What does Keith Harris say when some billionaire comes to him wanting to buy an English football club? Harris reaches for the inside pocket of his immaculate blue suit. "The first thing I do," says football's premier dealmaker, "is I produce an imaginary pack of cigarettes and say that buying, owning and actually running a football club is more risky than these are."

But still the billionaires come. Harris, once a poor kid supporting Manchester United, later chief executive of HSBC Investment Bank, has already brokered five takeovers in the Premier League. Most notably, Harris, the chairman of investment bank Seymour Pierce helped Chelsea sell itself to Roman Abramovich and aided Thailand's disgraced prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra buy Manchester City. He is now trying to find buyers for Newcastle and Everton.