In July 2003 Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich completed his takeover of Chelsea FC, purchasing the club from former owner Ken Bates in a deal worth approximately £140million. Amazingly, Bates had only paid £1 for the club in 1982, taking on £1.5million worth of debt he still came away with a tidy profit.
Since the Russian revolution at Chelsea began, fans all over the country have been wishing for their club to be bought by an exotic financial benefactor. Over the years we have seen foreign owners come and go, but we have also seen that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side when it comes to foreign ownership
In a way even the most successful of takeovers like Chelsea and Manchester City have seen their new owners go through a stage of uncertainty as to whether they truly can bring success to their clubs. Both Chelsea and Manchester City as well as most of the foreign takeovers, you tend to see a swift change of manager. This is because the new owners have their own vision on how the club can progress or have been advised by others.
Claudio Ranieri, Mark Hughes, Sam Allardyce as well as more recently Sean Dyche and Steve Cotterill have been relieved of their managerial duties following new owners coming into the club. Even though they didn’t necessarily warrant getting sacked they found themselves heading the queue of unemployed managers.
Most notably Sam Allardyce when he was at Blackburn Rovers. His side were comfortably in the mid-table region of the Premier League and with new financial backing from the Venky’s they were back on the rise. However ahead of their away day trip to Old Trafford in the 2010/11 season, the new owners had invited their business associates to watch their newest investment in action against one of the biggest teams in the world. Manchester United won 7-1 and it was reported that the reason Sam Allardyce was subsequently sacked was because of the humiliation the owners suffered following this defeat.
The trend of foreign owners in English football today is still ever growing. With Nottingham Forest being bought this week by the Al-Hasawi family. However, within 48 hours of the takeover being complete manager Steve Cotterill was shown the door despite ensuring Forest’s Championship survival for another season. Following his dismissal, Cotterill said:
“Nevertheless, I wish the club every success for the future. I would also like to thank my staff, players and the supporters; I enjoyed a fantastic relationship with every one of them during my time in charge.” He has filed a complaint to the League Managers Association and it is now in their hands.
This drastic change at Forest swiftly follows similar goings on at Watford. After the Pozzo family bought the Hornets, manager and former captain Sean Dyche was shown the door despite guiding Watford to a respectable 11th place finish.
Owners appear to have their own ideas on how to take clubs forward prior to even taking over clubs. However with this said, it is not always the case. The high profile takeover of Manchester United by the Glazer family bought rumours to the surface that Sir Alex Ferguson was going to be forced out of the club, the family were quick to snuff out this rumour and even entrusted David Gill with extending the Scots contract at Old Trafford. In more recent times the takeover at Reading FC by Anton Zingarevich, quickly he came out to say that Brian McDermott would be staying at the Madejski, McDermott who subsequently signed a new 3 year deal at the club, ensuring he is at the helm in the newest Russian revolution to hit the Premier League.
So when it comes to clubs in England’s top four divisions wanting to become the next Chelsea or Manchester City, it is not always the ideal scenario due to financial difficulties for the new owner (Glazer at United, Shinawatra originally at Man City and the number of financial problems which effected the many Portsmouth takeovers) or just the fact that the owners want to change too much too quickly and think they know what is best for the club (Venky’s at Blackburn) it is a case of “Be Careful what you wish for.”
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