Nobody at Derby County saw it coming. An hour before the takeover of the club by Saudi Arabia government official Turki Al-Sheikh was due to complete, Al-Sheikh pulled out. The deal had been approved by the Independent Football Regulator, one potential sticking point.
They were ready. And then they were back where they started. Chief executive Stephen Pearce described it as “the wind being taken out of our sails”.
We may never know if Al-Sheikh was ever truly committed to Derby. Certainly this is not his first EFL club saga and there should be even more scepticism next time.
Once is never, twice is always and three times is enough to persuade everybody that you are wasting their time. That said, it is unorthodox behaviour to submit the deal for regulatory approval and then leave.
Personal view: Derby are far better without this association and its collapse should – bigger picture – be a cause for celebration. Al-Sheikh is intrinsically linked to the regime of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. There are accounts of intimidation and human rights violations for those who criticised Al-Sheikh over his work within the state’s sports ministry.
Turki Al-Sheikh abandoned his proposed takeover of the Rams (Photo: Getty)
There will be supporters who say that the business of football is football and screw the rest. There will be those whose whataboutery points to Newcastle United or Manchester City. Some of them will shout at me on social media.
Fine, that is all a personal choice. But becoming the plaything of a man linked to state-authorised action is a position from which it is hard to reverse from.
The problem is the residual short-term gain. Less than two months on, the ripples of the snap decision taken by a multi-billionaire thousands of miles away continue. Derby, who finished eighth in the Championship last season, understandably put project plans for the stadium and training ground on hold pending a new owner.
Nobody can accuse David Clowes of not pulling his weight nor of failing to put Derby first. Not only did he save the club in the first place, and has backed it significantly since, he also continued to sign players this summer even when he knew that his tenure may be coming to a close.
Last summer, Derby paid around £6m for Patrick Agyemang. This summer it was £6m for Bobby Clark and £4m more on David Ozoh. They haven’t sold a player for more than £500,000 since Eiran Cashin in 2024-25 and have signed nine players for fees above £500,000 since, some many times that value.
Clowes’ generosity could never be questioned, particularly given that he also cleared the £20m high-interest loan to MSD Holdings.
“This is why he’s such an incredible owner,” Pearce told the BBC. “He thought the takeover was going to happen, he knew he was never going to get a penny back for all of that money he spent on those players and he still did it.”
John Eustace has made his feelings perfectly clear (Photo: Getty)
Derby are officially off the market following the Al-Sheikh collapse, but Clowes was clearly open to investment or a sale.
The Rams lost £11.3m in their last published annual accounts (2024-25) and much of the heavy transfer spending has come since. It is an expensive hobby owning a Championship football club, where your prize is to lose money. At the last count, Derby’s staffing costs were 105 per cent of revenue.
The more pressing issue is Derby’s start to the season on the pitch. The club openly talked about progressing from last season’s position of eighth, which equates to a promotion push given the expansion of the play-offs. Manager John Eustace spent early August insisting that he needed more quality players.
Derby have lost five of their seven league games in 2026-27. They have already dropped six points from winning positions and have typically been desperate in the final 15 minutes of their matches (scored none, conceded four). This wasn’t how anybody foresaw this season starting.
Eustace has taken the brunt of the criticism. The defensive structure is clearly pretty uncertain, with the full-backs unable to stop dangerous crosses into the box. The performance in the final stages of games have prompted questions about fitness.
Derby have been undone by a series of individual mistakes – nothing will infuriate a manager more.
Perhaps that’s all coincidence: the manager has some issues at the same time plans shift off the pitch and, at the same time, certain players make unfortunate errors that exacerbate teething problems.
Maybe Derby will quickly respond – they finished eighth last season despite winning one of their first 10 league games after all. It happens.
There is another theory. Failed takeovers leave a residue, even if subconscious. Employees, on pitch and off, have prepared for a new era. Supporters, particularly those who had no moral quandaries about the Al-Sheikh bid, had grown excited about potential spending plans, broadened horizons and expanded expectations.
That makes them less tolerable of the flaws they see now. You are perfectly content with your current car until someone lets you test drive a shiny new one with bells and whistles, offers it at a ludicrously low price and then drives off into the sunset.
Derby need not panic too much – they know here what a real emergency looks like. Clowes himself deserves only praise. Any resentment landing at his feet would be a gross disservice, given his indefatigability and investment through and after the worst days.
Still, this is a significant roadblock. The messaging may be business as usual with the same anticipation of progress. But a fanbase and a club were given a glimpse of a future. It has made Derby’s present seem a little blurry and mundane.
