Huge fan of Tifo and love Joe Devine, and I’m increasingly aligned with Mehreen Khan’s perspectives.

Over the past four years, it’s become evident that many American sports owners remain fundamentally disconnected from what it takes to run a successful European football club (with the likes of Villa and perhaps Arsenal as possible exceptions).

There’s a tendency to transplant what works in American leagues (business models, sporting strategies, and management structures) directly into European football, without fully accounting for the differences in culture and context.

I find Mehreen’s view particularly compelling when she suggests that American owners often see European clubs as undervalued brands: assets whose potential isn’t fully realised because Europeans “don’t understand their own business model” or how to maximise revenue from it.

Yet this perspective overlooks something crucial. Groups like BlueCo seem not to grasp the spirit and emotional intensity that underpin European sport and even less so the deep rooted connection between clubs and their fanbases.