Inside the stunning Spartans-led takeover of Shrewsbury Town and the Brad Friedel link

In fact, the headline on one English-based newspaper website reporting the news last summer anticipated one-way traffic: “EFL owners clear to buy Scottish and Irish teams after multi-club rules change”. Maybe, given a little more time, the sub-editor might have reflected that sometime in the future it was possible Rangers, given a change in ownership circumstances, or Celtic might see fit to invest in an English club, perhaps even Hearts or Hibs. Or Aberdeen.

But a part-time club currently operating in the fourth tier of Scottish football encroaching on England? Who have never played above this level? That certainly wasn’t in the script.

Spartans are an upwardly mobile club but the move to acquire Shrewsbury Town in a multi-million pounds deal is a stunning development. It follows 49ers Enterprises, owners of Leeds United, purchasing a majority stake in Rangers last summer. Brighton owner Tony Bloom has bought a 29 per cent share in Hearts and Bournemouth’s Bill Foley made a 25 per cent investment in Hibs, a stake the American businessman has since sold.

The owners of Spartans – average crowd around 500 – buying Shrewsbury Town, where the average crowd is about 5,000, is a fascinating inversion of the accepted practice of English clubs looking north of the Border. It is an extraordinary moment for Scottish football and one of the most outlandish stories since reports emerged that Clydebank were seeking to move to Dublin in the late 1990s.

Of course, Spartans are not going anywhere. They will remain the same admirable north Edinburgh club firmly rooted to community and with a social enterprise ethos that was spelled out by the near £250,000 sum raised by their charity arm at a dinner last week.

However, players might very well be moving back and forth between the two clubs. Indeed, one already has. Eagle-eyed observers of the Scottish League Two scene might have sensed something was brewing following Spartans’ recruitment of Ricardo Dinanga, a 24-year-old striker, on loan from Shrewsbury. He has played seven times this season, scoring once.

Business will continue as normal at Spartans although Craig Graham, the club’s chairman, might be watching more games in England than he ever planned at the expense, he says, of his golf handicap.

How legendary US international became involved

He will be a member of a proposed four-person board made up of the New York-based Will Dotson, currently on the board at Spartans, and, intriguingly, Brad Friedel, the 82-times capped United States goalkeeper whose list of former clubs include Aston Villa and Spurs. Friedel is best friends with Scott Davidson, Spartans’ unassuming, Miami-based main shareholder.

Graham’s relationship with Shrewsbury dates to before negotiations began around four months ago. He visited the club’s old Gay Meadow ground while working in nearby Crewe in the 1990s. Two aspects have stayed with him: the friendliness of the locals and the antics of Fred Davies, the club’s famous official ball retriever. Davies’ task was to jump into a coracle and fetch balls that were kicked into the River Severn, which ran alongside the ground’s Riverside Enclosure.

Shrewsbury no longer play in this idyllic setting. They moved to New Meadow - now called the Croud Meadow - in 2007. It is a purpose-built stadium on the outskirts of town. As so often is the case, charm has been sacrificed for accessibility and space. One major upside has been the far lower risk of flooding. The current record attendance is 10,210 for the visit of Chelsea in the League Cup in 2014.

Although Shrewsbury have a proud history stretching back to the 1880s, concern about what lies ahead has been mounting. Several supporter groups combined forces on Sunday to send an open letter to Roland Wycherley, the club’s 85-year-old chairman, calling for greater transparency about the club’s future. Wycherley has been in control of the club since 1996. While he announced his desire to sell in 2024, supporters have become frustrated by the number of times prospective takeovers have collapsed. Understandably given his long history with the club, Wycherley is desperate to ensure the next custodians have Shrewsbury’s best interests at heart.

Once they have fully digested the news, the Shropshire club’s fans’ thoughts on the latest revelations will be interesting. Aware only that Wycherley had been in takeover discussions with “an American consortium”, it will have come as a surprise to learn that “American” could also be interpreted as a part-time Scottish League Two side whose origins can be traced to a group of ex-Edinburgh University players forming a football team in the early 1950s.

Spartans run by serious businessman

Spartans’ current status as a thriving community-based club currently sitting in a play-off place in Scotland’s fourth tier might not be enough to ward off initial doubts. But further investigation will confirm that Spartans are run by a team of serious business figures including Graham, a former partner with KPMG.

Davidson, meanwhile, is the main reason why the consortium is described as US-based. A former managing director at New York-based banking institution JPMorganChase, the 58-year-old owns a city centre residence in Edinburgh. He is in Scotland now and is expected to attend Saturday’s home League Two fixture against Forfar Athletic. Davidson has been attracted to Shrewsbury due to the club’s history as well as, and perhaps just as importantly, their lack of debt.

Crucially, there is also plenty of room for improvement: the side are currently sitting second bottom of League Two, the EFL’s basement tier.

One undoubted attraction is potential of the sort realised only 40 miles away across the Welsh border in Wrexham. The local football club have been transformed since Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took over five years ago. Wrexham are now in the Championship after three consecutive promotions. They were in the National League, England’s fifth tier, and going nowhere fast when the actors arrived.

“I am just not as handsome as Ryan Reynolds,” quipped Davidson to The Scotsman when the similarity to Shrewsbury’s rival club’s situation a few years ago was put to him. Rather than A-list film stars, Davidson can offer footballing royalty in the form of Friedel. The former Aston Villa and Spurs goalkeeper will be heavily relied upon for football contacts and knowledge.

Davidson himself has a Uefa A-licence earned in Scotland with the Scottish Football Association. It is how he first met Graham, the driving force behind Spartans for many years.

“We are a successful, community-based club,” said Graham, when asked to introduce Spartans to curious Shrewsbury fans. “We aim to enhance the lives of the people of north Edinburgh, whether that’s through coming to support the team or involvement in the many programmes run by the foundation programme. We also have ambitions to develop the club and move up the leagues in Scotland. I hope the response (from Shrewsbury fans) is positive, rather than: ‘who are Spartans?’”