New-style owners seek only a return on investments

Chelsea, who had a side already on the cusp of greatness but were teetering on the brink of financial ruin before they were saved by Roman Abramovich's oil rubles, are on their fourth manager since the Russian's arrival while everyone who follows football on Merseyside knows all about the problems Liverpool have endured since Tom Hicks and George Gillett bought the club from David Moores.

Other Premier League outfits with foreign owners include Portsmouth, West Ham and Manchester City - twice over - while Sunderland and Fulham are run by foreign-born but UK-based chairmen.

The list is unlikely to end there though and with groups from outside the UK accumulating increasingly larger stakes in Arsenal and both Newcastle and Everton sending merchant banker Keith Harris out scour the world for new money.

While football clubs have never shied away from sugar daddies - most leading sides in the Victorian era benefited from a local businessman come good who would boost his profile in the town through patronage of its team - many 21st Century Premier League owners are a very different kind of beast.

The days of genuine football philanthropists such as the late Jack Walker, who just wanted to transform the Blackburn Rovers club he'd loved all his life into the land's finest team are fading fast - Steve Gibson has a solitary League Cup to show for 22 years of massive investment at his beloved Middlesbrough.

Apart from the super-rich individuals like Abramovich, just looking for an expensive plaything to garner pleasure from, just what motivates outside benefactors to come to these shores?

The fact that they're called 'investors' should act as a major clue - the Premier League clubs they purchase are just that - investments from which they hope eventually to make a profit.

It's a hazardous road for all clubs to go down but a path that current Everton chairman Bill Kenwright - an old style fan like Walker but without the personal fortune - concedes the love of his life must embark on, admitting that he does not have the kind of funds needed to compete with European football's movers and shakers.

Reflecting on a year which has seen Everton reveal record turnover figures of £75.7million, the theatrical impresario said: "One of the first pieces of wisdom to be imparted to anyone who chooses to transform a lifelong passion into a business proposition - as I did when I opted to combine the roles of supporter and chairman - is that expectation levels within modern football are as unpredictable and volatile as any financial market."

For a club that has struggled financially in recent years and saw their previous attempts to build a new stadium at Kings Dock collapse when they failed to raise the necessary funds, Everton's 2008 figures show a year of steady progress but the club's hierarchy admit that they cannot rest on their laurels.

A £3.4million increase in gate receipts was due mainly to the team's progression to the Carling Cup semi-finals and last 16 of the UEFA Cup last season but they have already been knocked out of both those competitions at the first time of asking this term.

The recession here in the UK plus poor home form could also be blamed for a drop in attendance figures at Goodison Park with high profile games against Liverpool and Manchester United failing to sell out plus the visits of Fulham and Middlesbrough setting new Premier League crowd lows at the ground during Moyes's tenure in consecutive home matches.

The club have remained open about their net debt increasing by more than £10million to now stand at a figure of £36.8m but this is something they will be looking to reduce in the longer term.

A more pressing need to keep pace with the game's elite is the stadium situation with Everton revealing that they spent more than £1m this year giving continual facelifts to the Grand Old Lady that is Goodison Park just to keep the charming but increasingly dilapidated arena up to Premier League standards.

Former chief executive Keith Wyness jumped ship in the summer but the inquiry into Destination Kirkby will rumble on into 2009.

Given the relative financial restraints manager David Moyes has had to work with compared to many of his Premier League contemporaries, the team continue to keep "punching above their weight" as acting CEO Robert Elstone puts it but the worry will always be how long this can last for until the club finds a new, modern and more profitable home - wherever that may be.