During the height of their protests against owners Tom Hicks and George Gillet, Liverpool fans burned American flags as a intentionally provocative sign of their hatred.  "Yanks Out" was a consistent refrain, echoing across Merseyside as the two American billionaires took the club further and further into debt.  With the deadline for the Royal Bank of Scotland to seize the club and take it into administration approaching, the roar of anti-American disdain became deafening.  Though the vitriol was specifically directed at Hicks and  Gillet, the nationality of the owners became a significant element in the way fans expressed their anger.

John Henry

It's not a done deal, but there's a good chance that Liverpool fans will finally get the new ownership they've so desperately craved.  No more Tom Hicks, no more George Gillette; instead, the Reds might just end up in the hands of NESV, the group that owns the Boston Red Sox.  Consisting of Tom Werner, Larry Lucchino and other investors, the leading figure in the group, at least in terms of pure wealth and presumed stewardship, is John Henry.

Just like that, Martin O'Neill resigned from Aston Villa today. "Sudden" doesn't begin to describe this move; with less than a week to go before the start of the Premier League season, Villa will now be scrambling to settle a very unsettled situation.


But we're not here to analyze Villa or mull over the reasons for O'Neill's departure. We're here to note that just as quickly as O'Neill's resignation came down, Bob Bradley was installed as a favorite to replace him. On some levels, it might even make a bit of sense; Villa's owner is American Randy Lerner, US Soccer still has yet to officially re-up Bradley, and Bob plays a system similar to the one the outgoing O'Neill preferred. I dare say that if Bradley wasn't American (okay, American or Canadian), most unbiased observers would see his name and hardly bat an eye.


And I'll be honest: As much as I look forward to the day an American takes over at an English club of note, I'm not on board any Bradley-to-Villa train. The situation portends a poor season no matter who is at the helm; with players headed out but nothing coming in, the club is hardly poised to move up the table. A tumble, especially with managerial drama, seems certain.


No situation will ever be perfect for an American to break the coaching cherry, and I do wonder if just getting the first one out of the way would be for the best. But if Bradley, learning on the job in a league much different than MLS in terms of player acquisition and media scrutiny, failed miserably, wouldn't that just set Americans back? Should Bradley land Villa in the bottom half of the table or worse, how long would it take for another American to get a shot at a job in a top European league?


Of course, now I'm wondering why it even matters if an American coach catches on in England. It's hard to see any immediate benefit for MLS, the National Team, or American soccer in general; over time, coaching abroad might help improve the system as a whole in an ancillary way, but most of the hope for American coaching success is just matter of pride. I root for Americans to succeed in Europe because it improves our standing. It's the same logic I apply to American owners in England; do well because it makes us look better and I'm tired of the dismissive and hostile attitude towards all things Red, White, and Blue.


I suppose those are the same reasons to be fearful of Bradley actually getting the job at Villa; if he screws up, it reflects negatively on American soccer. With an American chairman involved, it's a potential double whammy of reputation-crushing failure.


Bradley's candidacy is simply speculation at this point, so let's not jump the gun. If it becomes a real link, then we can find reasons to worry or be excited. It'll also give me time to figure out on which side I fall. Without a vested interest in how Bradley at Villa might affect the club itself (which I should have, but have yet to truly develop), it's difficult to pin down how I feel about the possibility.


Since I'm waffling uncontrollably, I put it to you: Is Bradley to Villa, should it be a real possibility, a good or bad idea?

It's eminently annoying to me that some English media and fans view Americans through the prism of a few choice owners who invested in English football. The feeling that I get is that a couple of in-it-for-the-money Americans colors how the general English populations thinks of all of us when it comes to soccer.


Maybe that's unfair to the majority of English football fans. I'm sure there are some who don't hold it against us commoners that Malcolm Glazer is a leveraging opportunist or that Hicks and Gillette can't get out of their own way at Liverpool. But Old Glory has been burned on Merseyside, and the innate inferiority complex that comes with being an American soccer fan makes me ultra sensitive to how my countrymen represent me abroad. Thank god for Randy Lerner.


What then to make of a report that the New York Yankees might be interested in bidding for Tottenham? More American ownership in England isn't necessarily a bad thing provided those doing the buying are committed to the game, willing to do right by the club, and aware of the risks involved. With Big George gone, Hank Steinbrenner is in charge at the Yankees; there's almost nothing about Hank that tells me the Yankees would be a good fit at White Hart Lane. Okay, so he's played some soccer. I guess that's better than nothing.


