Regardless of the final winner, the Blues will probably be controlled by U.S. capital in the future.
'The league offseason could really help, hopefully by the time we get back, some of the problems have been solved or we have answers to some of the things that are going on. In an interview with the media a few days ago, Mount, who was playing for England, said the above words. Obviously, the Chelsea midfielder has been tormented enough by the club's change of ownership problem, and because there are too many uncertainties, it is inevitable that the players will not see the future. The good news is that the transfer process has already crossed a major mark last week, with only four players left to participate in the final bidding after the "primary" is over, but the bad news is that the "mark-up deadline" is said to be until April 11, which means that the exact answer everyone wants is still mostly not available by the time the league reopens.
Overall, however, the future of the Premier League Blues is much clearer, after all, more than 20 bids have shrunk to only four potential next players. Last week, there were rumors that among the "finalists" confirmed by rene group (that is, the commercial bank entrusted by Abu), there was also a mystery buyer who was inconvenient to disclose information, but after a few days, no follow-up news was revealed, so the general view was that the four parties participated in the final competition. They were a consortium led by Todd Burleigh, Martin Broughton, the Ricketts family and Stephen Pagliuca.
The first three of these four groups have been introduced in detail by this newspaper (click to read), and Stephen Pagliuca is the last "dark horse" to enter the game, and even many British media initially did not notice his actions. Some British fans once quipped: "Am I the only one who, after seeing the headlines, thought that Gian Luka Palyuca was going to buy Chelsea?" "Of course, this Pagliuca is not Pepalulica, a 67-year-old wealthy American businessman who has nothing to do with the former Italian goalkeeper.
Steven Palyuca.
Regarding Pagliuca's net worth, there are various opinions, some say that he only has 450 million US dollars, and some analysts say that it is about 3 billion pounds, but it is certain that this person has a wealth of investment experience and is also widely involved in the sports world. First, he is one of the co-chairs of bain capital, an investment firm that is said to have more than $155 billion in total money under management; Pagliuca is also one of the owners of the NBA's Celtics; and in February, the wealthy American businessman successfully led the team to acquire a 55% stake in Serie A Atlanta Club.
Given that UEFA does not allow two teams owned by the same owner to compete in Europe at the same time, if Pagliuca succeeds in acquiring Chelsea, his stake in "True Blue and Black" will need to be dealt with. This is a disadvantage in the eyes of British public opinion, and most of the local media are not very optimistic that Pagliuca can catch up later. Of the other three, the Ricketts family is considered to have less hope, and although they have drawn in allies with deep pockets, the family boss Joe Ricketts's previous anti-Muslim remarks have greatly diminished their impression, and even a public apology may be difficult to recover. The point is that this issue is not only disliked by many fans, but there are also a number of Muslim players in the Chelsea team.
Todd Burley (left) and Martin Broughton (right).
As for Burleigh and Broughton's team, they were the favourites from the start. Among them, "Burley-Weis-Goldstein", a combination of wealthy American, Swiss and British businessmen, entered the game first, and later they also joined the "Blues fan representative" such as "Times" writer Finkelstein, which can be described as strong and comprehensive. And Broughton is not bad, the former Liverpool club president himself is a Chelsea die-hard, but also pulled the former London Olympic Committee president Sebastian Coke to stand for himself. From an emotional point of view, they are closest to the Blues fans, especially after the exit of candy, a wealthy British businessman who has previously played the "family card".
However, it should be noted that although The leader of Broughton's team is the British, the financial support behind it is still American capital: Josh Harris and Blitzer, who have shares in the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and NHL New Jersey Devils, and are now the small bosses of the Premier League's Crystal Palace team. If the team wins the bid, the two American businessmen will also need to sell their investment in another London club. Regardless of the winner, the Premier League will see 9 of the 20 teams controlled by American capital. After driving out the Russian Abu, the number of local bosses in the Premier League is not increasing, nor will it usher in Middle Eastern capital like Saudi media groups, but US capital continues to expand.
Liverpool club's American boss John Henry.
So are Americans still "flood beasts"? After the Glazer family took control of Manchester United, Red Devils fans have been angry about this. However, judging from the results of the previous online questionnaire of the competition network, the current British fans are still relatively easy to accept for the American boss. In this regard, the British media also pointed out that American capital has indeed done a lot of "bad things" in the Premier League, including formulating a "big picture plan" to try to change the structure of the entire league, etc., but it cannot but admit that they have also brought some positive factors and achieved success. The best example is Liverpool, which, after Fenway Group took over, built a system that relied on a data system to select talent, thus creating a team that could dominate the Premier League and the Champions League, bringing a revival to the Reds.
According to British media sources, after the start of the "small circle decisive victory", two consortiums have raised their own offers, but the general amount should still be between 2 billion and 3 billion pounds. According to an editor of Sky News, in the final bidding process, Rennes Group not only considered the purchase price of all parties, but also required the buyer to make a commitment to "invest at least 1 billion pounds in the future in Chelsea Club". This means that Abu's commissioned company is not engaged in a hammer deal, they prefer to find a home for the Blues with the ability to continuously transfuse blood.
Wen | Yan Yu
Edit | Fat Cat