As Chelsea FC appears to be the last American-owned English football club, have an idea for one of the first: Terry Smith.
The North Carolina player arrived at Chester City in 1999, a time when the foreign coach had a new concept of the “English game”, not to mention the concept that a club can be owned by someone abroad.
Started well, enthusiasts of the everlasting fighters of the northwest of England enthusiastically welcomed Smith, a former American football player, when his acquisition saved the club from extinction.
Prior to his arrival, there was a real risk that the club would not participate in the league that season. Smith and his fellow American investors in the Football League gave Chester guarantees to compete.
When asked why he bought a club in the fourth tier of English football, the former New England Patriots reserve list player told the local press: “Together with my fellow investors, I have sought to dabble in various sports and, because we identify in England, we have to have to be football.
“We looked at several clubs, we monitored the stage in Chester a lot last month and we really love the city. “
Unfortunately, the honeymoon lasted a long time.
Although his coaching experience came entirely from the American football brand, as a player for the Manchester Spartans and then the wonderful British team, it didn’t take long for Smith to realise that he was the man who ran the club and managed Chester City from its inception. position at the back of England’s lowest professional division.
“All sessions are 90% equal, regardless of the sport,” he told reporters at the time.
Often noticing a baseball cap and being armed with an NFL coach-style clipboard, Smith used the terms of Football and, with the team suffering under his leadership, temporarily faced a mutinous fan base.
A chaotic season ended with the relegation from the Football League, captured in a documentary titled Chester City: An American Dream.
The show brought Smith’s time to the club to a wider audience and ensured that the legend of the episode remains to this day.
Years after his departure, English football looked to Smith as an example of how those on the other side of the Atlantic simply did not perceive the “English game”.
It is a perception that has been maintained over the years.
Although meteorologically better qualified to be manager of Swansea City than Smith is for Chester, Bob Bradley has faced a point of ridicule and complaint that it is hard to believe a manager of a “football nation” assembly when he was appointed.
Even today, the trope of American soccer misunderstanding remains, so Apple has created a hit TV show, Ted Lasso, on the premise.
Leeds United may have an American coach in the form of Jesse Marsch, but they are forced to take on the “stigma” of American coaches and face repeated comparisons from Ted Lasso.
But while Smith’s reign in the canoe is not a precursor to more of his compatriots getting jobs in English football, quite the opposite is true in the convention hall.
When it comes to english club ownership, it is considered desirable to have Americans in the rate.
Liverpool, Manchester United and Arsenal already belong to others on the other side of the Atlantic.
And now Chelsea’s shortlist of potential homeowners is made up of; LA Dodgers co-owner Todd Boehly, a consortium funded through Josh Harris and David Blitzer of the Philadelphia 76ers, owners of the Chicago Cubs, the Ricketts’ circle of relatives and Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca.
The irony is that, like Smith, the qualifications possessed by all those potential buyers are based on their American experience.
But how did we get to the point where most of England’s toughest clubs are owned by Americans?
If Terry Smith, the unfortunate pioneer of American acquisitions in English football, Glazer’s circle of relatives, the colonialists.
The reception the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ home owners gained when they showed up at Old Trafford as Longtime home owners of Manchester United couldn’t have been more different from the positive reception Smith won at Chester, but it lasted much longer.
Nearly 17 years ago, Joel, Avi and Bryan Glazer exited their first game in police vans when three hundred enthusiasts blocked exits shouting “Die, Glazer dies. “
Few would say that, over the past two decades, Americans have won the fan tour, but what they have shown is the advertising potential of English football for the American sports investor.
The lack of regulation in England in relation to the heavy restrictions on american gambling followed the Glazers and this helped them turn Manchester United into a corporate giant.
The circle of relatives was so successful in creating an income-generating device that the struggles of the team on the floor at the time when part of their mandate failed to prevent this exponential growth.
These successes paved the way for Fenway Sports Group to take over Liverpool FC and LA Rams owner Stan Kroenke as Arsenal’s largest shareholder.
It’s not that everyone follows the business-oriented mindset they’re known for.
Kroenke and the Glazers face almost constant complaints from their respective enthusiasts about their lack of ambition and priority for profit.
But, more broadly, American homeowners take much more into account English football in the eyes of journalists, other club owners and governing bodies.
Indeed, in a game where unsustainable spending threatens the long term of many clubs and owners connected to regimes with questionable human rights records are accused of playing football to whitewash their reputation, having someone prioritize profit is much safer and less difficult to manage.
Ultimately, the explanation for why there are so many American homeowners in English soccer is that the communities that make up those groups no longer have a say in who runs the club.
When Terry Smith arrived in Chester, he knew he had to convince the locals that he was a must to succeed.
Chelsea’s buyers don’t even want to think about it.
The Chelsea Supporters Trust would have possibly expressed fears that Ricketts’ circle of relatives would take over the club, but the fact remains that they will have no power to prevent them from doing so.
A return to the strength of fan action came as protests caused the demise of the European Super League. But it is telling that the protests at Arsenal and Manchester United against their assets did not have the same impact.
This plan, aimed at detailing the threat of European competition, might have failed, but this is not the end of this battle.
With more American owners being built across the continent, as well as in England, they are most likely going on to go on to go deeper to turn European football into something that resembles the NFL or the NBA.
So it’s possibly Terry Smith who laughs last.