Phil Sumbler
The Swans this week announced new investment into the club with the news that Nigel Morris had invested £10m into the club in return for a 25% stake diluting the shareholding of all other shareholders which of course includes the Supporters Trust.
Morris’s investment was confirmed and lodged at companies house with the statement from the man himself reading “I’m delighted to have invested in Swansea City. The club has superb facilities and is front and centre of the community. The supporters are the most important part of any club, and I have been taken aback by the passion and integrity shown by the many people I have already met on a number of recent visits to matches.”
Morris is part of a group that includes new Chairman Andy Coleman and Brett Cravatt who is yet to confirm his shareholding but we hear that his investment is seemingly bigger than the one provided by Morris which could leave the three of them between them with a controlling stake in the club.
There were rumours at the very start of this new investment that it was more sale than investment and that could well turn out to be the case with Morris and Cravatt holding more than a 51% stake in the club (assuming the bigger investment for Cravatt is correct) leaving the current ownership group of Levien, Kaplan, Silverstein and the rest of the crew more in the background as a direct result?
Levien and Kaplan in particular have been very much conspicuous by their absence since relegation from the Premier League in 2018 whilst Silverstein was active at the front end of his involvement but himself seems to have taken more of a back seat since his recent social media exchanges with fans. It is open for debate as to whether that was a conscious or forced decision to do so.
The arrival of Morris and Cravatt feels like good news although, as with all things ownership, Swansea fans will naturally take a slightly cyncial view on what the future may hold for the club and their involvement.
The amount of investment (which will exceed £20m between Morris and Cravatt alone) should not be underplayed and whilst a large percentage of that will be used to keep the club sustainable as we continue to battle against the running costs we have it is an investment in the club that pretty much eclipses anything we have seen from the current ownership group since they bought the club in 2016.
It is not yet known when the Cravatt investment will be confirmed but it is expected to be relatively imminent now that Morris’ own investment has been confirmed. And of course it puts pay to the rumours that the deal for investment had stalled due to a change in terms from the majority ownership. Rumours that could have been credible given that there is a track record of just that!
Like Morris, Cravatt has taken in games at the end of the season with speculation rife that he was at the Cardiff game that completed the double double at the end of last season.
Good news in the pipeline? Feels so anyway!
I’ll hold my breath on transfer money
I hope you meant you won’t hold your breath
It’s the next stage of share sales amongst the boys, come on jacks wake up and smell the coffee, the last two yanks and hedge fund has rung us out like a sponge, now there is not much left to sell on, so delete Thayer stake in the club by a share sale NOT INVESTMENT! Then leave the flack to the new majority share holders when they implemented the last grab. Waiting for the first sales in the coming weeks with the same old tail of we need to balance the books to go forward. If these next investors are genuine let’s start with keeping what players we have, and back Thayer next management team to make a genuine challenge this coming season. Ps I’m not holding my breath either.