Autobiography

facilities at their stadiums and the areas in
which the clubs are situated. For example,
Newcastle have one of the biggest fan bases in
England but do not generate as much money
as some of the clubs below them on the list,
like Tottenham and Aston Villa, because they
are in a less affluent area. There are always
exceptions with clubs that punch above their
weight, yet time and again the league tables
and major trophy winners show familiar
patterns.
For the majority of clubs, the main hope of
changing their position lies in finding owners
wealthy enough to subsidise them. One of the
best examples of this is Dave Whelan at Wigan
Athletic, who has done wonders to both reach
the Premier League and survive in it. I don’t
think I am being disrespectful in stating that
without Dave’s support they would still be a
League One or Two club.
Of course, no matter how much money one is
prepared to pour into a club, there is always
liable to be someone with deeper pockets
coming into the English football scene to raise
the bar even higher – as even Chelsea’s
Roman Abramovich has recently found with the
arrival of the Sheikh Mansour regime at
Manchester City. For other club owners who
are anxious about keeping expectations of
them at a reasonable level, these super
wealthy men have a lot to answer for. The
same goes for the late Sir Jack Walker, who
could be described as the trail-blazer for such
mega-rich patrons in English football, and his
remarkable transformation of Blackburn
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