Kieran Maguire tips GSB to accept '£800m' West Ham takeover bid after latest

Kieran Maguire tips GSB to accept '£800m' West Ham takeover bid after latest

Kieran Maguire

Kieran joined the Football Insider squad in January 2021 and provides clarity for readers on the occasionally bewildering world of football finance. He is an author, university lecturer and all-round spreadsheet boffin. His 2020 book The Price of Football is a seminal work on the economic side of the beautiful game.

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West Ham owners GSB would likely accept a takeover offer in the region of £800million.

That is the view of finance boffin Kieran Maguire, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the latest developments involving PAI Capital.

The investment firm are, as per the Telegraph on 22 August, readying a second bid after seeing a £400m offer rejected in February.

As per West Ham CEO Karren Brady's official website, the club is currently valued at a whopping £800m.

If sold at that price, the deal would surpass the £790m Glazer family's 2005 takeover of Man United as the most expensive in English football history.

And Maguire believes that the powers that be at the London Stadium would swoon if PAI stumped up that sort of cash.

"This [£800m valuation] was a couple of years ago," he told Football Insider correspondent Adam Williams.

"I thought the £800m valuation was very good for a club that was not participating regularly in Europe at the time.

"I think if they were offered close to £800m again then they would seriously consider accepting because the market has changed.

"Where we are in terms of European football, all of the money is in the Champions League.

"The glass ceiling that has been created by the Super League clubs in terms of the distribution of money makes it very difficult.

"Even if a new ownership came in who are ambitious, West Ham is a traditional football club.

"Therefore, they don't tend to attract the prawn sandwich brigade, who are more likely to pay premium prices to watch.

"So that particular income stream isn't going to be there, adding to the valuation."

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