With all the accusations against chairmen and club owners floating around these days I think there should be some mention of the good ones.
- Steven Zhang of Inter
- de Laurentis of Napoli
- Tony Bloom of Brighton but he’s playing a risky game, a couple of bad gambles and they’re going the Soton way
- Fosun of Wolves pre covid
Steven Zhang is 31 and it can be said he’s only doing good cuz he has a rich dad, but then look at Top driving Leicester into the ground.
Separate question: if you were an owner of a club that is to your liking, and you are loaded, where do you draw a line in terms of stopping investments into your club if you don’t have money problems?
Sometimes a club might be a key player or two away from stepping up a level but the money just won’t appear.
Are football clubs simply too much to handle for even the biggest enterprises in the world?
Football Chairmen / Owners
posted on 28/5/23
comment by Kobbie The King Mainoo (U10026)
posted 48 minutes ago
Doubt you’ll find many Inter fans that think Zhang is a good owner after the financial mess he’s put them in.
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Think the CL final run will have sorted some of that
You won’t be able to find anymore news about him being held accountable for any loan debts, all news mysteriously been erased
posted on 28/5/23
comment by Striketeam7 - the smartest person you know - Bronze medal khunt 2022 - Buy..Bellingham and another mid 20s Thiago type...lets just call him "frank" (U18109)
posted 55 minutes ago
Brighton will be fine - with the money they make on sales, even if a couple of purchases don’t work out they will have more than enough clout to roll the dice again.
Forest on the other hand - will they be able to buy anyone this summer?
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Bet Southampton thought that too when they sold all those players to Liverpool
posted on 28/5/23
Still nor sure what you expect Brighton to do, OP?
posted on 28/5/23
I said he’s a good owner DJ
Also saying he should learn from other clubs mistakes though it won’t be all controllable
posted on 28/5/23
comment by Running Up That Hill (U8966)
posted 22 minutes ago
comment by Kobbie The King Mainoo (U10026)
posted 48 minutes ago
Doubt you’ll find many Inter fans that think Zhang is a good owner after the financial mess he’s put them in.
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Think the CL final run will have sorted some of that
You won’t be able to find anymore news about him being held accountable for any loan debts, all news mysteriously been erased
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Doubt it, they’ll still have to sell players because they have big debt repayments to Elliott.
posted on 28/5/23
comment by Running Up That Hill (U8966)
posted 4 minutes ago
I said he’s a good owner DJ
Also saying he should learn from other clubs mistakes though it won’t be all controllable
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Yeah, but you said he is playing a risky game. I just dibt understand that comment. They seem to be doing things right and in a sustainable way.
Southamptons big mistake seems to have been sticking with a manager who no-one (board, fans and players) had faith in anymore. Think most were surprised to see him survive the summer. Their recruitment wasn't bad last summer, and they have some good assests. Expect them to come straight back up tbh.
posted on 28/5/23
I mean he can’t be relying on this model forever
He’s gonna get a bad transfer window somewhere down the line, it happens
posted on 28/5/23
Not sure there is a better model for them. They wont win transfer battles against bigger teams, so not sure what market you think they should be shopping in.
posted on 28/5/23
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 3 hours, 36 minutes ago
comment by Kobbie The King Mainoo (U10026)
posted 5 minutes ago
Villarreal have finished outside the top seven twice in the last 19 years.
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They were in 2nd tier 10 years ago.
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That's probably a better example than you realise of how resilient they are.
They'd never been in the top flight until 1998 - in fact, they hadn't even been a 2nd division team for all that long either.
They've only been relegated twice, once the year after they first came up, and the other during a season where they were playing in the CL and were pretty much hit by a perfect storm.
The question is that both times they were able to bounce straight back up.
posted on 28/5/23
comment by D'Jeezus Mackaroni (U1137)
posted 4 hours, 1 minute ago
Bit early to say Villarreal have cemented a place at the top of La Liga. Like Brighton they will probably be fighting relegation in a few years.
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Good job nobody said they had then, isn't it?
What you can say is that 25 years after their first ever promotion to the top flight, they are a very well established project.
They've made the most of an until then poorly tapped catchment area, qualified 17 times for European competitions, won a European trophy, completely revamped their ground, developed new training facilities and established one of the best academy projects in Spain (the only club in the country to boast a reserve team in the 2nd division this season) - and all this whilst building strong community roots too.