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Burnley chief executive James Holroyd resigned as chief executive just a year into his role due to issues in his working relationship with American owner Alan Pace, sources have told The i Paper.
Pace has gained a reputation for micromanagement within the club, who are currently bottom of the Championship after being relegated from the Premier League last season.
Holroyd was at Adidas for 14 years and Manchester United for another 14 before moving to Turf Moor in July last year. His decision, which has not yet been confirmed by the club, will not have been taken lightly.
Burnley supporters have become increasingly critical of Pace and his stewardship.
With debts spiralling out of control and no explanation for why sponsorship deals are vanishing into thin air, Holroyd’s hasty exit could not have come at a worse time.
Owner Alan Pace faces criticism for the club’s mounting financial problems (Photo: Getty)
First of all, Burnley are not in any immediate danger of going bust. Debts topped £142m in their last set of accounts, which also show refinancing has taken place to repay large amounts of these liabilities.
But under the new Independent Football Regulator, the window to apply for a provisional operating licence for the 2026-27 season opens in November. Without the provisional licence, clubs will not be able to operate.
Key to that process, where EFL clubs have to also prove their financial sustainability, is the Owners, Directors and Senior Executives (ODSE) framework. This makes it mandatory for teams to show their working club structure, where the chief executive is usually the head honcho.
Holroyd’s exit may be unfortunate timing or, as some sources believe, is tied to the upcoming increased scrutiny on the top end of the club’s hierarchy.
“There are so many red flags when it comes to Pace and Velocity [the sports investment arm of ALK Capital, Burnley’s owners],” one US-based advisor, who has worked with numerous Premier League clubs, tells The i Paper.
“For a start, in three years of trading, we are yet to see any accounts from Velocity.
“The way they bought Burnley as a leveraged buyout is well documented, but how does that work with their current debts? Burnley, the club, are effectively owed £80m by its owners, and yet the club are paying high interest loans off to refinance. There are so many questions we have zero answers for.”
All of this comes after shirt sponsor Finotive One was dropped on the eve of the new season. All replica shirts had to be recalled and replaced with a new company on the front. No explanation was given as to why, but it is understood the company that brands itself as a “trading ecosystem” failed to meet its contractual payments.
To pay for much of last season’s transfers, Burnley took on what are effectively payday loans, adding to worries over finances.
Burnley entered into a £40m factoring agreement with London-based Fasanara Capital in January 2025. This means that a proportion of incoming transfer fee instalments goes to them rather than the club. This factoring loan is thought to close in January 2027.
The panic sale of last season’s top goalscorer Zian Flemming to Ipswich Town on deadline day sparked further concerns. Why, in this era of inflated transfer fees, was a proven Premier League goalscorer allowed to leave for £20m, without being properly replaced?
Just how desperate for cash are Burnley? That remains the burning question on many Lancashire lips.
Holroyd has been removed from Burnley’s governance section on the club’s website and is understood to have stepped down last week, but we await confirmation.
Burnley used to pride themselves on being debt free and in charge of their own destiny. Supporters are now disheartened, confused and, more pertinently, very concerned. Bury’s sorry tale happened just 20 miles away, Macclesfield’s dissolution not much further afield.
Burnley are not there yet, but a growing number of fans fear that under Pace’s leadership, they are heading that way.
The club and ALK Capital did not respond to requests for comment over Holroyd’s departure or Burnley’s financial issues.
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A ghostly chair sits empty at the top of Tottenham’s table. Despite this being one of their more valiant fightbacks, the scars of the past 18 months are not imaginary. Visible scar tissue has been gouged from this attack.
Defeat at Anfield in the Carabao Cup was partly self-inflicted, with eight changes from the XI that started in the stalemate with Everton. All three Liverpool goals from Alexis Mac Allister, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai were spectacular, but Mac Allister’s was the defining one simply by virtue of being the first. In 46 attempts since November 2024, Spurs have not won a match after conceding the opening goal. They are the precise opposite of a team who doesn’t known when it’s beaten.
In the moments after Conor Gallagher’s consolation header, it might have been different. Something, at least in a rudimentary form, is clicking. The best chances came and went, spurned by Lucas Bergvall, straight at Giorgi Mamardashvili, and Mohamed Kudus, who blasted over. Omar Marmoush was denied an equaliser by a miraculous Mamardashvili save; he is no out-and-out striker. There is only one of those available and Dominic Solanke started on the bench.
