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Morgan 26th and Lerner 18th on rich list

Wolves owner Steve Morgan was today named 26th on football's rich list.

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Wolves owner Steve Morgan was today named 26th on football's rich list.

Morgan, who is estimated to be worth £390m, is up two places from last year on FourFourTwo's football's millionaires.

Morgan, who bought Wolves from Sir Jack Hayward in August 2007 for a nominal £10 and the promise of £30m investment, knows the value of sensible investment, and made his money in construction.

After an OND in civil engineering at Liverpool Polytechnic, Morgan worked with a local civil engineering contractor for two years. In the recession of 1974, his employer decided to pull out of civil engineering, but was stuck with an unwanted £25,000 contract in Penley, North Wales.

As Morgan recalled: "I told them I was happy to leave and do the work for them as subcontractor. I borrowed £5,000 from my father to set up, and made £5,000 profit on the job after paying my father back. That's 100% return on capital in three months."

Twenty years later, as one of the biggest housebuilders in Britain, Redrow was floated on the stock market. Morgan sold £240m worth of shares in the float and afterwards when he left the Redrow board in 2000.

He also had a £100m stake in the De Vere leisure group, which was the subject of a bidding battle in the summer of 2006. Morgan also recently shared £75m sale proceeds on a Spanish development. In March 2009 Morgan returned to Flintshire-based Redrow as chairman and has seen the share price revive; he has a £106m stake.

Villa owner Randy Lerner is 18th on the list, the same as last year. His fortune is said to be £630m.

Five years after former Brooklyn boy Randolph D Lerner took over at Villa Park, things haven't progressed quite as well as might have been hoped. The Midlanders finished 6th for three seasons in a row but last season dipped to 9th among much supporter dissatisfaction, which was increased rather than dissipated by this summer's appointment of Alex McLeish from rivals Birmingham City.

Lerner bought Villa from previous chairman 'Deadly' Doug Ellis in September 2006 for £62.6m.

Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan has retained his position as top of football's rich list.

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