Forget Wrexham and Birmingham – Kazakhstan billionaire who bought rival EFL club is the real ‘game changer’

League One has been about more than just Birmingham and Wrexham this season - there’s one team that has been a major disruptor at the top of the third tier.

That’s because Wycombe are currently occupying one of the two automatic promotion spots, having been bought by Kazakhstan billionaire Mikheil Lomtadze last summer.

His net worth, according to Forbes, is $5.8billion and that makes him the 592nd richest person in the world right now.

An article with PwC described Lomtadze as a ‘game changer’ and Wycombe fans can be assured that he is living up to that moniker.

Having been owned by American businessman Rob Couhig since 2020, 90 per cent of the club was sold to Lomtadze’s Blue Ocean Partners Ltd and he made his intentions clear from the start.

"Our goal is to achieve long-term success both on and off the pitch whilst building a financially sustainable club”, said Lomtadze.

"The football world is evolving very fast and our priority will be to integrate data analytics and technology to elevate the club’s performance to new levels.

"I am also a strong believer in youth development and it will be fundamental to the club’s vision. We aim to re-open and build a leading high-performance academy which will become an essential part of our long-term strategy of developing a club that consistently performs at the top level."

Wycombe finished 10th in League One last season and it was always going to be an uphill battle to get out of a tough division.

Lomtadze’s billions come up against the riches of Wrexham, backed by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, and recently relegated Birmingham, who spent around £25m last summer and smashed the league transfer record multiple times.

Then you also have several former Premier League clubs, like Charlton, Reading and Wigan, who are all trying to escape the third tier.

However, they have been the huge surprise packages and look favourites to go up along with Birmingham.

At the helm they had an exciting manager in Matt Bloomfield, a man who knew the club inside out.

He played more than 500 times for them and went on to become a hugely promising young coach.

Bloomfield got them firing, but saw Luton in the Championship come calling and he departed in January.

While many thought they might drop off the pace, they have kept up the pace and have recently hired Mike Dodds.

Dodds is another highly-rated coach who helped oversee the development of Jude Bellingham at Birmingham.

"My responsibility now is to continue all the fantastic work that's happened previously," Dodds told BBC Three Counties Radio.

"We'll give it our best shot, we'll need a little bit of luck at times, we'll need results elsewhere to go our way at times but they've given themselves an unbelievable opportunity."

The 38-year-old added: "I've always said I wanted to be a head coach. Did I think it would come this early? Probably not, if I'm being frank and honest.

"I do think the interim role and being permanent is very different. It's like being a supply teacher (as interim boss), the kids know you're not the real teacher, that's the easiest context I can give it.

"Being a head coach, you live and die by your decisions and when you're an interim head coach, you're always thinking 'can I do this?' and 'I shouldn't really do that' because of the next person coming in."

Dodds got his first win on Tuesday, a 2-0 victory over Bristol Rovers, to keep them five points ahead of Wrexham.

There are 15 games still to play to secure promotion to the second tier for just the second time in their history.