English football and America: A not so special relationship

Transatlantic relations continue to fray at the edges.

English football people morph into the Bull McCabe whenever a sharp-suited Californian lands into town shouting the odds about how 'saaaccer' should be organising its business.

And when word reached them of some of the funky ideas being floated at the SALT conference in New York, the Premier League stalwarts stiffened themselves against the bar counter, inhaled deeply and intoned "Are these the same Outsiders who came up with the Super League?"

Chelsea's new owner Todd Boehly hasn't been shy about muscling his way into the limelight.

It all started well enough. Initially, he set about following in the cherished traditions of his new club by sacking the manager as soon as was feasibly possible.

It's an iron law of the universe that all Chelsea managers last roughly the same amount of time in the job, regardless of their level of success. Champions League winner Thomas Tuchel's time had come after 19 months, removed for being insufficiently collaborative with the new powers-that-be.

It was reported afterwards that Tuchel and the new sporting director clashed over the former's understandable reluctance to embrace the latter's revolutionary 4-4-3 formation, though this story has been denied by Chelsea, presumably being dismissed as black propaganda from the Tuchel camp.

But Boehly really scattered the pigeons with his freewheeling interview Stateside, where he tossed out a few ideas on how to lift the 'Pre-meere League' out of the shadows.

During the course of the conference discussion, he talked delicately about the "cultural aspect" of owning a sports 'franchise' across the Atlantic.

Alas, he swiftly went on to ignore that cultural aspect. "I would hope the Premier League would