In signing Belgian midfielder Youri Tielemans for just £35m, Manchester United may have picked up one of the deals of the summer. Aston Villa, however, will not be pleased to see such a key player depart. Adding to that frustration, his recent comments wouldn’t have gone down well with many at Villa Park.

The 29-year-old joined Villa in 2019 on a free transfer, signing from Leicester City. He’d won the FA Cup with the Foxes and then added the Europa League to his trophy cabinet under Unai Emery. Now at Old Trafford, Tielemans will be hoping for more silverware in the years to come.

The Belgian has already shown promising signs in a Man Utd shirt, earning praise from his new fans after an impressive 25-minute cameo against Paris Saint-Germain in his first appearance for the club. Amid the excitement of joining the Red Devils, though, he appears to have inadvertently upset the Villa supporters.

Youri Tielemans Insults Aston Villa After Man Utd Move

Reuters/Anne-Marie Sorvin

Speaking during Man United’s pre-season tour, Tielemans praised his former club for helping him get “back to my best level.” He then suggested Villa are a smaller club, adding:

He concluded: “It is a great achievement for any footballer to end up here. It means you have done well in your career. But it does not end there. I want to be successful.”

As per the BBC, some Villa fans were ‘unhappy’ with Tielemans’ comments, and he appeared to get plenty of heat online as his former fanbase slammed him. It was so bad, in fact, that the player has since taken to social media to apologise for his comments.

Tielemans Issues Apology After Upsetting Villa Fans

Via his official Instagram account, Tielemans shared a statement on his story, in which he owned up to his ‘mistake.’ In full, he wrote:

Tielemans spent three years at Villa Park, making 134 appearances and scoring 10 goals. With that in mind, he’ll have a complete understanding of just how much the club means to their loyal fanbase. This is evidenced in the way that he has quickly moved to apologise for his comments.

It will be interesting to see what sort of reception the Belgian gets when he plays against Villa next season. The first meet at Old Trafford on 7 November, before Tielemans returns to Villa Park on 16 January.

Tielemans has also spoken about his adaptation after working with new boss Michael Carrick. He told the press: “He has got his structure. He wants to have the ball, he wants to press in certain ways, you know. It might be different than what you are used to, what I have been used to before, but it is logical things in my opinion. It is just smelling football, and that is what I have been doing from when I was young at Anderlecht.

“So for me, nothing changes, but it just needs to gel together. Then when you follow those principles, then you can add your offensive qualities, especially in the last third where everything is a bit more in freedom, without obviously overcommitting and keeping the defensive line in place, then I think we can do good things.”

The pool of prospective Premier League club owners has become increasingly exclusive. As England’s top flight has established itself as the top league in world football, only a shrinkingly small proportion of the population has the requisite funds to take charge of these financial behemoths.

When the country’s top clubs broke away from the Football League in 1992, the new capitalistic ideal was created in the image of American sports franchises. Three decades later, England’s leading division is awash with US investment.

As the Premier League continues to dominate club football, here’s a closer look at all 20 Premier League owners.

Arsenal

Stan Kroenke has had an eventful association with the Gunners, rising from a minority stakeholder to the owner of the club since his first involvement in 2007. Kroenke bought his way to 100% ownership through a series of purchases, most recently snagging 27.11% of the club from Alisher Usmanov in 2018, which saw him take more than 90% of the shares, forcing a compulsory purchase of the remainder.

Arsenal struggled in his first years as owner, on the pitch, but under Mikel Arteta, have returned to the top of the tree, winning the 2025/26 Premier League title and narrowly losing out in the Champions League final on penalties. Kroenke has come in for criticism from Arsenal fans, with the failed European Super League attempt in 2021 being a major low point for the ownership.

Aston Villa

V Sports is a holding company that is owned by Wes Edens and Nassef Sawiris, who bought Aston Villa when it was in the Championship, and on the verge of administration, in 2018. Initially, the purchase was of 55% of shares, but this rose to a full takeover once Villa were promoted back to the Premier League in 2019. V Sports was initially known as NSWE, but was rebranded to fit the Villa name. The company has purchased clubs in other nations as well, creating a ‘group’, similar to that of the City Football Group and Red Bull conglomerate. Villa have gone from strength to strength under the ambitious ownership, returning to the Champions League for the first time in 40 years in 2023-24 before winning the Europa League in the 2025/26 campaign, for the first time in their history.

