Today’s Manchester City takeover is bad news for Arsenal and Liverpool.
Arab money could threaten their grip on 3rd and 4th place in 2009 and 2010.
In 2005, the oligarch’s Chelski bought Shaun-Wright Phillips from Man City, who could not afford to keep him. Last week Thaksin Shinawatra brought SWP back where he belongs.
But Shinawatra agreed to sell the club last night and the statement says, “Manchester City can confirm that a Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between the Abu Dhabi United Group and Manchester City Football Club Limited. A period of due diligence for all parties, including the FA Premier League, has now been entered.”
New board member Dr Sulaiman Al-Fahim said, “Our goal is very simple: to make Manchester City the biggest club in the Premier League, and to begin with to finish in the top four this season.”
Very odd to sell your football club on deadline day. But foreign ownership has made the EPL the biggest circus in the world, and too many billionaires want to be a ringmaster in the biggest circus.
And, of course, Thaksin Shinawatra is not your average owner. As I revealed here months ago, the former Thai PM has been staggered by how much it costs to run a football club. At first he probably thought : If I can run a country, surely I can run a football club? But two months ago he started to look for a buyer. Partly because the Thai government are seeking to freeze even more of his assets
Right now rival clubs look at Arsenal and think : too many kids, maybe they won’t be Top Four this year.
They look at Liverpool and think : the Yanks started well but fell out with each other, and Rafa is a big headache to the Yanks, and they can’t build a stadium in a credit crunch because banks won’t consider a loan of more than £150m
So rivals think :Arsenal and Liverpool could be vulnerable, so let’s throw money at it and grab a Champions League spot
Joe Lewis probably wants to sell Spurs as a Champions League club, so they’ve bought Corluka, a very classy Croatian defender, to join his mate Luka Modric. If Bent and Pavyluchenko score enough goals, Spurs might push into the top four.
Randy Lerner is a good owner for Aston Villa and is very hands-on these days. Martin O’Neill has built a solid outfit who can already draw with the big boys.
Chelsea and Manchester United will remain as the top two, as they have been for the last four years.
Some wannabe clubs will scrap to get above Arsenal and Liverpool. Everton tried that last year but finished fifth. They now lack the resources to step up. But Manchester City can now step up. These Abu Dhabi guys have more money than Abramovich. Spurs have just accepted their £30 million offer for Berbatov and Mark Hughes will meet the Bulgarian later today.