Charlie Methven makes Leicester City claim that could prevent takeover bid | OneFootball

Charlie Methven has claimed a Leicester City takeover could be prevented by the £140m valuation owner Khun Top has put on the League One club.

Former Sunderland director Charlie Methven has suggested that Khun Top’s £140m valuation of Leicester City could prevent a takeover of the League One side.

The Foxes have endured a turbulent few years, having dropped from the Premier League to League One.

Leicester are gearing up for life in the third tier for just the second time in their history, with Russell Martin the man tasked with winning promotion at the first attempt.

Whilst he is inheriting a squad that is packed full of talent by League One standards, the club are in a difficult position overall, and it will be interesting to see how the squad looks after the transfer deadline.

As well as that, there has been uncertainty surrounding the ownership at Leicester, as recent reports have claimed that Khun Top is ‘exploring selling the football club’.

Action Images

Charlie Methven makes claim about Leicester City valuation amid takeover talk

Of course, any takeover process is always complicated, and there’s no suggestion that any credible buyer has emerged, as it’s still very early days.

However, speaking to the BSLB podcast, Methven, who has worked in football with several clubs, has claimed that the asking price set by Khun Top could be a major stumbling block, according to ‘rumours’ in the industry.

“The rumour in the market is that his initial position is that he wants £140m. I can’t say that’s a fact, but that’s the rumour.

“To give you some idea of where the market is as a whole, and, by the way, the bad news is that there are lots of clubs on the market right now, which is really unhelpful, as you’ve got a supply and demand imbalance in favour of supply. There are more clubs on the market than people looking to buy.

“Generally speaking, a big club towards the top end of the Championship would normally be valued at around £100m. That’s about the norm, and I’m not talking about parachute payment clubs, which in theory you are, but you aren’t.

“So, if I was to give you an example, and not to say they’re on the market, but if Middlesbrough were, they’d be around £100m.

“The more mid-table Championship clubs are around 2x revenue, so around £70m, a Bristol City kind of club. The smaller clubs who are established in the Championship are around £50m. The very largest League One clubs are around £35m, like Ipswich and Sunderland were.

“Let’s assume Leicester are a big club in League One, broadly comparable to Sunderland, you’d be looking at around £35m in the current market, and given Leicester’s very recent history, you might, as there are more buyers aware of that, you might, debt free, get around £40m.”

This comes on the back of finance expert Kieran Maguire describing Leicester’s situation as a ‘mess’, with the club having borrowed money from investment banking firm Macquarie regularly in recent years.

Leicester City will need a long-term plan in place to improve as a club

Firstly, as Methven reiterates, this is not a fact, so it would be unfair to criticise Khun Top too much over the valuation until we know exactly what it is.

Having said that, if it is £140m, or anywhere near that, it’s clearly going to be a massive obstacle to any potential deal, and it would suggest that nothing will be finalised in the short-term.

You can understand why Khun Top would want to recoup as much money as possible, but the reality is that, as outlined above, there are much better opportunities out there for investors than Leicester at that price, even when you take into account the facilities that they boast.

Obviously, the situation would change if the club won promotion back to the Championship, and they do start this campaign as favourites to go up, so it would be no surprise if Khun Top waited and assessed the market again in 12 months if there are no serious bidders.

Either way, off-field uncertainty isn’t going to help Leicester, as the financial situation they’ve found themselves in isn’t going to be solved overnight.

Instead, they need a long-term plan in place, no matter who is running the club, and there needs to be a clear strategy to develop players and ensure they can still pick up results as they look to eventually return to the Premier League.