But the Yankees? The Evil Empire? If you're not a Spurs fan and were ambivalent or even like them a little, how can you not hate them immediately? I suppose Yankees fans unattached to an English club would have an easy choice, but the rest of us could never get past the connection. Any die-hard Red Sox fans who also root for Spurs might have some contemplating to do. Can they continue to love their English club in light of such a disturbing development?


Clearly I'm overstating it just a bit, but people care enough about their teams that at least a few people will consider it a problem. There may be nothing overtly "Yankees" about Tottenham should Hank Steinbrenner successfully buy the club, but the knowledge that the connection exists will always gnaw at certain Sox fans, Mets fans, and Yankees-haters. Only those with a pragmatic view ("If we win, I don't care who owns the club") will be unaffected. That's the healthy attitude, it's just hard for some people get to.


Hank and the Yankees might be great Premier League owners. They certainly have the cash to invest in the club, and smart owners know to delegate responsibility to smart people who understand the sport both on the field and in the boardroom. George Steinbrenner finally figured that out in the 90's, and it led to New York going on another run of World Series titles. If Hank learned the same lesson as his father, there's really no reason to fear that Spurs will be driven into debt or mismanaged into irrelevancy. Maybe they would be more Randy Lerner than Hicks and Gillette.


Foreign ownership of beloved sports institutions is a sticky issue with no easy answers. English football clubs have been snatched up by foreign interests, with the results being a mixed bag; I wonder how American sports fans would react if something similar happened with our most famous teams. Another "failure" by American ownership (again, should the Yankees/Tottenham thing actually happen) would be unfortunate and damage the Americans-in-soccer reputation even further.


Of all the interests in all the world to carry the next American banner to England...the Yankees? Blech. I think I'd rather have Diddy buy Crystal Palace.

It seems that the US as a soccer community takes a bit of a beating over the exploits of American owners who dip their toes into English waters; while Randy Lerner has managed to keep Villa fans happy, not every Yank owner has done such a good job. Hicks and Gillette continue to take heat in Liverpool and the Glazers aren't exactly beloved at Manchester United. It appears that another Big Four club may be added to the list of those controlled by Americans, as Stan Kroenke nears the control threshold that requires him to make an offer for remaining shares.


I reject the notion that all American owners should be viewed with a skeptical eye thanks to the problems at Liverpool and the debt at Manchester United; Americans aren't the only ones botching things in Europe when it comes to the business of running a football club. Still, it worries me what Kroenke might do if he does take control of Arsenal, if only because it would once again be used against all Americans. The Independent has a informational Q & A on the potential Kroenke takeover.

• I enjoy seeing laments over the Revolution's stadium situation, because it is now far and away the worst in MLS. If the Revs were bad, never made the playoffs and never showed up in tournaments like SuperLiga, it would be less of an issue (though still a concern); but the Revs are good, and so the situation looks all the worse. It's time for something to happen in New England, and happen quickly. If the proposed Somerville project is going nowhere, then Kraft and the league need to look for other options. Maybe Providence would like a pro soccer team.

• Americans are generally used to the corporate renaming of stadiums, though it's rarely done for venues with as much history and lore as St. James' Park, home of Newcastle United. "Sportsdirect.com @ St. James' Park" is the official new name, and it's bad even by American standards; Sky talks about those American standards in a piece meant to (I assume) put the sponsored name in the modern context. Even Pizza Hut Park and Dick's Sporting Good Park, two of the stadiums mentioned in the piece, aren't as bad because they're new facilities. The renaming of St. James', and with that ridiculous "@" sign to boot, is well beyond anything we've seen here. Imagine if Fenway Park was "monster.com @ Fenway Park"...

• Alex Kotler at Football Partnerships has an interesting take on the need for "teaching" in soccer broadcasts. He uses Tim McCarver (a man who says one worthwhile thing out of a thousand, in my opinion) to illustrate his point, calling on broadcasters to use stoppages in play to educate the consumer on the finer points of the game. I think it's a nice idea, but flawed in several fundamental ways. It's actually the "dumbing down" of American soccer broadcasts that keeps many fans of the game from giving MLS a chance, and I might even argue that broadcasters like ESPN actually do attempt to work in graphical elements to illustrate how a play occurred. I generally don't mind these "Americanized" elements on an MLS broadcasts, but it is possible to take things too far. Soccer will always be a game of flow; going to a telestrator to draw squiggly lines on one of Beckham's free kicks doesn't strike me as necessary or particularly insightful.

Shallow Scratches, otherwise knows as Deep Cuts When I Don't Feel Like Dealing With Snarky Comments, appears as daily as is possible and brings together stories relating to American Soccer from around the web. If you have a link for Shallow Scratches/Deep Cuts, feel free to email it to matchfitusa@gmail.com.

