Billionaire Jahm Najafi leading €3.5b bid for Spurs - second largest takeover in PL history

Tottenham Hotspur are reportedly set to become the target of an ambitious takeover bid from a group of investors led by Iranian-American billionaire Jahm Najafi, according to the Financial Times. The publication claims that Najafi - who is chair of MSP Sports Capital - is preparing a bid of $3.75 billion (€3.5b) to buy the Premier League club. With $3b going towards the equity of the club and a further $750m going towards paying off debts on the club’s books. 

The North London club are reportedly seen as an ideal investment for the group, following years of prudent financial stability in an era which has seen many of Tottenham’s rivals outspend them in the transfer market. For example, over the course of the last 10 years, Spurs’ net spend on player transfers stands at just €397m - which places them eighth among English clubs for total net spend in that period and considerably behind the likes of Liverpool (€445m), Arsenal (€786m), Chelsea (€970m), as well as Manchester City (€997m) and Manchester United (€1.2b). 

However, the club’s reluctance to splash the cash in the transfer window has come at a cost, with Tottenham’s last league title coming in 1961, with a solitary League Cup trophy in 2008 standing as the only real piece of silverware won since the club’s current owner, Joe Lewis, and chairman Daniel Levy took over in 2000. Such an audacious takeover from a wealthy source could perhaps hint at that quickly changing, if a deal does come to pass in the coming months. 

Where does this takeover rank in English football history?

The €3.5b figure that Najafi & Co. are reportedly prepared to pay for Spurs will undoubtedly raise a number of eyebrows around English football, considering where it now places Tottenham in the hierarchy of the Premier League. To date, the only takeover of an English club that cost more than the proposed figure was Todd Boehly’s purchase of Chelsea, which came in at a reported £4.25b (€4.8b). 

Even once we discount the money put aside to pay off the club’s outstanding debt, the MSP bid for Spurs would be the second largest takeover bid ever made for an English club. Far surpassing the Glazer family’s eventual takeover of Man Utd in 2005, which stood at £790m at the time and remains the second largest ever takeover in English football history for now. Despite the club’s lack of silverware in the modern era, the FT reports that the value put on Spurs at this present time comes down to the club’s “shrewd” financial management under Lewis and Levy, as well as regular qualification for the Champions League and the construction of the new Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in 2019 in the heart of London.