Having spent many years avoiding the lure of the beautiful game and failing to notice the enormous profitability by investing in the game, American owners have, in recent years, finally wised up to smell the coffee and with it the sweet success of football, none more so than in the Barclays Premier League. American ownership of English football clubs, first pioneered by the Glazers takeover of Manchester United in May 2005, has become a common occurrence ever since, with Aston Villa under Randy Lerner and, most recently, Liverpool under John W. Henry, having followed suit. Nonetheless, whilst the dollar signs may be glowing in their eyes, American owners have received, especially in the case of Manchester United, a cold reception. Yet in Texan businessman Ellis Short, Sunderland have found themselves an American owner who has very much bucked the trend.

Whilst football or soccer is still an emerging game in America, having some way to go to catch up with America’s three main sports: American Football, Baseball and Basketball, American owners however, have come to take a significant interest in the round ball game. With the Glazers acting as the pacesetters, the chasing pack of American owners following behind have, in recent years, come to view expansion into English football as a potential benefit in two simple ways: firstly, to make money for themselves but secondly, to spread the name of their own franchises around the world – factors which potentially played a role in luring Lerner, Henry and Ellis to these shores. Indeed, with Henry now in charge of Liverpool – one yank following another – it now means that a fifth of the Barclays Premier League clubs are under American ownership.  Lest we forget Stan Kroenke, a major shareholder at Arsenal and owner of Major League Soccer side Colorado Rapids, who is currently involved in a tussle for outright ownership of the club with the Russian billionaire of Uzbek origin Alisher Usmanov. There’s no doubt that given the recent hype of activity by American owners in the game, there’s no reason to doubt that we will come to see the last of them any time soon. Whilst it is still early days for the Henry regime at Liverpool, the Glazers and to a certain extent Lerner, have stained their reputation as owners whether it be through not providing sufficient transfer funds or making reckless decisions at boardroom level. The relatively unknown Ellis Short however, has kept a low-profile since taking control of Sunderland in May 2009 and so far it’s working to his and Sunderland’s advantage.

So, I hear you say, what is there to know about this relatively unknown American. He’s an Irish-Texan businessman who first gained notoriety at Lone Star Funds, a private equity firm based in Dallas. Having developed a successful business acumen, Short’s interest in football gradually developed over time. He was not originally a member of the nine-man Drumaville Consortium, led by the former Sunderland and Republic of Ireland striker now chairman Niall Quinn, who purchased the club from former chairman Bob Murray for a mere £10 million back in 2006. Nonetheless, with the recession and Irish shares being hit particularly hard, Drumaville resorted to looking for new investment – this was to come in the form of Short himself. Having assumed full control of the club in May 2009, Short provided Sunderland with the immediate valuable stability which it so craved for as it attempted to consolidate its position in the Premier League. Since buying the club, Short has invested £100,000,000 into Sunderland – £77,000,000 of which has been invested into paying off the clubs debts. Most significantly for Sunderland fans, that £77,000,000 has been converted into shares – essentially meaning that the club owe their backer absolutely nothing. Nonetheless, away from the financial aspect of things, what Ellis has in common with Kroenke and Lerner, is that he is an intensely private individual not someone clamouring for media attention. When confirmation of his takeover emerged, a Sunderland spokesman stated “This is no Abramovich or Shinawatra [former chairman of Manchester City]. He loves the club and he can see that there is a sustainable plan, but he is happy to stay below the radar”. He has and continues to show his financial hand, without overstretching that hand, but more significantly he has a long term vision for the club – a vision most importantly shared by chairman, Niall Quinn.

Since arriving at the Stadium of Light, Short has set about meticulously restructuring Sunderland, beginning with a review of the clubs academy; he has patiently worked his way up through the different echelons of the club. At boardroom level, Short has brought together a mix of football and endeavour – demonstrated by his faith in chairman, Niall Quinn. There’s no denying it – Quinn is the heart and soul of Sunderland and someone, who crucially, the fans can associate themselves with. In his critically acclaimed autobiography, Niall Quinn – The Autobiography, Quinn himself says “I learned my trade at Arsenal, became a footballer at Manchester City, but Sunderland got under my skin. I love Sunderland”. Alongside fellow striker Kevin Phillips, they formed one of the most prolific strike partnerships in the Premiership and Quinn went on to become a club legend, winning the North East Sportswriter’s Player of the Year Award in 1999. His association with the club has continued since then – off the pitch and in the boardroom. His successful takeover of the club in 2006 brought a new sense of optimism to the club – something which has continued under the Short regime.  Both men have a very good understanding of one another and recognize that in order to regenerate the club and surrounding area, investment is needed. Furthermore, unlike some chairmen, Quinn is not hamstrung by Short. The Texan does not interfere with any football decisions made, instead preferring to remain behind the scenes and providing the financial ammunition, leaving Quinn in charge of the day-to-day running of the club and calling the football shots. In that sense, he is the perfect owner – something which Sunderland fans can certainly brag about to their North East rivals.