It is becoming harder to escape the conclusion that in spite of the millions spent, Spurs have made their attack weaker in material terms.
Spurs’ attacking problems
Not so much a case of absent hope, but of absent friends. Amid the glaring lack of a centre-forward, it was the one occasion when Richarlison was eligible to play having been left out of the Premier League squad for asking to leave.
The Richarlison saga is turning ugly (Photo: PA)
Proposed moves to Everton, Turkish side Trabzonspor, and Vasco de Gama in his native Brazil collapsed. Since then, he has been sent to perish in exile, behind a phone screen posting sad replies to whatever attacks Roberto De Zerbi has made upon him this week.
Just six months ago, a triumphant Richarlison rocked up on Merseyside to salvage the first point of Igor Tudor’s brief reign. It would play a part in keeping Spurs up. The determination to freeze him out might have looked a masterstroke if De Zerbi’s side had started the new season better. With results as they are, it increasingly feels like stubbornness. An unedifying spectacle that is hurting Tottenham more than it is healing any dressing room angst. The same could be said of the weekend’s public berating of Mathys Tel, who is playing like a 20-year-old whose confidence is shot to pieces.
Luca Williams-Barnett, another young forward who might have been given his own opportunity in a weakened side, was cast out to the U21s again, on the scoresheet against Dinamo Zagreb just as the senior team were relinquishing their best hope of a trophy. Will Lankshear, who left for Middlesbrough in the summer, was scoring his eighth goal in all competitions this season.
Where Tottenham were wasteful, Liverpool were clinical. Much like Richarlison, Mac Allister is not part of his manager’s long-term plans. There is no comparison as to how the two situations have been handled. It is no secret that Mac Allister is unhappy at not being offered a new contract, so the World Cup winner first struck his revenge in the Champions League against Atletico Madrid and followed that with a goal and assist here.
The other criticism of De Zerbi will come from those who suggest he did not take this competition seriously enough. He has complained of his senior players not being sharp and still several were rested.
The No 10 position ought to be a source of great solace, given it is where Spurs’ most naturally gifted operators sit. Instead Xavi Simons is a long way off returning, James Maddison is not able to play 90 minutes and Mateus Fernandes, when he plays further forward, is similarly being nursed carefully. Whatever the personnel, the same problems remain.
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Two hours before kick-off and the location in which I’m chatting with Sheffield Wednesday’s new chief executive and brand director is fitting.
We are sat in a dugout on the concrete of the North West Corner. Season ticket holders can win tickets to use the dugout for one game through a ballot. They get pre-match hospitality, oversee the players warm up on the pitch from the touchline and then watch the match with a former player with one of the best views in the house.
The symbolism isn’t subtle. Since 2012, this corner of Hillsborough has been out of use; the only change on the grey steps is the relentless push of weeds through ever-widening cracks.
The new initiative is only a temporary measure – one day they would like this corner full of supporters. But in the short term, you find your quick wins where you can, which is the epitome of the new Wednesday.
The good vibes are back at Hillsborough Stadium (Photo: Getty)
Wednesday were my first EFL assignment in each of the last two seasons. One was a 4-0 win over Plymouth Argyle which offered hope of distraction from the Dejphon Chansiri saga. The second was a defeat at Leicester City that reinforced why distraction was only ever a pipe dream.
The experience was far worse for those local journalists who covered it daily (and Alex Miller and Joe Crann deserve recognition for their work), but reporting on Wednesday during the subsequent months was inherently bleak. We almost lost them.
As ever, it was the supporters who suffered most. Some stopped coming at all because they couldn’t bear to see something they cared about so much being mistreated so appallingly and boycott was their only form of control.
Even before then, many arrived just before the match, refused to buy food or merchandise and traipsed out afterwards. That isn’t entertainment or joy; it’s drudgery.
So the shouted chorus of “Hi ho, Sheffield Wednesday” really did hit differently this time. It contained an earthy, defiant edge, but more than that, a demonstrable, raucous pride.
All those times when they didn’t come to sing this song because the owner didn’t deserve their money, or mumbled it when they did come because the owner had killed their spirit. You preserve those emotions somewhere deep inside and let them come out when the day comes.
Related: Wednesday are currently averaging their highest home attendances since the 1960s. All it took was their club almost dying at the hands of a stubborn and desperate man and the subsequent rescue. All they wanted was a reason to come back.
Barry Bannan officially rejoined on a one-year deal this summer (Photo: Getty)
David Bruce is the chief executive and Oscar Chamberlain the brand director. They are merely two important cogs in a new machine led by owner David Storch, the club’s saviour, but their work has been remarkable given the time constraints.
