Not so long ago, most speculation in English football used to be about some manager or coach facing the sack or which player would be next for a big-money transfer. Now you can't miss the speculation about which club is going to be bought next, and by which foreign buyer.

The fashionable thing for a club in the 90s was for it to be listed on the London Stock Exchange, enabling fans to buy shares, but this has since been overtaken by foreign buy-outs of several of our top clubs.

Chelsea was the first purchase in this new era when Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich splashed his cash, bought the club, installed Jose Mourinho as coach and went on to "buy" the Premiership title in his first season.

Next we saw the purchase of Manchester United by the American Glazer family in a deal that incensed some fans but still went ahead. Now most of the opposition has been silenced and it's business as usual with United heading for their ninth Premiership title in 14 seasons.

Portsmouth was the next  club to fall into foreign hands with another Russian takeover by Alexandre Gaydamak, and then three more in quick succession; Americans George Gillett and Tom Hicks moving in on Liverpool, American Randy Lerner bringing his millions to Aston Villa and Icelander Eggert Magnusson taking on the chilling prospect of trying to keep West Ham in the top bracket.

Of course,  the interesting reaction will come when, and if, any of these teams fail to live up to expectations and are relegated. There is nothing wrong with foreign investors as long as they work on improving the clubs and stick with them through thick and thin.  Unless you buy one of the top four teams - Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal - the threat of relegation always looms.