American soccer keeps looking to Europe for answers. It should spend a night watching professional wrestling. Not because football should become fake. Because wrestling understands something football often forgets. The competition is sport. Everything around it is storytelling. MLS should study WWE. MLS NEXT Pro should study NXT. USL should study AEW. Not to copy…
I have criticised MLS. Hard. I have criticised USL even harder. I have called MLS too commercial, too protected and too detached from some of the things that make football matter. I have questioned USL franchise fees, protected territories, player pathways and the economics of asking owners to spend millions before they have built anything…
Football has introduced me to thousands of people. Very few became friends. Mick Pattinson and Mike Charlesworth are two of the best people I have met in football. I have known them both for years. Mick is Luton. Mike is Leeds. I am Blackburn. That was enough to get us started. Tampa We spent time…
There is a danger in chasing something for long enough. You become so focused on proving it can be done that you stop asking what happens if it actually is. That thought has followed me through the For months the work has been about legitimacy. History. Rights. Sites. Leagues. Investors. Planning. Making people understand this…
Nine years old. Think about that age. Primary school. Baby teeth. Parents packing the bag. Kids losing water bottles. Some still needing Mum or Dad when they wake up frightened at night. English professional football looks at them and starts making decisions about talent. The Premier League calls U9 to U11 the Foundation Phase. Its…