Over £9m has been spent on the stadium and training ground since May to partly atone for the years of neglect.
I am shown around Hirsty’s Bar and the Quixall Club, both newly opened – the number of premium covers has doubled over the course of a summer. In Hirsty’s is more symbolism: “W-E-D-N-E-S-D-A-Y” in large, worn metal letters.
They were found under a stand where they had been left to rot and ruin and presented above the bar – after a quick clean – as a reminder that what happened under Chansiri must never happen again. Everyone can raise a glass to that.
“We came in and thought we’d spend £5m, largely on safety, foundational stuff to make the stadium be a place you want to come to,” Bruce tells The i Paper.
“Flushing the toilets and not getting water coming through the roof. The ability to serve pies and pints in a decent way. But the more you uncovered, the more you saw something you actually wanted to work on too.
“Normally you would get things signed off in the budget at Christmas time, then finalise and start the work when you get to summer. We didn’t start thinking about this stuff until two weeks after the owner owned the club. There’s obviously still bits and pieces getting done. But to get all of that done before the start of the season… I can’t believe how much the team achieved.”
The new ownership has kept its faith in manager Henrik Pedersen (Photo: Getty)
Supporters understandably focus more on on-pitch change and there has been plenty enough of that to keep them excited and busy.
With a squad already decimated thanks to financial emergency, and with severe restrictions over their incoming business (the rules of the takeover meant that they could not spend any money within a transfer deal, including loans, operated under a wage limit and could not reinvest incoming transfer fees), 18 new faces arrived at Hillsborough. Some were certainly eye-catching.
It creates excitement about the team’s potential, but also uncertainty in the truest sense: anyone telling you that they know where Wednesday’s natural position in League One is this season is a fibber.
It must be the mantra at every football club in post-calamity existence: recovery is never a straight line. This is all summed up rather nicely by the home game I attended and its immediate predecessor: 7-2 vs Bromley, 0-0 vs Wigan Athletic.
“This football club has been starved of sustained periods of success for over 40 years irrespective of the level,” says Matt Johnson of Owls Extra, one of my Wednesday confidantes during the bad days.
“I can only speak for myself but I would be happy with a top-half finish given the turnover of the summer, as long as year on year there is direction of travel and a level of transparency.
“That said, the signings and the way the players have talked about where they want to finish has raised expectations, coupled with the start.”
Harry Gray signed for the Owls on a season-long loan in July (Photo: Getty)
The main thing, I think, is to make people fall in love again. These things are all interrelated, evidently. A supporter is more likely to feel energised when their matchday experience is good and the team winning often is a strong strand of that experience.
But the wider point is that this place – and the congregation who fill it – had received insufficient love for years. It’s not that they didn’t believe in the future – they didn’t even know what they were supposed to be believing in at all. Flick that switch and you have something powerful.
We can talk all day in hushed voices and with misty eyes about what makes us fall in love – and back in love – with our football clubs. It is a cathedral of intangibles and invisible forces. More helpful is to deal in practicality. And the key at Hillsborough lies in the power of communication.
That was the most unforgivable aspect of Chansiri’s reign by the end. Supporters became angry with what they knew, but terrified by what they weren’t being told by an owner burying his head in the sand and cutting all lines of communication.
Handily, that creates such a low bar for the new decision-makers that it becomes their greatest weapon in generating goodwill.
“Let’s communicate and let’s communicate frequently,” Bruce says.
“We’re still not where we need to be with certain things on matchday. So we articulate that in the matchday guide. We want to be very open and honest about that.
“I think a lot of clubs will understandably wait until they are almost at the mid-point of the journey.
Well, we want to tell you about the journey now, because the journey is the most exciting part when you’ve experienced what these people have. It’s intoxicating; it might be a little bit messy at times, but that’s OK because we’re together.”
The club are not getting carried away despite a promising start (Photo: Getty)
“There’s also an authenticity there from the owner, an approachability and relatability that is probably quite rare in football,” Chamberlain says.
“They’re quite open to saying, ‘We’re not perfect, we’re not going to get everything right’.
“But what we are going to do is give you the information to ensure that you understand that this is why we took the decision. And if we do make mistakes, we hold our hands up, own it and then be better and do better. Progress that way, rather than trying to make excuses, hide or sweep it under the carpet.”
