Top Ten Premier League Chairmen

Top Ten Premier League Chairmen

10) The Glazers - Manchester United
There were two abiding fears among Manchester United fans when the Glazers bought the club back in 2005. Firstly, that they would drastically increase ticket prices to help pay of the annual £62million in interest payments on their loan to buy the club. And secondly, that these financial constraints would eat into Sir Alex Ferguson's transfer budgets.

The reality is that these two fears have been respectively emphatically confirmed and emphatically dismissed. In their time at the club the Glazers have effectively almost trebled the price of some season tickets. In 2004/5 a top price season ticket cost £532, whereas the same ticket this season will set you back £912. Chuck in the frankly scandalous compulsory cup ticket purchase scheme (which forces fans to buy tickets for all FA Cup and Champions League games) and you have a potential outlay of around £1,400. Indeed, some fans are so irked that they have asked their lawyers to complain to the Office of Fair Trading about the rises.

However, in terms of spending on the side, and just plain allowing Alex Ferguson to get on with his job, the Glazers have been flawless. Since June 2005 when the takeover was completed, United have shelled out just shy of £140million on transfers (and that's discounting whatever money has been spent on Carlos Tevez), as well as rejecting the squillions that Real Madrid had to offer for Cristiano Ronaldo. Oh, and in that time United have won the league twice and the Champions League once. Not bad.

In judging whether the Glazers have been good for the club United fans must weigh up whether the magnificent success has been worth the scandalous price increases.


9) Peter Coates - Stoke City
Currently in his second period at Stoke, Coates compares favourably with the chaps who were in situ between his spells. Stoke Holdings, a consortium based in Luxembourg but with Icelandic backing, were in charge for seven years between 1999-2006, a spell that, among other things, featured sacking Tony Pulis around a month after giving him a new contract. Coates, who made his money through Bet365 (meaning that your correspondent probably pays Rory Delap's wages), bought the club back and set out a five-year plan to achieve promotion to the top flight. By 2008 they were in the Premier League, due in no small part to his trust in Pulis (the fact that the two have an excellent professional and personal relationship has a lot to do with this) and backing his manager as far as a club of Stoke's means can.


8) Paul Duffen - Hull City
When Duffen, along with businessmen Martin Walker and Russell Bartlett, purchased Hull from Adam Pearson in the summer of 2007, most laughed at his plans to win promotion to the Premier League within three years. However, things didn't exactly go according to plan, with the club gaily skipping past several much bigger hitters to waltz into the top flight. In addition to promotion, Duffen has promised to fund a 7,000 seat expansion of the KC Stadium, as well as the assorted leisure and hospitality facilities that clubs seem to make their money from these days. Although it was Pearson that laid the foundations for their rise, Duffen's tenure has seen Hull win promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history. And you can't argue with that.


7) Peter Hill-Wood - Arsenal
If you ever notice that The Daily Star usually gets things right about Arsenal, it's probably because Hill-Wood is just painfully polite. The story goes that chief Star hack Brian Woolnough managed to get hold of the Arsenal chairman's phone number, rang him up one day and Hill-Wood was just too damn polite to tell him to do one. In truth Hill-Wood doesn't have an awful lot to do with the day-to-day running of Arsenal, leaving Ken Friar, Ivan Gazidis and Arsene Wenger to run the club, but without Hill-Wood and his City contacts (he was vice-chairman of Hambros bank) it's unlikely that Arsenal would have secured financing for the Emirates Stadium. It should also be remembered that Hill-Wood was the man at the helm when Arsene Wenger was appointed as the club's manager.


6) Bill Kenwright - Everton
As you might expect from someone whose other job is as a theatre producer, Kenwright is one of the more flamboyant chairmen in the Premier League, but that should not detract from his success and popularity at Goodison Park. His judgement should forever be trusted after appointing David Moyes, but beyond that Kenwright has sanctioned the breaking of Everton's transfer record four times in as many years, with the purchases of James Beattie, Andy Johnson, Yakubu and Marouane Fellaini. Whether continuing to push for a move to Kirby from Goodison Park is a good thing depends on your point of view, but Kenwright remains realistic enough to know that serious investment is needed if Everton are ever to challenge the best in the Premier League, and has consistently stating that he would listen to any offers should anyone wish to purchase the club.


