Guest writer Elliott has his say on the recent reports of a takeover at Derby.
A recent report from The Athletic has emerged that Sheikh Khaled bin Zayad Al Nahyan (Sheikh Khaled for short) is interested in buying Derby County Football Club. Last month Derventio Holdings LTD., was registered at company’s house with three directors. The directors being; Midhat Kamil Kidwai, Andrew Obolensky and Christopher Samuelson.
So who exactly are all these people?
Sheikh Khaled is a senior member of the Abu Dhabi royal family with an estimated worth of £118 billion. He made his money through retail, real estate and construction and is regarded as one of the most successful businessmen in the emirates. Sheikh Khalid is also the older cousin of Sheikh Mansour, the owner of Manchester City. Since taking over as City’s new owner in 2008, Sheikh Mansour has invested over £1.3 billion in the club.
Sheikh Khaled has previously failed in a £2 billion takeover of Liverpool with the bid being rejected in 2017. It was also widely reported that he was due to complete a takeover worth £350 million for Newcastle United in 2019. However the purchase of the club did not materialise despite expectation it would be completed. Magpies owner Mike Ashley blamed the Premier League for blocking the deal, whereas other reports suggest the takeover was not even close and the buyers had not stumped up the funds to complete it.
Christopher Samuelson has been involved in English football in the past. He has had a hand in the takeover of Reading in 2012 and Tony Xia’s takeover of Aston Villa in 2016. It should be mentioned that whilst in the championship and under the ownership of Tony Xia, Aston villa were on the edge of bankruptcy. Similarly with Reading, they were financially stable before their takeover and financially struggled ever since. It would be assumed that Samuelson’s part in any deal involving Derby County would be purely to setup and broker the deal, with Sheikh Khaled to then pump the funds into the club and have ownership.
Where would this leave Mel Morris? Morris has often spoken of investment for the club and said that he would be open to selling Derby but only if the right offer came in with the clubs best interests at heart. It will be interesting to see if Morris would stay at the club if there was a takeover and have some involvement or would he totally sell up and leave. When Sheikh Khaled wanted to takeover at Newcastle, Mike Ashley was going to stay and still run the club, so would this put Morris in a similar position with this takeover?
The rumour mill is likely to churn out all sorts of weird and wonderful rumours should this takeover go ahead. There have already been reports of Steven Gerrard being sounded out to takeover as manager for the beginning of next season. Should Sheikh Khaled takeover he would essentially have unlimited buying power in the championship market for his first season as FFP is waived for new owners for a year. Could this see Derby spending big once again or will they still opt to make shrewd signings and use Sheikh Khaled’s links to his cousin at Manchester City and loan some of the younger talent from his club.
With the takeover reported to be at an advanced stage, are rams fans right to be excited by the new owner? Or should they reserve judgement until the finer details of the takeover have been addressed.
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