There are honeymoon periods at football clubs that naturally arrive after they are saved. Wednesday are starting one now. The sun shines brighter, the crowds are noisier, they look forward to matches more fervently and they are able to bask in the glow of security that was absent for too long.
The second stage, often harder to process, is learning to be normal again. That is best reflected in the reaction to setback or misstep and it’s something that Johnson mentions.
When something goes wrong, mistreated fanbases are indoctrinated to view it as the first step along the road to oblivion, even if the perceived offence is relatively minor. That is the legacy of a bad club owner: the emotional scars that their predecessors must tend to.
The only ingredient that matters is time. Time to keep rebuilding. Time to prove that the initial progress was not a distraction tactic or merely a flurry to impress the masses into buying tickets and shirts. Time to create trust. Time to just exist and see what happens without that causing panic or atrophy.
Chamberlain makes the point that 10 years’ work was done in four months and at the end of it there is still 10 years’ work to do. And that process never stops. That’s how you eradicate the fear that became so all-consuming.
Still, there are mileposts along the road. At full-time against Wigan and the grubby 0-0, there were some boos and groans at Hillsborough. Most were at the referee, I’m sure, but some Wednesday supporters were just annoyed at failing to win at home and extend their early lead at the top of League One.
I love everything about every single one of those boos, because they symbolise normality. They weren’t groaning because their club might not exist next month, or because the owner is refusing to engage with a sale process. They groaned because they drew 0-0 against Wigan, which is exactly how it should be.
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The elite of European football have been put on high alert after Manchester United wonderkid JJ Gabriel stunned the club by requesting to leave.
In news that shocked senior figures at Old Trafford, the 15-year-old and his team instead sent a formal request to have his registration at the club cancelled with immediate effect to become a free agent.
United are expected to reject the request mid-season and believe there is plenty of time for the situation to be resolved. Several sources have also claimed the move could be a play by Gabriel’s father, Joe O’Cearuill, to get his son a better contract.
As a result, The i Paper has been told rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona are prepared to do battle for Gabriel’s signature. United’s ultimate nightmare could still play out, with Manchester City understood to be monitoring the situation.
Another source insisted City are somewhat reluctant to sign “superstar” players with baggage like Gabriel has, but the chance to snare arguably United’s greatest-ever academy player is just too great an opportunity to pass up.
More suitors are expected to join the race for a free agent of Gabriel’s talent, should he become available for free at the end of the season.
Why Gabriel wants to leave
Gabriel’s bombshell is understood to be down to a lack of game time, both in pre-season and since the campaign started, with his father, Joe, thought to be the one who is particularly unhappy that other youngsters, such as Shea Lacey, have been preferred for first-team action.
O’Cearuill is a journeyman footballer himself, having briefly played for Arsenal and represented the Republic of Ireland twice. Both he and his son have deleted the majority of their content on social media in the last week, with Gabriel’s Instagram currently blank and any mention of United taken away.
Manchester United have an ‘obsession’ with youth (Photo: Getty)
Gabriel became JJ Gabriel to become more “marketable” as a footballer – part of his father’s drive to push his talented son to stardom.
Despite all the hype, Gabriel was not included in the A-list for Champions League participation and featured for eight minutes for the first-team in pre-season. Sources at United, however, believe not much more could have been done to show a pathway through to the senior team for the young starlet.
Gabriel almost left the club last summer, with a move to Barcelona appearing on the horizon, before CEO Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox stepped in to persuade the teenager and his father that United could map out his pathway to the top.
United’s academy issues
United’s academy is famed for producing some of the club’s greatest-ever players, from Ryan Giggs to Kobbie Mainoo. It remains an enormous source of pride that the club has had an academy graduate in every matchday squad since 1937 – something they have added to their teamsheet graphic ahead of matches this season.
Yet in recent years, there has been a feeling that some youngsters have been getting a chance at United due to the club’s “obsession” with youth – not because the players are good enough.
Harry Amass and Lacey were both handed their Champions League debuts against supposed more navigable opposition that could have seen Gabriel be handed his chance against.
We will now never know whether Gabriel’s moment would have come against Brighton in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup encounter, as he has been removed from the squad list. Any future United first-team involvement will only happen if his long-term future is resolved.
After the start to the season United have had, battling to hang onto their most prized youth asset is not exactly ideal. They had plans to see Gabriel banging in goals for years to come. They won’t give up on these dreams that easily.
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Hull City haven’t so much been this season’s surprise package as the gift that keeps on giving.
Written off before the first ball was kicked, they remain unbeaten in their opening four matches.