5) Roman Abramovich - Chelsea
He may be appearing to lose interest now, but remember that he is the reason that Chelsea fans are complaining about being fourth.


4) Steve Gibson - Middlesbrough
In a time when chairmen are lambasted for not having any patience with managers, in particular with young English managers, Gibson should be lauded, even if his loyalty to Bryan Robson and Gareth Southgate smacks of patience for patience's sake. Even so, it's worth noting that since he became chairman Boro have had three permanent managers, while down the road at Newcastle the managerial hot potato has been passed on nine times. After becoming the club's youngest ever director aged 26, Gibson was part of the consortium that saved the club from liquidation in 1986, and eventually became chairman in 1994, overseeing the move from Ayresome Park to the Riverside Stadium. His money brought players like Fabrizio Ravenelli and Juninho to a god-awful part of the world, and his impact at the club can be summarised by simply noting that before his time, Boro's proudest achievement in knock-out competitions was reaching the Zenith Data Systems final in 1990. They didn't win by the way.


3) Khaldoon Al-Mubarak - Manchester City
Among the madness of £100million transfers, what Manchester City desperately need is a sensible voice of reason to calm everything down, and in Al-Mubarak they have just the man. Compare and contrast, if you will, various quotes from Al-Mubarak and the slightly more flamboyant end of ADUG, Sulaiman Al-Fahim.

Al-Fahim on September 2: "Ronaldo has said he wants to play for the biggest club in the world, so we will see in January if he is serious...A place in the Champions League is quite a jump from last season, but we are ready to sit down with the manager, find out the players he would like, and bring the right players into the club. This season we would like to be a lot better than last season, and we are eager for trophies next season."

Al-Mubarak on September 23: "One thing I have made very clear to Mark is that any player he wants comes from him. It comes from his requirements, his plan for the Club. I'm a fan, but I am not an expert...The watchwords are patient, committed, and long term."

It would have been very easy to get rid of Mark Hughes as soon as ADUG took over, and it would have been very easy to veto the decidedly unsexy signings of Wayne Bridge and Nigel De Jong. Al-Mubarak has done none of this, and it was telling that all the talking during the Kaka saga was done by Garry Cook and Hughes, with the chairman remaining quiet and detached. It's not a surprise that Al-Mubarak has been charged by ADUG with running the club, while very little has been heard from Al-Fahim in the past few months.


2) Niall Quinn - SunderlandWhere to start? Heading the Drumaville consortium that bought the club in 2006? Setting aside personal differences to appoint Roy Keane as Sunderland's manager in the same year? Shelling out the ugly end of £70million to establish the club in the Premier League? Paying £8,000 for taxis home for 80 Sunderland fans when they were turfed off an EasyJet flight in Bristol for singing 'Niall Quinn's Disco Pants'? Reducing season ticket prices next season to £19 - that's £19 - for under-16s, while all other tickets have been cut by between £30 and £70? Generally being the most likable administrator in football? If anyone can claim to legitimately dislike Quinn then we invite you to F365 Towers for a duel. Only you have to wear the disco pants.


1 - Randy Lerner - Aston Villa
Lerner purchased Aston Villa a little more than a year before two other American financiers with their fingers in sporting pies took over Liverpool, but they have offered lessons in how to and how not to carefully run a football club. If nothing else, Lerner is a PR expert. From spending £4million on doing up the previously derelict Holte pub, to persuading Ron Saunders to return to Villa Park for a lap of honour a couple of years ago (he refused to set foot inside the place while Doug Ellis was in charge), to paying for fans' travel, to forgoing shirt sponsorship in favour of local children's hospice Acorns, Lerner has got gathering goodwill down perfectly.

And that's before you even consider his investment in the team and total trust of his manager's judgement. Would Doug Ellis have allowed nearly £10million to be spent on the then raw Ashley Young? Probably not. If Aston Villa do win the Premier League in the next few years then Martin O'Neill will receive the majority of credit, but Lerner's contribution should not be under-estimated.