Bournemouth

Bill Foley purchased his 100% stake in Bournemouth in December 2022, from Maxim Demin, who had been a major part of the Cherries’ rise from League Two to the top flight. Foley’s company, Black Knight Football Club, installed actor Michael B. Jordan as a minority owner when it purchased the club.

The company also owns A-League side Auckland FC, has a minority stake in French outfit Lorient, Portuguese club Moreirense and a significant minority share in Scottish club Hibernian. Under Foley’s ownership, Bournemouth have established themselves in the Premier League, having been in a relegation battle when the takeover was completed.

Brentford

Boyhood Brentford fan Matthew Benham initially invested in the club as part of a supporter’s trust in 2005, before buying out the fans’ ownership in 2012 to take full control of the Bees. The west London outfit were in the third tier of English football at the time of the takeover and had not played in the top two divisions for over twenty years, but within nine years of the takeover, the club had returned to the top flight after a Championship play-off final win over Swansea.

Benham was also a majority shareholder of Danish side Midtjylland between 2014 and 2023, experimenting with cutting-edge statistical analysis that he replicated in Hounslow before turning his focus solely on Brentford. Under Benham’s ownership, the club has established themselves as a sustainable Premier League club, with an average league finish of 11th since being promoted in 2021, and a high of ninth whih they managed twice.

Brighton

One of the most well-loved owners by any fanbase, Tony Bloom has been chairman of Brighton since 2009. He bought a 75% share, and was crucial to the development of the Amex Stadium, for which he invested around £93m. Bloom is a boyhood Seagulls fan, and under his stewardship, the club have gone from League One to Europa League football.

Bloom is also a minority stakeholder in the Belgian side Royal Union Saint-Gilloise, who he took over in 2018, although he was forced to reduce his shares in 2023 due to UEFA’s rules on multi-club ownership. He was awarded an MBE in 2024 for his services to football in Brighton. He also has minority stakes in Scottish club Hearts and Melbourne Victory.

Chelsea

Chelsea‘s ownership is in the form of a consortium, made up of four parties, most notoriously Todd Boehly and Clearlake Capital Group, all of which make up the BlueCo group. The Blues have been under the stewardship of the consortium since 2022 when the club was bought from previous owner Roman Abramovich after the sanctions placed on Russia by the UK government following the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

In that time, the club has had very limited success in comparison to its previous efforts, all while spending over two billion pounds on transfers. It did result in success at the first FIFA Club World Cup in 2025, the same year they triumphed in the Europa Conference League to become the first club in history to win every trophy available to them. Since then, Clearlake Capital, led by Behdad Eghbali and Jose E. Feliciano possess a 61.5% controlling stake in the club.

Coventry

REUTERS

Coventry‘s return to the Premier League after two and a half decades is a fantastic achievement for owner Doug King, who took over the club in 2023. He bought the club from Sisu Capital, who had been in charge since 2007, helping to turn the club around. Prior to their promotion, they were incredibly close to a FA Cup final and previously lost on penalties in the playoff semi-finals against Sunderland. The aim will be to remain in the top flight, and they will take confidence from the likes of Sunderland and Leeds United who beat the drop last season.

Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace are owned by several stakeholders, but the most notable of these is Steve Parish, who has been chairman of the Eagles since he brought the club out of administration in 2010. Parish is the only remaining member of the CPFC 2010 consortium that bought the club back then that is still involved, as the remaining members have sold their stakes.

Josh Harris and David Blitzer also share a 10% stake, but Woody Johnson’s 43% is the majority figure, bought in 2025 after previously being held by John Textor. Blitzer and Johnson each own several other teams in other countries, but they have no link to Palace, unlike affiliations that Aston Villa and Manchester City, among others, have.