They have beaten Manchester United and drawn with Aston Villa – two teams who are competing in this season’s Champions League.
And on Saturday, Chelsea also had to come from behind to nick a draw against them at Stamford Bridge.
Sergej Jakirovic has enjoyed quite a ride since arriving at a club that had staved off relegation to the third tier on the final day of the 2024-25 season. The reaction was underwhelming.
Hull City celebrate winning the Championship play-off final last season (Photo: Getty)
Now, 15 months on, the Bosnian has assumed something approaching cult-like status on Humberside.
And the Tigers are enjoying a boom in popularity in Croatia, where Jakirovic has spent the majority of his career.
NK Sesvete is a club from the second tier of Croatian football. Situated in eastern Zagreb, its modest Josip Radnik stadium holds just over 1000 people.
It was here, shortly after he called time on a playing career that incorporated spells at an extraordinary 20 clubs across Bulgaria, Austria, Croatia, Slovakia and Slovenia, that Jakirovic first cut his teeth in management.
“We have all followed Sergej’s work closely, and we still follow him closely today,” Emanuel Stama, the club’s secretary, tells The i Paper.
“Sergej’s biggest strength is that he has built his career step by step – he’s a coach who has never tried to skip a stage.
“When he arrived, we were going through a period of transition. He knew the club, he had come through our own system – the young players developed very quickly under him.
“He’s able to adapt to the teams he manages – he’s very good at managing people.
“He’s a coach who is able to build good relationships, someone who creates a great atmosphere, and someone who the players follow without question.
“When he was here, it was clear that his coaching career was only going to go one way.”
The 49-year-old won five caps for Bosnia and Herzegovina (Photo: Getty)
That said, given Jakirovic was at Sesvete as recently as 2018, the notion that the 6ft 4in Bosnian would be coaching in the Premier League in just eight years would have been dismissed as the tallest of Balkan tales.
Anyone who has seen Hull play this season will need no convincing that the squad would run through a brick wall for him.
For a lot of those players, he is relatable.
This isn’t a former player who led a gilded existence before entering management, this is a man who has experienced almost everything that football can throw at you.
The most successful spell of his career as a player came during his time at CSKA Sofia in Bulgaria.
He was part of the side that knocked Bayer Leverkusen out in the opening round of the Uefa Cup to make it through to the group stages of a tournament that ended with Middlesborough finishing as runners-up to a Sevilla side containing Enzo Maresca, who scored twice in the final.
The majority of his career, though, was spent in the rather more humble surroundings of second-tier football across Europe.
“He didn’t play for the biggest clubs, he built his career in the lower leagues,” Stama says.
“I think his experiences as a player helped develop the ideas he now has as a coach.”
Hull City are taking the Premier League by storm (Photo: Getty)
Jakirovic was a good enough centre-back to win five caps for his country, the last of which came against Japan in February 2006.
And although Bosnia was one of the few countries he didn’t play league football in, it was at Zrinjski Mostar that he won his first piece of silverware as a coach in 2021-22.
Before heading home, he found himself at Gorica.
And a source at the Croatian club says he sees similarities between the philosophy he has implemented so successfully at Hull, and the one which turned Gorica into one of the Croatian top flight’s toughest propositions.
“There are certainly some similarities, particularly in the intensity and organisation of his teams,” he says.
“Sergej has always wanted his teams to be competitive, aggressive and well organised, while also trying to play on the front foot and take the initiative.
“It’s natural that his approach has evolved as well – but some of those fundamental characteristics of his football are still recognisable.
“One of his biggest strengths was his ability to communicate with players and create a strong team atmosphere.
“He had a very clear idea of how he wanted his team to play and was able to transfer that idea to the players.
“What was particularly impressive was the way he managed to get the team to believe in itself and play with confidence.”
Following his spell at Gorica, he went onto win the Bosnian league by 27 points with Zrinjski before completing the domestic double back in Croatia with Dinamo Zagreb in 2023-24.
“It’s no coincidence that he has achieved results with teams expected to win trophies, and also with teams whose main goal was to stay in the league,” Stama says.
Hull might succeed or fail in their attempts to do both by the end of the season.
But given their start under Jakirovic, it suddenly looks foolish to rule anything out.
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Chief football writer Daniel Storey is spending time this season embedded within Huddersfield Town, given behind-the-scenes, exclusive access throughout the campaign. Feel free to suggest any of your own questions to him on social media…
Sit down for this one: billionaires are usually quite busy people. Accumulating that level of wealth takes a dedication – perhaps even an addiction – to doing two things at once while thinking about another three. Kevin Nagle, Huddersfield Town’s owner since 2023, typically spends one week every six or seven in the UK. But that’s just the start.
