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Ken Anderson has revealed his reasons for swapping the high life of Monaco for the muck and nettles of League One with Wanderers.
Still jet-lagged after a spell trotting the globe, the co-owner’s bright smile and smart suit smacked rather more of the club’s Premier League past than their rather more austere future.
A latecomer to the deal to buy the club from Eddie Davies, little is really known about the Londoner aside from the scraps of unreliable information to be garnered online.
Anderson’s background is in accountancy, his work as a football agent included hands in the deal that took Geoffery Kondogbia and Anthony Martial from Monaco to Inter Milan and Manchester United respectively, and the Inner Circle business he co-founded with his wife Patricia promises its clients a “unique and exceptional global networking experience.”
All very exotic. But quite why he pitched in alongside Dean Holdsworth – whose ties to Wanderers are much more defined – to buy an ailing Lancashire club playing third-tier football for the first time in 23 years is much more of a mystery.
“I think the truth is straightforward,” Anderson explained in his first media interview this week. “Dean had been working on this since October or November. He had a lot of people let him down at the last minute.
“I have known him for a number of years, had bought and sold clubs for people previously, and when he approached me in January we knew the biggest problem we had was time.”
At that stage in the game Anderson was not involved financially – with Holdsworth’s partner, a UK-based Indian businessman, supplying the other half of the cash intended to complete the takeover. That, however, was about to change.
“We had got to within a week of doing the deal,” he said. “None of the people had come in with the money – I think that’s common knowledge – so we pulled out completely.
“We decided at the last minute not to proceed but at that point I turned from broker to principle because what I had seen in that period is something that I thought had a lot of potential.
“I genuinely think that if we could have done the deal then we would have stood a better chance of staying up. But for one reason or another it dragged on.”
Anderson’s name has cropped up in takeovers at Southampton, Liverpool and Reading but this is the first time he has taken a hands-on role.
The Macron Stadium and its associated hotel and conference suite played a major part in convincing Anderson the business can be a longer-term success.
“The other clubs I was purely broker, I ever intended to get involved so this one was very different,” he said. “I think this one is also entirely different to most of the clubs I have been involved in with the exception of Reading, the challenge here and the opportunity here is that you are not talking purely about a football club.
“It is a football club and like most clubs they only have got 25 or 30 weekends a year that they are being used.
“If you look at the utilisation of the stadium in those cases it’s very rare that it is being used whereas here, because of the hotel and the conference centre, it’s a 365 days of the year operation and there are a lot more people involved.
“If you look at the figures the non-football operations are now nearly on par with the football income in League One.
“It's no longer a separate side business that is a small business as part of the football club.
“The revenues that the hotel and the events are bringing in are almost equivalent to what football brings in. That's probably a benefit for us and a bonus which other clubs haven't got.”
Wanderers fans have given Anderson’s arrival a cautious welcome. His involvement at Reading was long concluded by the time the Royals found themselves on the brink of administration following an ill-fated takeover by Russian Anton Zingarevich, while similarly concerning tales have swept around regarding his involvement with Michael Wilde’s short-lived spell in charge of Southampton.
His words at the start of the week have, however, been well-received and together with Holdsworth the new ownership is starting to win over a few hearts and minds.
“When I was at Reading first time when the Russian was involved they were third from bottom we went on an incredible run and won the league,” Anderson recalled. “Nobody expected us to reach the play-offs yet alone win the league.
“It’s a major job here, you have seen what was on various posters and banners at the weekend.
“What they were saying was completely correct. People have not performed to their ability.
“My job is now to try and help the fans believe again and work with us.
“We are going to look at the supporters and try and get the last few games ending on a positive note so that we start next season on a positive note.”
Anderson insists the number of “nasty surprises” have been minimal since getting a closer look at the club’s accounts in the weeks following the takeover.
On the pitch, however, the disappointment has continued and relegation will be an issue that has to be tackled head-on by the new co-owners.
“We all hoped it wouldn’t happen,” he said. “We carried on in hope but in the end it was inevitable. We were relying on winning the last five or six games and other teams losing theirs too.
“If we look at a couple of other teams in the league, like Rotherham they have had a very good run and probably look safe.
“Someone asked me if I was disappointed but ‘gutted’ is probably the better word.
“But it gives us an opportunity to plan for next season earlier than we would have been able to.
“The teams that get automatic promotion can start planning and bringing in players etc but the play-off ones have to wait until after the final.