I've learned a lesson, boys and girls; staying home sick from work can be hazardous to your health. The MFUSA Day Job, that which torments me on a daily basis, is extra stressful today after an impromptu three day weekend. Thus, Deep Cuts, which might not be as deep as usual, comes to you in an abbreviated form.

• Yank and Aston Villa owner Randy Lerner is often held up as an example of proper American investment in English football; Lerner loves his club by all accounts, and does right by it in every way that the Glazers at Manchester United and Hicks and Gillette at Liverpool do not. But while Villa is thriving by most standards, Lerner's other sports property, the Cleveland Browns, continue to flop around the bottom of the NFL. That fact has one Cleveland writer calling for Lerner to choose one or the other, reckoning that the dual-focus of owning clubs in two kinds of football is dragging the Browns down. I'm ambivalent about Lerner selling his NFL team, though I wonder if he might have some cash to buy into MLS if he were to divest of his American football stake. If Lerner loves the game as much as it seems, he would make the perfect MLS owner (unlike certain billionaires currently attempting to take over storied London clubs while their MLS franchise looks neglected).

• The push for another American World Cup is picking up steam, with cities all over the country vying for a host city spot. The current list includes twenty-seven cities, with eighteen making the cut for the US bid book that will submitted to FIFA on May 14th of next year. Orlando was a host city in 1994, and the city's mayor hopes to be so again in 2018 or 2022. The city's $12-14 million investment would see a return on the order of $100 million; while I think Orlando is a bit of a long shot with some of the other cities involved and the newer stadiums available, I expect that they'll move forward simply based on the business sense. There are too many communities in the United States that would turn down that type of economic boost if given the chance.

• You'll have to sign up for a free trial at Sports Business Journal to read this article, but it's certainly worth the effort; SBJ has an in-depth look at the growth of soccer in the United States since 1994 as it relates to both next year's World Cup and the US bid for 2018 or 2022. The gamut is covered here, and included are polls of sports industry insiders on what they expect for the 2010 World Cup's success in the United States. It's these types of stories that indicate just how far soccer has come in this country, and help remind us that we should do our best to take a long view of things. The growth of professional soccer, both from an awareness perspective as well as the success of MLS, is moving much faster than it did in the years immediately following the '94 World Cup. By the time the event returns (knock on wood), things will be so drastically different that it's almost impossible to frame. Starting from essentially zero, where the game is now is a significant improvement, even as we often find ourselves frustrated with the lack of respect the game receives.

Deep Cuts appears every weekday, and highlights American soccer-related items from around the web. If you have a story for Deep Cuts (even shallow ones), you can send it along to matchfitusa@gmail.com.

The issue of immigration and soccer is bouncing around the internet recently; several articles have come out on the issue in regards to the US National Team. I haven't completely wrapped my head around it all, but it's clearly worth talking about; even more so because it seems the anti-immigration lobby are using the squad to illustrate that immigrants are failing to assimilate.

At least, that's what The Wonk tells us, as they explain that an article I linked to previously was actually a backhanded slap at immigration policy. I had no idea, and failed to realize that the source of the piece, the Center for Immigration Studies, is actually working to reduce immigration. No matter your opinion on the issue (a political sticky wicket I'm not going to muck up a soccer blog with), it's interesting to see soccer, and specifically the National Team, as a focal point in the debate.

• The new American owner of Italian club Bari has high hopes for Serie A; how an American, Italy's first foreign owner, will fit in there will be an interesting saga to watch. Bari is new promoted, so there shouldn't be the same pitfalls that American owners in England have encountered after taking over massive clubs. Italy has never been a place that Americans go, which is why Livorno's interest in two (Donovan and Clark), and Milan's signing of Oguchi Onyewu this summer was intriguing. With an American owner in Italy, it's possible we'll see more names linked with Serie A.

• Someone has a solution to the chronic controversy of the amount of added time Manchester United gets at Old Trafford; follow the example of American football. I love when Americans do this, because while there's validity to the suggestion, they often fail to appreciate how resistant to change sports communities typically are. It's why goal line technology is still not in place, why there's no pitch clock in Major League Baseball, and why angst-ridden discussion follows all of those issues. Eventually changes do come, as we're seeing with the end-line official experiment in the Europa league, but I can't imagine significant changes with timekeeping are ever going to be seriously considered.

• Finally, if you're a soccer player, you live in Boston, and you want to be in a movie, here's your chance (oh, but you have to look "ethnic"). I can't imagine that soccer will be a major part of a movie about a career thief being chased by an FBI agent in Boston, but you never know.