Everton

British-Iranian businessman Farhad Moshiri finally found a buyer in late 2024, as The Friedkin Group completed an 99.5% acquisition. Moshiri initially purchased 49.9%, having sold his stake in Arsenal to finance the purchase in 2016 that later rose to 94%. Under his ownership, Everton struggled on and off the pitch, and had a six-point deduction for breaching profit and sustainability rules in the 2023-24 season. Multiple proposed takeovers fell through but American billionaire Dan Friedkin helped end the tumultuous Moshiri reign. The Toffees then enjoyed a fresh start in 2025, moving into the 52,000-plus seater Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Fulham

Fulham have been owned by Shahid Khan since 2013 when he bought out the club from the late Mohamed Al-Fayed, the former major stakeholder in Harrods. Khan’s ownership didn’t get off to the best start. After removing the statute of Michael Jackson that Al-Fayed had installed outside the ground, the Cottagers were relegated from the Premier League in Kahn’s first season as owner, but they have since returned to the top flight and now look established in the league. Khan has also overseen major improvements to Craven Cottage, increasing the ground’s capacity even if the King of Pop remains decidedly absent. Khan is also well known for his ownership of NFL team Jacksonville Jaguars.

Recent years haven’t seen incredible drama at the top, with the 2021/22 season the last to break into the greatest title races in Premier League history, but that doesn’t mean it has been engrossing all the same.

The 2023/24 campaign saw Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool chase glory, before the latter two sides romped to victory in the following seasons, but fans will be intrigued by the changing of the guard in 2026, with a record-high of new managers, the exit of Pep Guardiola and Arsenal, who won the title for the time in over two decades, aiming to retain their crown.

Despite the new storylines, this season is a season like any other. It typically requires a high number of points to win the division. But how many points does it usually take to lift the Premier League?

Points Needed to Win the Premier League

Average: 87.6

There have been 31 Premier League winners ever since the debut campaign of the reformated English top-flight. On average, it has required the title-lifting team to pick up 87.6 points.

Manchester United have won the division more than any other side, doing so on 13 occasions (averaging 85 points). Manchester City are second with eight triumphs, but average more points (91.5); while Chelsea are next on five wins (90 points); then Arsenal with four titles (85 points); Liverpool (91.5) won the title twice, while Leicester City (81) and Blackburn Rovers (89) have lifted the prize just once.

Fascinatingly, in the first seven years of the Premier League, an average of 82.71 points was needed to win the whole thing, even despite seasons between 1992/93 and 1994/95 having 42 rounds of fixtures. In comparison, the last seven title wins have seen the Champions earn an average of 89.6 points – showing just how much harder it is to be successful in the modern era.

This is largely down to the arrival of Pep Guardiola in England. His era at Manchester City team saw his team win six of the seven Premier League titles from the 2017/18 season until their triumph in 2024. More history was made when they became the first club to win four titles in a row, with the Etihad outfit – albeit with 115 charges against their team – clinching it alongside a first treble in the 2023/24 campaign.

Points Needed to Win 2026/27 Season

Arsenal triumphed with 85 last season

The lowest tally ever needed to win a Premier League title was Man United, doing so in 1996/97 with a tally of just 75. For the upcoming 2026/27 season, that figure would likely land you comfortably in the top four, but certainly not in contention to win the title after 38 games.

As previously mentioned, the average figure of 87.6 points will typically land you the crown. Interestingly, that hasn’t been hit in the past two seasons, as Liverpool (84) and Arsenal (85) have watched their rivals fade away earlier than in more tightly-contested title races.

One trend that has been more noticeable in the past two years is the increased strength of the league in terms of depth. While promoted teams have struggled in recent years — disregarding Sunderland and Leeds United‘s efforts in 25/26 — increased funds have resulted in better squads across the board and more competitiveness, directly affecting title-chasing sides.

What is unlikely to change anytime soon is the English top-flight’s reputation as the best league in the world. Sure, Enzo Maresca‘s Man City and Mikel Arteta‘s Arsenal look like title-chasing teams in 2026, but there are question marks surrounding both for different reasons. Regardless, we can expect a highly-competitive season full of twists and turns as the incredibly high-level across the board makes for an even more unpredictable campaign.