Respected football finance expert Kieran Maguire was wide of the mark with his latest piece for Footballer Insider earlier this week when claiming that Daniel Kretinsky might not be in a position to help fund a summer transfer spree after becoming a 27 per cent shareholder into West Ham.
The report claimed ‘West Ham may need to take on fresh loans to fund their transfer activity if Daniel Kretinsky’s money continues to be tied up in Russia.’
Quoting a source close to the club the piece claimed that ‘It is understood that the Irons’ transfer plans are currently on the backburner as a result.’
However, evidence to back up such speculation, is non existent and our own senior club insider described them as baseless telling Claret and Hugh exclusively “Kretinksy has no significant assets in Russia.
As of last weekend, his Ukraine pipeline was running at capacity and its a money-making machine. The west might want to cut off supplies of Russian gas/oil and vice versa, but they seem to need each other”
Last month CandH debunked a similar claim by the Sunday Times which tried to link the 27% shareholder to Russia’s state-owned Gazprom.
The Czech billionaire who owns stakes in Sainsbury’s, Royal Mail controls EP Infrastructure, which in turn owns 49 per cent of Eustream, the company operating the gas-transmission system piping Russian gas to central and eastern Europe. But EP Infrastructure forms a small element of Kretinsky’s accumulated wealth and won’t affect his Hammers interests.
The Czech tycoon’s Luxenberg investment vehicle, Vesa, is the largest shareholder in Royal Mail with a 19 per cent stake worth about £798 million.
If anything his companies might end up generating more revenue as a result of the energy crisis so he may have the last laugh on those who try to link him to Russia.
Well Moyes has got to make up his mind on who he wants and I suspect that’s a bigger challenge than finding the money!