Top Six: Bombshells from the owner/chairman

Ollie Irish

20th, May 2008

Tell me, Kenyon, are you loaned sums tonight?
abram loan.jpg
1 Roman Abramovich – Chelsea
“Erm, Peter. You know that £500 million I lent you the other day when you were strapped for cash? I’m going to be needing that back.” The oil tycoon is apparently a more slippery character than we thought. While he continues to bankroll Chelsea, it has emerged today that the money is an interest-free loan rather than a donation. You could argue that being free of interest is a necessity for watching Chelsea play…
2 Vladimir Romanov – Hearts
Sacking the manager, ousting the chief executive and the chairman, and installing your son to do the latter two jobs (while also working as your translator) all within 10 days of your takeover is pretty fast work.
3 Peter Ridsdale – Leeds
It emerged that while Leeds were £78 million in debt, the club spent £20 a month on looking after Ridsdale’s office goldfish.


4 Michael Knighton – Carlisle
The once prospective Man Yoo owner eventually took over Carlisle. He sacked promotion-winning manager Mervyn Day, appointed himself as manager and proceeded to get the club relegated. There is nothing like the taste of relegation to take away those delusions of grandeur.
5 Spencer Trethewy – Aldershot
There is nothing worse than finding out the 19-year-old “property developer” who has taken over your club is actually a fraud. He bailed the club out in 1990 by signing a £200,000 affidavit. It soon became apparent that the money had been borrowed and that Trethewy had no means of paying it back. In fact Peter Ridsdale’s goldfish probably had more money. Trethewy was sent down for two years.
6 Thaksin Shinawatra
What’s a bit of alleged corruption and doing for human rights what Tony Pulis does for attractive football compared to threatening to sack your club’s most popular manager in years. Manchester City fans decided life without Sven would be, erm, torture.

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