Just like Short’s entrance into English Football, Sunderland’s rebuilding process has been low key but is slowly starting to pay dividends. As previously stated, Short has brought something which all Sunderland and furthermore English football clubs crave: financial and managerial stability. His charity in writing off loan repayments has put Sunderland on solid financial footing. Moreover, this has meant that the club have had the ability, within reason, to overspend and yet still not be in debt, that is unless Short walked away from the club – a highly unlikely scenario at this moment in time. Indeed, you only need to go back to the financial year to 31st July 2009 to realize just what a precarious situation Sunderland found themselves in. In that year, the club made a loss of £126,000,000 – 78% of their £64,400,000 turnover accounted for by the club’s wages. It was a financial situation akin to that which Portsmouth found themselves in and we all know what happened there. With the club’s financial stability secured, Short gave his full financial backing to Quinn, in the hope that Sunderland would achieve their goal of becoming a top ten Premier League Club. Since his time as a minority shareholder, he hasn’t been afraid to show his financial muscle. Under the Roy Keane era, Short invested more than £30,000,000 on transfers, bringing in the likes of Pascal Chimbonda, Anton Ferdinand and Steed Malbranque – only the latter has so far come close to repaying the transfer fee paid for him. Nonetheless, the very fact that Sunderland are debt-free has meant that the club has been allowed to money pay up front rather than in instalments for players like midfielder Lee Cattermole and defender Michael Turner. He acknowledges that Sunderland is a massive club and he will stop at nothing to ensure that the club gets to where it has to go, and in English manager and Geordie Steve Bruce, a man who knows all about Northern pride, the Black Cats posses a personality who is big enough to handle the pressure of taking the club forward.

As things stand, the club lie in a healthy seventh position in the Barclays Premier League and the prospect of European football looms just around the corner for a club who were, a mere two years ago, staving off relegation. The club has seen a huge turnover of players in recent seasons, however Bruce has moulded a team together which reflects, to a certain extent, his own personality: one with grit, flair and determination. He has had to cope with losses, most recently with Darren Bent’s departure, albeit it for a club record fee of £24,000,000 to Aston Villa, but he has bought wisely with the money acquired, carrying on in the same vein as in his time at Wigan Athletic, and brought through players from the academy. Indeed, Bruce like Short and those around him are determined to get rid of the yo-yo tag which has, much like West Bromwich Albion, been attributed to the club in recent years, and instead focus upon climbing up the Barclays Premier League table. The blueprint for the club is straightforward enough: stay clear off relegation, establish the club within the top ten and consequently build upon that progress, secure itself financially, nurture home-grown talent, look no further than the highly sought after Jordan Henderson, cast its net further afield to try and attract the best talent from abroad, as seen most recently with the clubs record purchase of the Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan for around £13,000,000, and increase ticket sales and revenues. In the 49,000 capacity Stadium of Light, Sunderland boast one of the most recognisable landmarks in the North East and a stadium fit for Premier League let alone European football. Whilst the stadium is rarely sold out on a regular basis, despite the club putting forward some innovative pricing strategies, namely selling child tickets for just £1, attendances are strong. There’s no doubt that the infrastructure for the present and more importantly the future is there and underpinned by the unwavering support of the Sunderland faithful, the future looks to be a bright one for the Tyne and Wear outfit.

For Sunderland fans in particular, it is reassuring to know that the manager, chairman and owner are all singing from the very same hymn sheet. The club may still have some way to go if it is to be seen to be constantly challenging for European football but the transparent business model carefully crafted by Short and Quinn is both sensible and potentially profitable in future years to come. Perhaps Sunderland’s sound economic policy aimed at regenerating both the club and the city as one should be considered by more Barclays Premier League clubs so that we avoid witnessing the financial fiascos experienced in recent years by Portsmouth and West Ham United. Progressive, pragmatic and punctilious, Sunderland may have just uncovered another legend and his name is Ellis Short.