For American business tycoons, English football has become a second home. Of the 92 Football League clubs, 31 have either sole, majority or significant US ownership.
The first natural question for any super-wealthy guy from the other side of the world is: why? Why a football club? Why England? Why sign up for the ride?
There is certainly a desire to be part of football heritage in roughly the same way American tourists flock to Stratford-upon-Avon, York or the Tower of London. There is certainly an ultimate (if knowingly optimistic) aim to make money. Nagle points out that businesspeople are businesspeople after all.
But almost all are here because this means something more than just another business venture. As he says: “You get to make a tangible difference to a social institution” and “England is the place to be for football”.
It gets under your skin and that creates an interesting duality. You spend more than 80 per cent of your time 5,000 miles away from the thing you end up thinking about an awful lot more. You have to compartmentalise, but then a football club is an entity with real-time requirements.
“It’s a great question – people ask me that frequently,” says Nagle when I present the quandary. “I mean, I have sports and non-sports teams, so when do you click off and when do you click on? I will say this much: I’m spending most of my time focusing on Huddersfield Town.
“I think it has the most opportunity and I think maybe it has the most needs. That’s a push-pull thing – as you start to see the fruits of your success then you can maybe back off and cede a little more control.”
To me, the fascinating aspect – because I have no idea – is just how much time a billionaire owner spends on club business. This was a summer of great change at Huddersfield Town – new head coach, expanded chief operating officer role, new sporting director, new start.
Put me in that position and I could imagine nothing worse than lacking total oversight, given my investment. That’s probably one of many reasons why I’m not super-rich.
Nagle readily accepts that he is “old school” – and he is 71 – but improvements in technology clearly help. This summer he has spoken to chief operating officer David Threlfall-Sykes at least every other day and often twice or three times a day. The same was true with sporting director Chris Markham, sometimes as a three and alternatively through individual conversations.
But it’s also true that you cannot micromanage or you would drown and your other business interests would suffer. Delegation also makes sense: football club ownership is unusual in that the person with all the money ultimately holds the power but (at least initially) lacks the expertise and knowledge is its own form of power in this arena.
“And that’s why you need confident leaders,” Nagle says. “You need somebody whose qualities are going to lead the group. I’m an owner. I’m not the CEO. I was a CEO for 40 years, so I understand that position. And I’m not just saying it because he’s here [looks over to his COO]: we have that now.
“When I leave here each time, even though we’re really close thanks to technology, it’s the people there that are going to make it work. When I step on the plane to go back to California, I have to ask myself: ‘Is everybody here ready to continue? Did I give them everything that I can give them?’.
“I think that, this year especially, we’ve captured what I believe is the right model. I would say before we were maybe not as much of a team. Now we are. I’ve said to the manager with David and Chris in the room: ‘This is us now’. This year, in the selection process of personnel and other leadership positions, they were involved in the process.”
Nagle admits he is ‘old school’ in terms of his approach to running the club (Photo: Huddersfield Town)
Even while at home in northern California, Nagle begins each day with an email from Threlfall-Sykes containing details of decisions, occurrences and things to ponder. The aim is not for the owner to necessarily decide or even engage, but to know that he is firmly inside the loop.
I’m spending time with Nagle during one of his UK weeks to understand how involved an owner really gets. And it’s fair to say that while he’s here, he’s on club business.
On Tuesday after arriving, Nagle attends an Under-21s fixture in the afternoon and a first-team match in the evening. On Wednesday, there is a filming job for the club’s Foundation, a senior leadership team meeting and two separate meetings about the club’s plans for land around the stadium, including the construction of a hotel.
Thursday brings a meeting with manager Martin Drury and the sporting director to discuss team affairs, a call with a local MP to maintain relationships over project plans, a safeguarding meeting and a session with Huddersfield Unlimited, an agency that promotes business and industry in the town.
There is also Teatime with Kevin, a club initiative where supporters enter a ballot for a two-hour session (and afternoon tea) held in the boardroom with the owner and the chance to ask questions about any aspect of club life, performance and plans for the future. These happen multiple times a season and are genuinely impressive and innovative. I’ve not heard of another EFL club with a foreign owner doing the same.
On Friday, Kevin meets with Threlfall-Sykes for two hours before afternoon meetings with solicitors and internally to discuss the club’s conference and events plans. Saturday is his last day in the country for this visit – he attends an Under-18s fixture in the morning and then immediately heads to the stadium for the Notts County match.
