Three Men Who You Wouldn't Want To Own Your Football Club...

Well there's all this talk of how Newcastle owner has made the worst move since Eve bit the apple. He has sacked the now Martyr-like figure of Chris Hughton. He's also fired Sam Allardyce and Kevin Keegan, I mean I'm sure Newcastle fans weren't torn up about the former, but the latter is revered at St James Park to almost a Messianic level. This guy is firing more people than Sir Alan Sugar, the thing is Sir Alan does it to seperate the wheat from the chaff. When it comes to football clubs they can only thrive with stability.

He has also brought in his equally unpopular cronies in the form of Derek Llambias, Dennis Wise and Tony Jimenez. This made him increasingly unpopular with the clubs supporters. Now enough of that, this article is an "it could always be worse" moment for Newcastle fans. There have been many people who have described as bad owners, now its time to have a look at some of the other contenders for worst owners of a football club...

Peter Ridsdale, Leeds United 1997-2003 

Okay, this guy wasn't bad like the traditional malevolent owner who stalks the corridors of the stadium striking the fear of potential job loss into the manager and players' hearts. He was one who "lived the dream" with Leeds as he was famously quoted as saying, a but left a nightmare for everyone else associated with the club to clear up.

Subs: Robinson, Duberry, Kelly, Matteo, Wilcox, Bakke, McPhail, Smith, Bridges, Keane

The thing is under Ridsdale Leeds built one of the best young sides the Premier League has seen. They even reached the Champions League Semi Finals. But the problems Ridsdale caused were financial, building this side Leeds spent way beyond their means.

Ridsdale allowed manager David O'Leary spent huge sums of money on transfers fees. Of the money spent £60 Million Pounds were borrowed, the repayment of this money was based on future income from gate receipts. This plan was heavily reliant on the club qualifying constantly for the Champions League, which Leeds failed to do.

Once they'd failed to qualify for the Champions League the season following their Semi-Final exploits, the dream turned into a nightmare. The club couldn't afford to keep up repayments for their loans, were forced to sell their star names and by 2007 they were languishing in the third tier of English football. When the blamed was pinned on Ridsdale he denied that this was the case to the disdain of Leeds fans.

Someone once said "It's better to burn brightly for half as long than to be a dim lingering light" I'm not sure if Leeds United fans would agree.

Jesus Gil, Athletico Madrid 1987-2004

Before you ask... Yes that's him and not an aging extra from an eighties rap video...

Some of you might not have heard of him if you don't follow Spanish football, but this guy makes Mike Ashley look like Employer of the Century. He was the President of Athletico Madrid for 17 years and in those years he managed to sack 39 managers... Yes that's right 37 managers!! If he was in English football I'm sure he would've given the LMA many sleepless nights.
I mean just look at the list of managers, in 1988 he sacked 5 managers, this is more than Manchester United and Arsenal put together in the last twenty years. He did win a league and cup double in 1996 and went on to parade these through Madrid on the back of an elephant... Yes in case you were wondering this isn't a relative of the proverbial "elephant in the room" but a real one... 

Some of his most infamous moments include him threatening to kill some of the Athletico squad, he was quoted as saying "I mean it, some of them don't deserve to live". Compare that to Alex Ferguson's much vaunted hair dryer treatment.

He is also known for his xenophobic tendencies, just before a Champions League Quarter Final against Ajax in the 96-97 season he referred to the opponents as "FC Congo" due to the racial make up of their side. Now who would want this guy to be at the helm of their club?

Luciano Gaucci, Perugia 1994-2004

So far we've done the financially incompetent and the ruthless autocrat, now time for the... Well frankly utterly mental. Now Italian football has had its fair share of bad moments i.e. Calciopoli and South Africa 2010, but this guy is as crazy as they come.

Okay where do I start? Lets start at Korea and Japan 2002. Its the 117th minute of a tense and heated fixture, the score is 1-1 between Italy and South Korea. Then up pops Ahn Jung Hwan scoring the golden goal which knocks Italy out of the tournament. What makes this relevant is that Ahn is on the books for Perugia. Now the response from the clubs owner Luciano Gaucci was to say:

"That gentleman will never set foot in Perugia again. He was a phenomenon only when he played against Italy.
I am a nationalist and I regard such behaviour not only as an affront to Italian pride but also an offence to a country which two years ago opened its doors to him. I have no intention of paying a salary to someone who has ruined Italian soccer."

Gaucci terminated Ahn Jung Hwans swiftly and ensured that he would never play for his club again. Now that is what most people would call an unfair dismissal. Could you imagine if Manchester United terminated Cristiano Ronaldo's contract after is winking antics at the same World Cup? Or more recently Arsenal letting Andrey Arshavin go for his support of the Russian World Cup bid which put England's hopes to host the tournament to a miserable end?

The next move of craziness from this rather strange Italian gentleman was to try sign two female players for his side, Hanna Ljungberg and Birgit Prinz. Now I'm all for women's football, I mean their is a women's World Cup which is on FIFA's calender and leagues all over the world. But to think about signing two female players to play in Serie A at that time possibly the toughest league in the world is actually quite absurd. In the end his plans failed and common sense prevailed... Which is quite unusual for Gaucci.

He also signed Al-Saadi al-Gadaffi, if that name doesn't ring any bells, he's the son of the eccentric Libyan leader Colonel Gadaffi. Al Saadi went on to play one game for Perugia and more controversially also failed a drug test when nandralone was found in his system. He was also on the board of rivals Juventus and head of the Libyan Football Federation. Now that is a strange signing unless you're trying to make influential friends.

Conclusion
 

Yes its true, even he can point and laugh at someone...

Well after that Newcastle fans you could have worse than Mr Ashley... You could have the "money grows on trees dream chaser" who could send your club into a financial black hole. Or maybe you could have the ruthless autocrat who has sacked three quarters of the worlds population and stayed in power for 17 years. Or maybe you could've ended up with someone more suited to a mental institution rather than a footballing one? Well I'll leave you to chew on that and for now, that's all folks...