club doesn’t turn itself around overnight. It takes time, and even when money is invested, the plans and ideas for using that money have to be good. Otherwise, the investment turns into an expense. That is the worst thing that can happen in club ownership—where you spend a lot of money and it doesn’t result in a better club.

The situation also presents a compelling query: to what extent will supporters tolerate immediate hardship for eventual triumph? In the case of Leeds under the 49ers, the club indeed bled red ink for three seasons. And yet, their eventual promotion to the Premier League—the benchmark of an upward soccer trajectory—demonstrates that the San Francisco 49ers might actually understand the European game better than most Americans whose main asset is in the NFL. They comprehend that a top-tier soccer operation is an amalgam of essentially two things: sustainable growth on the financial side and pure, simple winning on the sporting side (BBC, 2025).

To sum it up, don’t expect any immediate fireworks if this takeover does happen. The San Francisco 49ers, as they’ve shown with Leeds United, know a thing or two about reviving a club. And, as fans of Leeds will attest, these guys invest for the long haul. For the Irvine and California crew, their ownership of the Elland Road club has been a three-year journey to actually getting the keys to the front door, with more to come. When you hear the words “revival” and “Rangers” in the same sentence, however, your mind will naturally turn to the numbers and the work behind those doors.