Stakeholders And Premier League Clubs Pt 1

It's Amazing how the FSG has turned Liverpool into world beaters in just 10 years of club ownership.

 - Matthew.

     Today, we take a look into Premier League clubs and their respective stakeholders. 

Arsenal Football Club is owned by Stan Kroenke. The American Billionaire has 100% stake in the club's Ownership. Kroenke's wealth is estimated to be around $10 Billion. Anti-generous(if this word exists) will best describe Kroenke in light of his stingy approach towards the club's finances.

              Stan Kroenke

Nassef Sawiris and Wesley Edens are the major stakeholders of Aston Villa FC, the club that narrowly escaped relegation last season. They seem to be supportive given the way they have invested in the club.

Brighton's Tony Bloom has 75.6℅ interest in the club. He is also acting as the club's chairman. He deserves credit for bringing the seagulls back to the top-flight as he has spent over $250 million of his personal wealth on the club's facilities.

Burnley has two major stakeholders, Mike Garlick(49.3℅) and John Banaszkiewicz(27.5℅). Anyway from a fan's perspective, the major figure of the club is their manager, Sean Dyche. His tactical acumen has kept the club going in the League.

          Burnley's Sean Dyche

Russian Oligarch and obviously a close associate of Russia's President, Vladimir Putin owns Chelsea football club since he purchased it in 2003. His name is Roman Abramovic, a very controversial but engrossing figure. He has invested very well in the club but probably derives pleasure in sacking Managers.(Don't tell Frank Lampard).

      Russian Oligarch, Abramovich

Crystal Palace is owned majorly by Steve Parrish, Joshua Harris and David Blitzer who have a combined fortune of $4 Billion. Crystal Palace most valuable asset is probably Wilfred Zaha, the team's best player. Of course, he wants to leave the club.

British Billionaire Farhad Moshiri owns 77.2℅ stake in Everton FC. He is a committed person to the club as he contributes steadily in moving the club forward. Everton just added James Rodriguez, Allan and Doucoure to the squad and that has added positively to the squad dynamics.

Newly promoted Fulham belongs to Shahid Khan. Khan is worth over $7 Billion. A story Khan wouldn't want to remember again is probably when the club spent over £100 million and still got Relegated in 2018. They are back in the top division and guess what,  they have said NO to big money signings.

Leeds United as a club has a very scintillating story and hopefully I write a piece on Leeds soon. Italian Andrea Radrrizani owns 90℅ of the club's interest and yes, the club has a very distinguished manager, Marcelo Bielsa who lives in a single Bedroom flat above a sweet shop and doesn't forget to bring his bucket along with him to the touchline. Where will Leeds finish on the table this season?

Let's take a trip down the memory lane. 2010, a club is in desperate need for a change with so many frailties leaving it in the mud. The fans are sad, the manager is confused and the owners are willing to sell as they run into debt. George Gillette and Tom Hicks are ready to handover the club to whoever would come forth with £300 million. 

American Sports Company, Fenway Sports Group(FSG) indeed came forth with the sum of money and acquired the club struggling in a bizarre situation. Henry is FSG's principal owner with 40℅ shares and Michael Gordon owns 12℅. 

They try to handle the situation with all commitment and determination and as the result would be, they succeeded. Their success would come from making shrewd signings and hiring a manager who fits right into the tactical philosophy of the team.

Let's fast forward to 2018. They make it to the champions league final. They are Champions of Europe in 2019 and would go on to win the English Premier League in 2020.

It's Amazing how the FSG has turned Liverpool into world beaters in just 10 years of club ownership.

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Drop your comments if you would love to.

Gracias, Adíos.

Chelsea and Kai Havertz

As a football lover, diving into football journalism is immensely fascinating. Do well to enjoy Matthew's piece on Kai Havertz and Chelsea. 

 Kai Havertz joined Chelsea from Bayer Leverkusen in the 2020 summer transfer window. Many believed the window would be greatly affected by the effects of the covid-19 pandemic, but that doesn't seem to be the case as transactions In Europe's top 5 leagues is over £2Billion (as at the time of writing) coupled with big money transfers including that of Kai Havertz to Chelsea. 

Chelsea's Kai Havertz chase started a year ago while they were banned from making transfers by FIFA. Havertz at the beginning of his transfer saga didn't have Chelsea in mind as much bigger clubs like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich showed signs of interest in him. Obviously, Madrid is a club many players long to play for. Bayern had even tried to give Havertz a sneak peek into where he would fit in the squad, but Bayern's interest began to die out as they publicly announced interest in fellow countryman, Leroy Sane. How then did Chelsea beat other clubs in bringing the 21 year old to West London?

The Covid-19 pandemic might not have hit the transfer market as a whole, but it has hit some clubs real bad. Some clubs dim it unwise to pay a couple of million pounds in this period as shown by the Liverpool Board when they were tipped to sign Timo Werner. Conversely, Chelsea had sold Hazard to Real Madrid for over a £100 million last summer and were unable to sign any player within that time frame. The FIFA ban was a blessing in disguise after all as Chelsea unknowingly saved for the rainy days. This alone had put Chelsea way ahead of other teams who had interest in Havertz who was desperate to leave this summer after Leverkusen failed to qualify for Champions League football. A young lad desperate to leave this summer, the big teams unable to meet his transfer fee and Chelsea, the underdog amongst others knew this was the right time to strike. 

Chelsea signed Timo Werner, a young German Footballer with loads of potentials(just like Havertz) and that sent a message to Havertz. Frank Lampard had a conversation with him telling him he was going to be a huge part of his project at Chelsea.A project full of ambition, attacking football and young talents. Havertz knew he has all it takes to be a part of this project and at the end of the tete à tete, Havertz was convinced Chelsea was the missing piece of his puzzle.

There was one more hurdle for Chelsea, convincing Leverkusen to let go of Havertz at a reasonable price. This was clearly a job for Chelsea's chief Negotiator, Marina Granovskia who is dubbed the "Iron Lady". She met with officials of Leverkusen in the South of France. Granovskia is a very engrossing person and Leverkusen had to develop a thick skin in order not to get carried away by her  fascinating attitude. Leverkusen's asking price was £100 million but we are made to believe Chelsea will pay  less than that. Chelsea have paid an initial fee of close to £70 million and Leverkusen believe they will receive the reminder of the fee later on.

             Marina Granovskia

At the end, Chelsea weren't just pragmatic in their approach for Havertz, they were indeed lucky.

Quick Fact: Timo Werner(Havertz teammate) is pronounced "Timo Verner". I know it's off topic but pardon me. As a football lover, it pisses me off to hear football names pronounced wrongly😂. Visit sm10s.blogspot.com to read more on insidefootball'sdeepest. 

Au revoir😂