Expect to see more of the following: rich investors like American Randy Lerner walking into clubs like Aston Villa with the dream of turning the club into the next Manchester United or Chelsea. Lerner recently succeeded in his bid for the Birmingham club, and now the ownership of several other Premiership clubs, including West Ham United, Reading and Liverpool, is also being questioned. Foreign ownership of Premier League clubs is en vogue, but as Dale Johnson points out, they won’t be doing it for the love of the club, but solely with the intention of turning a massive profit. However, success is the name of the game, and if there isn’t any, these clubs will go bankrupt, and the owners will just pack up their things and go elsewhere. “There is a real question about who will be left to pick up the pieces,” Johnson says. Because of this, club managers like Arsene Wenger and Alan Pardew have questioned the foreign ownership trend. “Generally you want the clubs to be in control of their own destiny,” Wenger said recently. “If you suddenly have 20 foreign investors who buy 20 English clubs you are in danger.” Why? because it takes 20 teams to make up a league, not just the top four that qualify for the Champions League. The game is in danger if fickle investors come in and then leave the clubs that don’t make the top four to ruin.