This is the bit I find most interesting. A couple of hours before the match, Nagle walks around the stadium to chat to supporters. A queue of probably 100 people immediately forms, all wanting to have a photograph and speak about club matters – he works his way through them all. Small children in replica shirts know his name and face. I cannot remember that happening when I was a kid.
This anecdote is not repeated to conclude that every owner should do this, although it clearly cheers supporters. It is certainly unusual.
The American also owns Sacramento Republic who play in the second tier of US soccer (Photo: Getty)
I wonder if this urge to meet the people is provoked in three ways: 1) being a face allows people to see the human side and have more patience, 2) Nagle is making up – even is subconsciously – for not being here for six weeks at a time, 3) supporters tend to take significant financial investment as standard but value visibility higher.
I ask him how much being an American, and an outsider, drives that need. Inevitably you get tarred with a brush and only through showing your individual personality and plan can you change that reputation.
“The answer to that is yes,” he says. “I saw that because there were a lot of people on social media, when they were frustrated, they would name call. At the same time, I’m confident enough, because I know where I came from, that I can deal with that and overcome it.
“I’m getting more confident that people know we are here to try to be successful long term. I believe there’s going to be a great return. But what I would say is this: when I leave and depart, I want to make sure that we’ve left Huddersfield Town and its assets in a much better position. And then hopefully they will say ‘That American left us in a much better place than when he bought it’.”
There is also no guarantee of success. Huddersfield Town were relegated in 2024. Everybody wants to get back to the Championship.
But it’s something that Nagle concedes takes some getting used to as a sports owner: you can do everything that you believe is right at the time, invest as much money as you are able and, ultimately, you can still fall short because sport is not quite business. There are fewer logical guarantees.
On Saturday, after the stadium walk, Nagle entered H Town (a bar and space for 600 supporters in the stadium) and was interviewed on stage after stopping repeatedly along the way with more supporters.
H Town is a facility that was built under his ownership inside a stadium that – thanks to his purchase – is now 100 per cent club-owned for the first time. There are new suites and offices in most parts of the stadium.
So far, this is an overriding theme of Nagle’s ownership: huge investment off the pitch for significant, long-term gain and significant investment on the pitch without the huge reward because it is yet to click and because mistakes have been made.
The Terriers are currently second in League One on 12 points after six matches played (Photo: Getty)
With that in mind, I want to know what regrets he has about his time here so far – do billionaires even have regrets? Maybe phrase it a different way: what does he wish he knew three years ago that he does now?
“Well, to be a little bit more patient,” he says. “I do typically tend to be patient, but I was probably impatient for a period here. Also, I should probably have been a little bit more of a student of the game in the early days rather than being a doer. Would that allow me to make some different decisions over the course of the last three years? Maybe.”
Huddersfield Town are craving some consistency, a cousin of patience. During Nagle’s three years and three months, they have employed seven different head coaches. Nobody has reached a year in charge since Carlos Corberan, who left in July 2022. It’s time for that to change. The new off-field team makes sense. That can filter to the pitch and dugout.
It is, to an outsider, a very odd existence. As the privilege of wealth increases, so too does the responsibility and that only doubles when you are an obvious outsider within the environment of a social institution.
Supporters understandably expect the club to be your sole focus, yet that is an impossibility. You want to get everything right; that is an impossibility too. You want feedback (and Nagle is on social media and has openly discussed issues there with fans) but the majority of that discourse is skewed negative.
The only answer, I suppose, is to keep going. The next time I speak to Nagle, more things will have happened: more wins, more hope, more “bumps in the road” as he repeatedly refers to them.
There have been a few over the last three years. But, at 71, you can’t doubt the enthusiasm for it all.
“The one thing is: we’re in this sport to win,” Nagle says. “But at the same time, in the journey, there are a number of other things that you can do. The investment has been far, far greater than any return so far. But I feel the community needs economic vitality. We can help with that.
“Even though I’m not here very often, we want to get more involved, and we are starting to get much more involved in the community. I’ve really pretty much done that my whole life, whether it’s been in my own business or as a member of the community. I think economic prosperity is really important.
“Look at the big picture: Huddersfield Town is always going to be here. It was here before me, and it’s going to be here after. And that’s why I reiterate: we want to leave it better off. We need to help Huddersfield too. There’s a lot of fantastic things that are going on here, but we need to elevate it. And we can. And we will.”
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