The money behind Sheffield United: How the club's owners built their fortune | OneFootball

As COH Sports come under pressure from Sheffield United supporters, we looked at how the Blades owners make their money.

COH Sports completed their takeover of Sheffield United in December, but it is fair to say it has been a turbulent first nine months for the Blades under their ownership.

After a lengthy search for a buyer that included multiple failed takeover attempts, Prince Abdullah's time as Sheffield United owner came to an end in December when he sold the club to COH Sports, a consortium led by Steve Rosen and Helmy Eltoukhy, for a reported fee of £111 million.

The Blades were in the middle of an automatic promotion battle when the takeover was completed, and COH Sports certainly made a positive early impression at Bramall Lane as they splashed out £10 million on striker Tom Cannon as their first major transfer deal in January, while they also funded the loan signings of Harry Clarke, Rob Holding, Hamza Choudhury and Ben Brereton Diaz.

COH Sports also tied then-manager Chris Wilder down to a new contract that was due to run until the summer of 2028, but the move did not have the desired effect as United missed out on automatic promotion following a late-season collapse before losing 2-1 to Sunderland in the play-off final.

Just weeks after the defeat at Wembley, COH Sports made the controversial decision to part company with Wilder due to disagreements over their new data-driven recruitment model, and after less than a year in charge, the United board are coming under increasing scrutiny from supporters after a nightmare start to life under new head coach Ruben Selles.

One of the biggest frustrations of the Blades fanbase is the lack of communication from those at the top of the club, and as pressure mounts on the hierarchy, we looked at how they made their fortune.

How Sheffield United owners Steve Rosen and Helmy Eltoukhy made their money

Rosen is currently the chairman of private equity firm Resilience Capital Partners, which he co-founded alongside Bassem Mansour in 2001 at the age of 30.

According to the company's website, Resilience Capital Partners focus on companies with headquarters in North America with operations anywhere in the world, and they claim to have $25 to $250 million in revenue, with equity investments of $10 to $75 million in a host of different industries, including industrial manufacturing, distribution, business services, minerals and mining and transportation logistics.

However, Resilience Capital Partners is not the only business venture Rosen is involved in, as he is also the co-founder of Zanite Corporation, which focuses on investments in aviation, aerospace and defence, and venture capital firm Gammite Ventures, as well as serving as the manager of private investment firm Azurite Management LLC.

Eltoukhy is the co-founder and CEO of California-based company Guardant Health, who produce tests to detect cancer from blood samples.

After studying electrical engineering before going on to achieve a Master's and a doctorate, Elhoukhy co-founded a company called Avantome with Mostafa Ronaghi in 2007 after working at Stanford University's Genome Technology Centre.

Eltoukhy and Ronaghi then sold Avantome to Illumina for $60 million just 12 months later, and he then spent four years working in their research labs before setting up Guardant Health with AmirAli Talasaz.

Guardant Health now has a market cap valued in the billions, while Eltoukhy himself is believed to have vast personal wealth, with US trading source Benzinga estimating his current net worth to be $439 million, based on his shareholding in Guardant.

Steve Rosen and Helmy Eltoukhy are under pressure after big Ruben Selles gamble

Rosen and Eltoukhy have clearly been incredibly successful in business, but they are quickly finding out that the football world is a very different environment.

After defeat in the play-off final, the Sheffield United board released a statement in May insisting that they remained committed to bringing "consistent top-flight football to the city of Sheffield", but their decision-making over the summer has seen them come under fire.

The decision to part company with Wilder was already unpopular enough with Blades supporters, but the poor start to the season under Selles has only increased the discontent at Bramall Lane, with some already calling for another managerial change.

In an attempt to kickstart their season, the United hierarchy provided Selles with strong backing in the transfer market, with Mihail Polendakov, Tyler Bindon, Ben Godfrey, Nils Zatterstrom, Japhet Tanganga, Mark McGuinness, Ben Mee, Djibril Soumare, Alex Matos, Tahith Chong, Ehije Ukaki, Chiedozie Ogbene, Louie Barry and Danny Ings all arriving during the course of the summer window.

After the sales of star players such as Anel Ahmedhodzic, Vini Souza and Kieffer Moore, the spending has at least eased some of the criticism of the owners' transfer policy, but it remains to be seen whether the late flurry of spending will be enough to turn the club's fortunes around.