Liverpool and Bezos next? Ranking the first signings of major Premier League takeovers | OneFootball

With news that Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos is part of a consortium looking to purchase a piece of Liverpool, we’re reminding fans that big-money owners do not always mean excellent signings.

Fans can often get overexcited by the arrival of new owners, thinking that it will herald the start of something special, but history suggests the first signing of a new era can be rather underwhelming.

So with the Amazon billionaire preparing to click check-out on his order, here’s the first signings of six of the highest-profile Premier League takeovers ranked.

6) Sheikh Mansour’s £210m takeover of Manchester City in 2008 – Robinho

City are now credited with having one of the most sophisticated transfer strategies in world football and rarely make a bad signing, but that was not the case when Sheikh Mansour and Abu Dhabi first came in.

They parted with £210m to take over the east Manchester club and wanting to make a name for themselves; they needed a signing that would boost their PR as much as it would improve them on the pitch. They settled on Robinho.

With his current club Real Madrid going after Cristiano Ronaldo, Robinho agreed to make a £32.5m move to City. Things didn’t start well when he mistakenly said he was joining Chelsea.

His first season was decent enough with 14 goals in 31 Premier League appearances as City finished 10th but in his second season he picked up an injury and only managed 12 games all year.

He was shipped off on loan to Santos in January and never played for City again.

5) BlueCo’s £4.25bn takeover of Chelsea in 2022 – Raheem Sterling

While BlueCo’s first signing was technically goalkeeper Eddie Beach, he never made an appearance for the London club and to be honest, he could walk past us in the street and we would not recognise him. Even if he was wearing a keeper shirt with BEACH 1 on the back.

So we are going to skip over him and land on Raheem Sterling. BlueCo wanted their first shiny new toy and with City suspecting Sterling’s time at the top was coming to an end, they sanctioned a £47.5m sale, just £1.5m less than what they paid. We told you City were good at this now.

Sterling’s stats for the club were not bad with 35 goal contributions in 81 appearances, but they did not warrant the £325k-a-week deal Chelsea gave to him. Not to mention he reached the ‘legs gone’ phase very early given his young start.

From there, he became an unwanted nuisance. Arsenal took him on loan for a season before Sterling was relegated to the Chelsea bomb squad.

He eventually left Chelsea in January of this year.

4) Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund’s £300m takeover of Newcastle United in 2021 – Kieran Trippier

Geordies celebrated outside St. James’ Park when the news was confirmed of Mike Ashley’s departure but hopes of a Kylian Mbappe-level signing proved to be unfounded.

In a world of PSR and inflated valuation, splashing the cash is not something every club can do, despite how many billions their owners may be worth.

Instead, the first signing under PIF was Kieran Trippier for £12m who, if not the kind of name fans will flock to get printed on the back of their shirts, proved to be a very good bit of business.

Trippier embodied the hardworking attitude that future manager Eddie Howe’s team would be built on. He made 160 appearances for the club before departing this summer.

3) Stan Kroenke’s £731m takeover of Arsenal in 2018 – Gabriel Martinelli

American billionaire Stan Kroenke’s takeover of Arsenal began in 2008 but he gained full control in 2018 after he bought out fellow shareholder Alisher Usmanov.

All in all, Kroenke spent around £731m to gain ownership of the London club and the first permanent signing he made as sole owner came  the following summer.

Gabriel Martinelli arrived from Brazilian club Ituano for £6m and considering he is still there seven years later, that has to be seen as a good bit of business.

At one point, Martinelli looked like a player who could one day be considered amongst the best in the world but his trajectory plateaued, leaving him to be a competent if sometimes ineffective winger.

Arsenal may look to ship him on this summer but his signing, especially for a relatively low fee, should be considered a success.

Also that window, Arsenal spent £72m on Nicolas Pepe but rather more crucially, William Saliba arrived for £27m.

2) The Glazer family’s £370m takeover of Manchester United in 2005 – Edwin van der Sar

The Glazer family completed their takeover in the summer of 2005 and it was a period in which United signed some of the staples of their team for years to come.

Park Ji-sung, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra arrived but the first signing of the Glazer reign was Edwin van der Sar, one of the best goalkeepers in the club’s history.

He was between the sticks for four Premier League titles, two League Cups and the 2008 Champions League success, winning the Premier League Golden Glove in the 2008-09 season.

1) Fenway Sports Group’s £300m takeover of Liverpool in 2010 – Luis Suarez (and Andy Carroll)

Fenway Sports Group took over Liverpool in October so they had to wait a little while before they made their first signing.

In January, they dispensed with Roy Hodgson and replaced him with Kenny Dalglish and gave the Anfield legend a couple of new toys to play in the form of Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll.

It seems mad looking back now but Carroll was the headline news that day and yet it was the Uruguayan who would go on to be far more influential.

He practically carried Liverpool to a title bid under Brendan Rodgers and yes, he may have bit Branislav Ivanovic and said something unsavoury to Patrice Evra, but Suarez remains one of the club’s best ever transfers. Even earning them a £52.2m profit after his sale to Barcelona.

Carroll was at the other end of the scale. He scored 11 goals in his 58 games with the club and his injury record disrupted any chance of an extended run in the team. He moved to West Ham on loan in the 2012-13 season before making the move permanent a year later.