After a mere nine months in charge and with a win record of just 24%, the former England manager, Steve McClaren, was shown the door on Monday afternoon by the 2008/2009 Bundesliga Champions VFL Wolfsburg – their fifth manager in the space of eighteen month. Whilst McClaren leaves the German club in a perilous position, lying 12th in the Bundesliga table and just a point above the relegation places, he has gone to manage where only a very few have gone before him: overseas. With a growing influx of revolutionising foreign managers coming into the English game, it is hardly surprising that British managers are looking abroad to gain experience, develop their coaching styles and training methods but ultimately to be considered for the top national and international management positions. What they have come to learn is that the English way is not the only way.

For many managers and players alike, the opportunity to manage or play abroad often presents itself as a daunting prospect. The usual doubts crop up in one’s mind, namely: How quickly will I be able adapt to the culture? How can I possibly bypass the language barrier? How will the supporters and media come to view me? These are all perfectly valid questions, yet it seems that foreign players coming over to these shores, with the exception of often being tempted by a significant increase on their previous wage packet, are, in most circumstances, willing to adapt and learn about the above. The first major wave of English managers to try their hand at managing abroad began in the mid-1980s with Terry Venables successful three year stint at the Camp Nou with Barcelona, winning the Spanish Copa del Rey in the process, Roy Hodgson prospering with Swedish club Malmo, Welshman John Toshack’s spell at Real Sociedad and David Platt’s hapless time in charge of Italian club Sampdoria. Yet, it was under the late Sir Bobby Robson that British managers first made their mark in Europe. Having previously managed in Holland with PSV Eindhoven and Portugal with Sporting Club de Lisboa and Porto, it was the 1996/1997 season with Barcelona which he is most recognized for. Working with the like of Luis Figo, Ronaldo and Romario, Robson guided the Catalan club to the Spanish Cup and European Cup Winners Cup. To this day, he remains the last English manager to have lifted a European trophy. From the heartbreak of the 1990 World Cup semi-final defeat to Germany, going abroad offered Robson the opportunity to both widen his managerial portfolio and further strengthen his already outstanding tactical skills all in a unknown environment – a similar challenge taken up by one Steve McClaren.

At Middlesbrough McClaren guided the club to its first ever piece of silverware with a League Cup final defeat of Bolton Wanderers in 2003/2004 season. His upward trajectory continued. In 2006 Boro reached the 2006 UEFA Cup Final where they were comprehensively defeated by Sevilla. Nonetheless, McClaren had not only secured the club’s Premiership security but in the process he took it to new unseen levels. A dire spell in charge of the England team, namely failure to qualify for the 2008 European Championship, left his reputation – that of clichéd sound-bites, overly defensive tactics and an overreliance upon certain individuals – in disarray. ‘The Wally with the Brolly’ as he came to be known, had to seek redemption and a year later it came somewhat surprisingly in the form of FC Twente – a Dutch Eridivisie team located in a small University town on the German border.  It may not have been the most glamorous job but in his two years in charge McClaren blossomed. Gone were the clichés, the patronising of supporters and most importantly the brolly, and what emerged from the rubble of conservatism was a burst of energy, dynamism and free-flowing football. Such a drastic change in tactics from 4-4-2 to a more attacking 4-3-3 produced instant results. With an attacking trio of Miroslav Stoch, Blaise Nkufo and Brian Ruiz, FC Twente amassed a tally of 63 goals, only to be dwarfed by Ajax’s remarkable 106 goals, in the 2009/2010 season. His adventurism earned praised from the very highest, in the form of Dutch legend Johan Cruyff. By winning the Dutch Eridivisie in that year, McClaren became the first Englishman to manage a team to a top-level domestic title since Bobby Robson in 1996. Ironically it was Robson himself who persuaded McClaren to go to Holland, that after his spell in charge of PSV Eindhoven. In Holland, McClaren excelled and showed an ability to learn and adapt – something all too rare in the current crop of young English managers.