“We have already started looking at what is going to happen next season.”
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Still jet-lagged after a spell trotting the globe, the co-owner’s bright smile and smart suit smacked rather more of the club’s Premier League past than their rather more austere future.
A latecomer to the deal to buy the club from Eddie Davies, little is really known about the Londoner aside from the scraps of unreliable information to be garnered online.
Anderson’s background is in accountancy, his work as a football agent included hands in the deal that took Geoffery Kondogbia and Anthony Martial from Monaco to Inter Milan and Manchester United respectively, and the Inner Circle business he co-founded with his wife Patricia promises its clients a “unique and exceptional global networking experience.”
All very exotic. But quite why he pitched in alongside Dean Holdsworth – whose ties to Wanderers are much more defined – to buy an ailing Lancashire club playing third-tier football for the first time in 23 years is much more of a mystery.
“I think the truth is straightforward,” Anderson explained in his first media interview this week. “Dean had been working on this since October or November. He had a lot of people let him down at the last minute.
“I have known him for a number of years, had bought and sold clubs for people previously, and when he approached me in January we knew the biggest problem we had was time.”
At that stage in the game Anderson was not involved financially – with Holdsworth’s partner, a UK-based Indian businessman, supplying the other half of the cash intended to complete the takeover. That, however, was about to change.
“We had got to within a week of doing the deal,” he said. “None of the people had come in with the money – I think that’s common knowledge – so we pulled out completely.
“We decided at the last minute not to proceed but at that point I turned from broker to principle because what I had seen in that period is something that I thought had a lot of potential.
“I genuinely think that if we could have done the deal then we would have stood a better chance of staying up. But for one reason or another it dragged on.”
Anderson’s name has cropped up in takeovers at Southampton, Liverpool and Reading but this is the first time he has taken a hands-on role.
The Macron Stadium and its associated hotel and conference suite played a major part in convincing Anderson the business can be a longer-term success.
“The other clubs I was purely broker, I ever intended to get involved so this one was very different,” he said. “I think this one is also entirely different to most of the clubs I have been involved in with the exception of Reading, the challenge here and the opportunity here is that you are not talking purely about a football club.
“It is a football club and like most clubs they only have got 25 or 30 weekends a year that they are being used.
“If you look at the utilisation of the stadium in those cases it’s very rare that it is being used whereas here, because of the hotel and the conference centre, it’s a 365 days of the year operation and there are a lot more people involved.
“If you look at the figures the non-football operations are now nearly on par with the football income in League One.
“It's no longer a separate side business that is a small business as part of the football club.
“The revenues that the hotel and the events are bringing in are almost equivalent to what football brings in. That's probably a benefit for us and a bonus which other clubs haven't got.”
Wanderers fans have given Anderson’s arrival a cautious welcome. His involvement at Reading was long concluded by the time the Royals found themselves on the brink of administration following an ill-fated takeover by Russian Anton Zingarevich, while similarly concerning tales have swept around regarding his involvement with Michael Wilde’s short-lived spell in charge of Southampton.
His words at the start of the week have, however, been well-received and together with Holdsworth the new ownership is starting to win over a few hearts and minds.
“When I was at Reading first time when the Russian was involved they were third from bottom we went on an incredible run and won the league,” Anderson recalled. “Nobody expected us to reach the play-offs yet alone win the league.
“It’s a major job here, you have seen what was on various posters and banners at the weekend.
“What they were saying was completely correct. People have not performed to their ability.
“My job is now to try and help the fans believe again and work with us.
“We are going to look at the supporters and try and get the last few games ending on a positive note so that we start next season on a positive note.”
Anderson insists the number of “nasty surprises” have been minimal since getting a closer look at the club’s accounts in the weeks following the takeover.
On the pitch, however, the disappointment has continued and relegation will be an issue that has to be tackled head-on by the new co-owners.
“We all hoped it wouldn’t happen,” he said. “We carried on in hope but in the end it was inevitable. We were relying on winning the last five or six games and other teams losing theirs too.
“If we look at a couple of other teams in the league, like Rotherham they have had a very good run and probably look safe.
“Someone asked me if I was disappointed but ‘gutted’ is probably the better word.
“But it gives us an opportunity to plan for next season earlier than we would have been able to.
“The teams that get automatic promotion can start planning and bringing in players etc but the play-off ones have to wait until after the final.
“We have already started looking at what is going to happen next season.”
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