This time 10 years ago, the football landscape in the Premier League had an altogether different look.
Arsenal were still winning trophies and still had the Invincibles season to come, mid-table Manchester City were about to take the route to the City of Manchester Stadium after 80 years at Maine Road and Leeds United were in the last 18 months of their time in the top flight.
But something more important was to happen a few months later in the summer of 2003.
A Russian oligarch by the name of Roman Abramovich purchased Chelsea FC from Ken Bates for the tidy sum of over €170 million.
Two years later and Manchester United were the next big club to become foreign-owned – only this time from the western hemisphere in the form of the Glazer family.
Since then the floodgates have opened. Manchester City are bankrolled from the Middle Eastern ownership, Reading are part-owned by Russian billionaire Anton Zingarevich, while Aston Villa, Liverpool and Arsenal are either fully or partly American-owned.
Continental Europe has experienced fewer foreign takeovers but like City, French giants Paris Saint Germain are benefiting from Middle Eastern petro-dollars, Malaga less so, while Roma are under American control.
But American owners in the Premier League have dealt with their clubs in a very different way to their Russian and Middle-Eastern contemporaries.

American Dream?

Love them or loath them, it cannot be denied that Roman Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour have transformed the fortunes of their respective clubs.

Since 2003 Abramovich has spent over a €1 billion to take Chelsea from a team hovering between third and sixth in the Premier League to a side with league and European aspirations.
Likewise at City, Sheikh Mansour has provided almost €700 million in transfer fees since taking control in 2009 pushing the Sky Blues from mid-table mediocrity to a Premier League title.
The Russian and Middle Eastern model of ownership is clear. Avoiding takeovers of elite clubs, they have concentrated on clubs below that level. They have then pumped vast sums of cash into these clubs to allow them to enter the elite.
In contrast American owners have often invested in the Premier League’s most successful clubs with different consequences.
Since the Glazer family took full control of Manchester United, Alex Ferguson has claimed that they have backed him in the transfer window.
They have shelled out on the likes of Dimitar Berbatov and Robin Van Persie. But on the flip side of the dollar, in completing the takeover, the Glazers secured loans against the club’s assets.
The debts incurred are currently an eye-watering €440 million.
Manchester United have continued to win trophies on the field in spite of this but it cannot be said that the Glazers have taken the club forward.

'Asset strippers'

Liverpool’s first flirtation with American ownership was an unmitigated disaster. Businessmen Tom Hicks and George Gillett reneged on promises to build a new stadium and were branded “asset strippers” in the UK’s House of Commons by Labour MP Steve Rotherham.
When Hicks and Gillett put Liverpool up for sale in 2010, the club had incurred debts of €430 million.
The club was sold to the American Fenway Sports Group headed by John W Henry after a high court battle.
However FSG has curtailed spending somewhat after transfer window disasters under Kenny Dalglish’s stewardship.
At Arsenal, major shareholder Stan Kroenke has chosen to persevere with the club’s sustainable business model, rather than invest heavily.
And Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner is an interesting case. Like Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour, the businessman took over a mid-table side. And although he has spent €250 million in the transfer market since 2006, this is nowhere near the investment that Manchester City and Chelsea has benefited from.
Of course Lerner had other sporting interests. Until 2012 he was the owner of NFL side Cleveland Browns. And that fact links him to the other American owners in the Premier League.
Kroenke Sports Enterprises already owns franchises in the NBA, NFL, MLS and NHL.
The Fenway Sports Group own baseball team Boston Red Sox, while the Glazers own NFL team Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
In short, owners from the United States have their attention divided between their various “franchises” which means that the football club is little more than an investment.
In contrast Abramovich and Sheikh Mansour’s focus is solely on their respective club. But that has brought problems of its own, in terms of distortion of wages and the transfer market.
For the clubs it seems, success on the field – at least in the short-term – is provided by investment from the East.
However with Financial Fair Play on the horizon even owners from Russia and the Middle East may have to curb their spending.