The English football phenomenon Portsmouth are part of with Chelsea, Burnley, Ipswich Town & Co

It was six years ago last week news of former Disney CEO and chairman Michael Eisner’s interest in buying the Blues surfaced, as talk the Americans were coming first reverberated around the island city and beyond. Within two months, shareholders of the Pompey Supporters’ Trust had overwhelmingly agreed to sell to Tornante, with a £5.67m deal in place.

News of the agreement, which was completed by the start of August, garnered a fair amount of attention around the world - perhaps even being treated as a novelty in some quarters. Some fretted about the prospect of a form of American sporting cultural imperialism taking place, Mickey Mouse club crests and even a Pompey franchise ending up the other side of Hampshire or beyond.

Fast forward to the present day and the notion of American ownership is anything but an unfamiliar concept. In fact, a totting-up process shows a quarter of the clubs in the top four divisions of the English game now receive some sort of Stateside investment. t was recognised at the time the Pompey deal was a good one for Tornante, but the way the terrain has changed since perhaps underlines just how much so. There are now 13 clubs who are US owned, with a further 12 having some form of American investment.

It may be Todd Boehly’s £2.5bn takeover of Chelsea last year, a deal which could have bought 441 Pompeys, which has garnered the most attention. But, along with the likes of Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United, teams such as Burnley, Millwall, Swansea, Ipswich and Plymouth are now wholly under American-based stewardship. Meanwhile, in League Two, Gillingham and Crawley are two of the more recent sides to go down the same route - with Crawley’s £5m takeover by controversial cryptocurrency group Wagmi last year, perhaps highlighting the value Tornante got in Pompey.

In a recent article in The Times, one American investor at an EFL side cited owning clubs in cities and a close proximity to London - both box ticks with Pompey - as an appeal.

He said: 'There are not many businesses where you can increase your turnover by a factor of ten in a single year. Clubs such as Ipswich Town, Portsmouth, Millwall and Plymouth all have large stadiums and high attendances in the EFL, and people see what Bournemouth have achieved with a much smaller stadium.

‘In soccer, England is where it is at — it is seen as the best league, the one the whole world is interested in. We think the possibilities for growth are there and not just in the Premier League, and we can be part of that without paying the kind of money that Chelsea cost.’

A director at an EFL club with American investment explained why the search for opportunities is filtering down the leagues, with the ambition to improve the club’s situation and make a profit.

He said: ‘The top clubs have either been snapped up or are too expensive, so the Americans are also looking at clubs with potential where they don’t have to risk a huge outlay. They can get them for a sensible price and the ultimate prize would be to reach the promised land of the Premier League. Even with League One and Two clubs, the idea is that if you are fairly sensible you can improve their situation and then sell your stake.’