⚽️ The Best and the Worst Owned Clubs in the Premier League

In the last few weeks we have tackled some larger topics across Rugby, Private Equity and Boxing.

There have been some rather intriguing news topics in the last month that I have not mentioned in these newsletters so this week we will dive into some other stories to catch up on some of the things we’ve missed.

Welcome to the new subscribers in the past seven days.

We start with more trouble for struggling retailer Nike.

Liverpool have reportedly signed a very lucrative kit deal with Adidas, becoming the latest team to move away from Nike.

Liverpool have been on a journey with their kit manufacturer in the last 15 years. The timeline makes for an interesting read:

• 2012-2015: Warrior

• 2015-2020: New Balance

• 2020-2025: Nike

• 2025+: Adidas

The key thing with to look out for when it comes to kit manufacturer deals is the royalty the club receives from every kit sale. Liverpool’s current agreement with Nike looks like this:

• £30m guaranteed

• 20% Royalty

The new deal is currently unannounced but a report from SportsProMedia suggests the Adidas arrangement will see an uplift on both of those numbers bringing Liverpool closer to their “Big Six” contemporaries.

Nike are in a tough spot.

Their share price is down 19.52% in 2024 and one of the most popular pieces of content I have ever done showed a slew of athletes leaving them.

They’ve got a lot of work to do to bring the brand back to its glory days.

Staying in Merseyside, The Friedkin Group have agreed a deal to purchase Farhad Moshiri’s 94.1% stake in Everton Football Club.

The deal is yet to be formally announced and there are a lot moving parts to this transaction, but reports suggest that Moshiri’s 7-year ownership of Everton will indeed come to an end, losing the man upwards of £350m 😩

I truly believe Moshiri is the worst owner in Premier League history.

An interesting aside about this deal however, is the fact that it blocks John Textor from becoming the owner of Everton.

Textor has a company called Eagle Holdings which has quietly put together a consortium of football clubs:

• 45% of Crystal Palace 🇬🇧

• 87.7% of Olympique Lyonnais 🇫🇷

• 90% of Botafogo 🇧🇷

• 80% of RWD Molenbeek 🇧🇪

He is in a tight spot at Crystal Palace as he does not have full control and cannot see a path to full ownership. He therefore has been hunting for ownership of another Premier League club and was in the running to be the acquirer of Everton.

Brentford are up for sale, so too are Spurs. Brentford however are not a bigger club than Crystal Palace. Tottenham are but cost far too much money. I wonder where he will turn to next on his pursuit of full ownership.

This video I made on the Everton saga gives you a very succinct summary of how complicated that entire saga has been.

Finally, we head to the south coast.

Brighton might be the best run club in the Premier League.

They announced profits of £122.8m in their last financial accounts, an incredible amount of money for a club that is perceived to be a mid-table organisation.

Tony Bloom put together such a well run team that Chelsea came and wanted them all for themselves!

CFC hired manager Graham Potter and FIVE of his coaching staff. They poached Brighton's head of recruitment Paul Winstanley. And then they brought in Winstanley's replacement Sam Jewell.

Bloom however is a man about data. HIs data platform has helped Brighton source some incredible transfer deals:

•  Moises Caicedo : £4.5m —> £100m

•  Marc Cucurella : £15m —> £60m

• Ben White : £0 —> £50m

• Alexis Mac Allister : £7m —> to £35m

• Yves Bissouma: £15m —> £30m

His company Jamestown Analytics is the secret weapon. The piece of software has been pivotal to Brighton sourcing and finding players across the world and Bloom is now in talks to take the same findings he had with Brighton to Hearts in Scotland.

Bloom is lining up a £10m takeover bid of Heart of Midlothian hoping to replicate some fhte success he’s had in the Scottish Premier League

The deal is not yet confirmed but two things surprised me about the news:

1. Hearts are a customer of Jamestown and just made Neil Critchley their manager after using the data that Jamestown suggested to them!

2. How low the asset prices are for clubs in Scotland

It’s a fascinating story and something I will be doing far more content on in the future.

Happy Halloween to you all.

See you next week.