His immense success at FC Twente led to his appointment last summer as manager of VFL Wolfsburg – arguably not one of the traditional German top-flight clubs. However, he faced a difficult battle right from the beginning. Having won the German Bundesliga in 2008/2009 season, an exceptional achievement in itself, it was always going to be hard to equal if not better such an achievement. At Middlesbrough and FC Twente, McClaren was given time to construct his own a team and thus in the process manage expectations and gain the backing of the supporters – something he was simply unable to do at VFL Wolfsburg. Nonetheless, McClaren was given a significant cut of money to strengthen what was an already strong squad which included the likes of the Bosnian pairing of striker Edin Dzeko, now plying his trade at Manchester City following a move in the January Transfer Window, and the creative midfielder, Zvjezdan Misimovic. He brought in two of the most talked about players in European football: Brazilian midfielder Diego from Juventus and the highly rated Danish centre-back Simon Kjaer from Palermo, the latter linked to many Barclays Premier League clubs. Having started off slowly, McClaren’s cause was not helped along the way by a shock exit in the German Cup to Energie Cottbus, accusations a plenty that he had lost the dressing room and reports that decisions over first team affairs were being made above his head by the Director of Football, Dieter Hoeness. Despite leaving the club in a poor league position, he never really had the opportunity to stamp his own authority on the team. Whilst McClaren has, in recent years, been the most high-profile British to try his luck overseas, the reality is that the spread of British managers and coaches around the world is surprisingly large.

From the Northern to the Southern Hemisphere, East to West, British managers have left and continue to leave their football imprint on some part of the world in some form or other. The reality is that the far-flung British managerial ex-pat community has more members than ever before. In 2008, British managers led national teams in four of FIFA’s five football confederations. John Barnes with his brief spell as manager of the Jamaican National team represented the CONCACAF region; Bob Houghton represented the Asian region where he is currently in charge of the Indian national team; the former Kilmarnock striker Bobby Williamson represented the African region where he is presently in charge of the Ugandan national team and Stuart Baxter represented Europe in the form of Finland – a position which he has recently stepped down from. Furthermore, British coaching has been represented coast to coast in the USA. Stevel Nicol, currently the coach of New England Revolution, is the longest-tenured manager in Major League Soccer and was sounded out as a possible successor to the former USA national team manager Bruce Arena, now managing David Beckham at Los Angeles Galaxy. The now Newcastle United assistant manager John Carver, spent a year in charge of Toronto, again in Major League Soccer. Yet, the spread of coaches goes even deeper. Former Northern Ireland boss, Bryan Hamilton, is currently the technical director of the Antigua and Barbuda Football Association whilst the former Scotland goalkeeper Jonathan Gould is now assistant manager to New Zealand manager Ricki Herbert at the New Zealand-based club Wellington Phoenix who are the only team from New Zealand to participate in the Australian A-League. The names and jobs may not be glamorous but such examples highlight that the demand for British coaching is loud and clear for all to see.

It is concerning to see that ever since the Premier League began in 1992 only two British manager, have lifted the trophy: Sir Alex Ferguson, albeit on numerous occasions, and current Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish during his spell as manager of Blackburn Rovers. Furthermore, Chelsea, for example, has not had a permanent English manager since Glen Hoddle left the club all the way back in 1996. What English managers haven’t done, in particular, is come to dominate and revolutionize the style of football in the Barclays Premier League in the manner of their European counterparts. In recent years, the closest connection English coaches have had to winning a domestic title is in their capacity as assistant managers. Take for example former Chelsea assistant manager, Ray Wilkins, who was seen as a pivotal go between the Chelsea players and manager, Carlo Ancelotti. Having spent three years as a player at AC Milan in the mid-1980s, Wilkins was able to utilize his linguistic strengths, namely Italian, to communicate the opinions of the Chelsea players and provide his own tactical knowledge gathered from his time in Italy. With the FA confirming that current England boss Fabio Capello will step down after the 2012 European Championships, providing England make it to Poland and Ukraine in the first instance, and that Capello’s successor will be English, the search is already on. With only Harry Redknapp garnering top-flight European football experience at Tottenham Hotspur and Portsmouth, Steve Bruce gaining momentum at Sunderland and Ian Holloway at Blackpool, that is about it in terms of English managers in the Barclays Premier League. With limited options, a successor may come in the form of Capello’s understudy Stuart Pearce. Currently manager of the England Under-21s, it appears that he is being lined up by the FA for the position.

Robson, Toshack and most recently McClaren have shown that British managers can develop away from the British media’s constant gaze and intense pressure, broaden their horizons, learn other approaches to management, and crucially discover how to win consistently, which, unfortunately, too many British managers are inexperienced in. British managers may not be landing the most glamorous jobs abroad but these men are evidence that progress is being made. Indeed, we should praise the success of Brits abroad rather than look at their achievements with a tinge of ignorance. The very fact that British managers are willing to leave behind home comforts and step into the unknown, progressing their careers and challenging for honours rather than floundering in mid-table mediocrity or their own plight should be applauded. Who knows, in time, we may yet come to once again see a Brit offered the chance to manage one of Europe’s elite clubs – plus it will keep Kirsty and Phil on their toes!