Daniel Kretinsky 'holds the cards' after Amanda Staveley's West Ham deal agreed - Boardroom expert

Daniel Kretinsky remains in the driving seat to become the majority shareholder at West Ham United in the coming months.

That is according to former Everton chief executive Keith Wyness, speaking exclusively to Football Insider, who believes that the Czech investor is still best-placed to buy the club in full, despite Amanda Staveley's imminent investment.

Staveley and her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi recently agreed a deal with Vanessa Gold to buy her 25.1 per cent stake in the club for £150million, as her consortium beat Kretinsky to the deal.

However, Wyness believes that Kretinsky has the financial power to match any offer from Staveley for David Sullivan's controlling 38.8 per cent stake, putting him in the prime position to secure the full takeover.

Sullivan recently made it clear that he is hoping to sell West Ham once the club is back in the Premier League, and pass control over to a new majority owner.

The 73-year-old was present at the London Stadium for the Hammers' 3-1 Carabao Cup win over Portsmouth on Saturday, despite being advised to stay away from games.

Daniel Kretinsky opted against matching Amanda Staveley

Everton’s former chief Wyness – who served as CEO at Goodison Park between 2004 and 2009 and now runs a football consultancy advising elite clubs – believes that Kretinsky would have had the chance to match Staveley's offer for Gold's shares, but clearly opted against it.

However, he expects it to be a totally different story on the Royal Mail tycoon's part when it comes to Sullivan's controlling shares.

Speaking on the latest edition of Football Insider's Inside Track podcast, Wyness made it clear that Staveley's deal doesn't change the fact that Kretinsky "holds the cards" in terms of a takeover.

"Apparently there was still some toing and froing because, for Vanessa Gold to have sold the shares, there was a right of first refusal, I think, for Kretinsky," he said.

"There may still be some clouds around whether that was executed correctly or not. At this stage, for them going public, you've got to believe that the lawyers have resolved that and that Gold has been allowed to sell the shares at the price that trumped Kretinsky's offer. 

"Although he had a chance to equal it, he's obviously decided not to. Now, that would mean that there's then the big key factor of the Sullivan shares, which are 38.8 per cent.

"Now, that's where Kretinsky, I think, has been quite clever, because while he may not have decided to pay the fee to match the Staveley bid for the Gold shares, he could match anything in terms of the Sullivan shares, and therefore he would pay the control premium. 

"So Kretinsky, to me, still holds all the cards in this deal going forward."

West Ham preparing third bid for Arne Engels

Football Insider revealed earlier this week that West Ham are preparing a third bid to try and sign Celtic midfielder Arne Engels.

The Hammers have seen their opening two offers for the Belgian knocked back, with the second offer understood to have come in at around the £20m mark.

Celtic rejected a £25m bid from Nottingham Forest back in January, and are trying to drive the price for the 22-year-old up as much as possible this summer.

However, there is an exectation at the London Stadium that the Bhoys will sell up once their valuation for Engels is reached.