At Leeds United and across the Premier League, American influence is growing but bad owners have nothing to do with nationality - Stuart Rayner

"It makes investing in English football clubs very good value," football finance expert Kieran Maguire told me this week. "This has effectively given them a huge discount."

Gary Neville for one will not be looking forward to it.

"US investment into English football is a clear and present danger to the pyramid and fabric of the game," arguably the country's leading football pundit said recently.

Leeds United are already flag-bearers, as shown by the stars and stripes you always see on the Elland Road terraces these days. They are 44 per cent-owned by the San Francisco 49ers and it feels as if we are counting down the days before the NFL franchise buy Andrea Radrizzani out.

Maguire does not expect currency fluctuations to have a major impact on Leeds’s long-term planning, but they will certainly not put them off. The Americans are coming.

Or rather, they are already here. Coach Jesse Marsch is American, like Brenden Aaronson and Tyler Adams.

But Americans call football "soccer" so they cannot know what they are talking about. Neville can point to plenty of good examples.

The hated European super league was driven from the Premier League by Manchester United's Glazer family, John W Henry at Liverpool and Arsenal's Stan Kroenke. Leveraged buyouts of Manchester United and Burnley by the Glazers and American consortium ALK Capital respectively ought to have been criminal, but were not. That the debts are in dollars adds to the damage and makes it very different to the 49ers' investment in Leeds.

The Glazers’ £23m dividends in the last financial year as reward for a loss-making season which was their club's worst on the field of the Premier League era, highlighted why Neville and so many of his fellow supporters want to see the back of them, and why fans of many others will think they are worth every penny. ALK are still quite new at Burnley, but have already relegated them.

It was not just his accent that made Chelsea owner Todd Boehley's recent comments about an All-Star game sound uncomfortably like an American yet to fully understand English football culture.

Bob Bradley was a figure of ridicule at Fulham, and although David Wagner is an American citizen who played for them, he was born in Frankfurt, so his nationality changes to suit the argument.

But there are 332 million people in America, most of them American. The vast majority would be awful Premier League owners, managers or players. So would almost all 56m people in this country.

That 40 per cent of England fans told a recent 888Sport survey they could do a better job than Gareth Southgate – that’s Euro 96 semi-finalist player, World Cup semi-finalist, Nations League and European Championship finalist manager Gareth Southgate – shows this country has its fair share of football numpties.

English arrogance could come back to bite us at this year’s World Cup when the Three Lions are in the same group as the USA.

England should win. "They're going to be one of the favourites to win the World Cup – if not the favourite," said US coach Gregg Berhalter this week, which perhaps tells you Nations League coverage is patchy over there but certainly no one was talking about his team that way even before their dire display against Japan.

England were red-hot favourites in the 1950 game – the first World Cup the FA deigned to turn up for – yet America won in Belo Horizonte.

The next time, in 2010, The Sun's front-page headline reaction to the draw was "EASY" – there could only be one winner from England, Algeria, Slovenia and the Yanks. Rob Green's error ensured a 1-1 draw with the USA who won the group, dodging Germany in the knockouts.

More American owners (or managers, or players) is not something to fear – just more bad owners.

We want owners respectful of our traditions but not beholden to them. Aseem Allam did not want to change Hull City’s name because he was Egyptian – he lived in England since 1968. Mike Ashley is English.

If the 49ers can increase the money Whites coaches have to spend in the transfer market without imperiling its future like Peter Ridsdale – from Leeds – did, that should make them good owners; bad owners, if not. If Marsch gets Leeds playing more like they began the season and less like Leipzig did in his short time there, he will be a good coach. If Aaronson and Adams continue their early promise, they will join a short list of USA internationals to have good Premier League careers.

Measures are needed to safeguard against bad owners but the Government-backed regulator Liz Truss seems cold on is the best bet, not a passport check.