A deal to buy Newcastle for £350m from Sheikh Khaled bin Zayed Al Nehayan could be another blow to West Ham’s ambitions to compete in the top eight of Premier League and reach the next level.
The Sheikh is worth almost £16bn and if the purchase goes ahead it could make the Magpies the third richest club in the Premier League after City and Sheffield United co-owner.
Once upon a time having a Billionaire owner was enough to guarantee success in the Premier League but now it is commonplace with the vast majority of owners now having net worth in excess of West Ham owners Sullivan and Gold.
Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahayan (Manchester City) £24bn
Prince Abdullah bin Musa’ad bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (Sheffield United) £18bn
Roman Abramovich (Chelsea) £8.6Bn
Stan Kroenke (Arsenal) £6.7 Bn
Nassef Onsi Sawiris (Aston Villa) £5.9Bn
Guo Guangchang (Wolves) £5.3Bn
Joe Lewis and Daniel Levy (Spurs) £5.2Bn
Srivaddhanaprabha Family (Leicester City) £3.7bn
The Glazer Family (Manchester United) £3.6bn
Gao Jisheng (Southampton) £3Bn
Joshua Harris (Crystal Palace) £2.9Bn
John W Henry (Liverpool) £2Bn
Mike Ashley (Newcastle) £2.4Bn
Farhad Moshiri (Everton) £1.8Bn
David Sullivan and David Gold (West Ham) £1.6Bn
Tony Bloom (Brighton) £1.2Bn
Gino Pozzo (Watford) £120m
Max Demin (AFC Bournemouth) £100m
Mike Garlick (Burnley) £61m
Deila Smith (Norwich City) £28m
I think this guy was in for Liverpool, but the deal fell through because there were concerns about his ability to come up with the dosh. But your general point that we are being put in the shade financially- as shown by your figures- looks to be correct. It is another reason I am less optimistic than some on here about next season. Our owners seem able to dig deep every few seasons, as last summer, but then have to stand back for a bit. The accepted view on here is a transfer budget of £30m plus sales. They have not done a bad job over the last 9 years, & I would love us to buck the trend & continue with owners who have some sort of historic link with the club, but perhaps now is the time to sell. As your list suggests, it is not just about ‘getting to the next level’. Soon all the PL clubs will be owned by multi billionaires.
It shows I suppose that we are punching above our weight. What they are worth is not so important as how much they are willing to invest, I personally think we have the best manager in the PL, some might argue for others but Guardiola has never achieved it with average players, Klopp may be able to, Pochettino can, Benitez has worked wonders at Newcastle much to my surprise, Pellegrini inherited a pretty average bunch in terms of technical skills and gradually he is transforming us, its why I worry about a lack of investment and that we will probably have to sell at least one of our better players to supply the funds.
Sell up gold and sully.