Brett Johnson, one of the Three Lions arm of the Blues’ ownership, says Town’s promotion to the Premier League was a special day and looking ahead has revealed his support for a global multi-club model which would see Town linked with a team on the continent.

Johnson, 54, was the highest profile member of the US wing of Gamechanger 20 Ltd at the time of the takeover in April 2021 and is also a key figure at USL sides Phoenix Rising and Rhode Island FC.

Like his fellow Three Lions, Berkey Bakay and Mark Detmer, and other members of the Blues’ US contingent and their families, Johnson was at Portman Road to see the Blues beat Huddersfield 2-0 at the start of the month to confirm promotion to the Premier League after 22 years away.

“Clearly my greatest business achievement. Candidly, it doesn’t get any better than that. Other than my marriage, the birth of my children, that’s a special date, for sure,” Johnson said when asked about that day in an interview with the Petcash Pod.

“And it’s surreal. It really hasn’t fully sunk in. June 18th, I think they come out with the schedule for this upcoming season. Hopefully I can make it over for the home opener. Portman Road, when we’re back in the Premier League, it will be interesting.

“I get this suspicion that they’re going to welcome us back with a nice little Man City reunion at Portman Road. We’ll see, but either way I pinch myself every single day relative to it.

“And certainly the decade-long journey that I’ve been blessed to be with the beautiful game, starting in Phoenix, extending now to what I do in Rhode Island, that’s a special milestone that I’m going to enjoy, God willing, for the rest of my life.”

Later in the interview, Johnson was asked if there were any other regions or areas he finds interesting aside from the States and UK.

“I believe strongly in the multi-club ownership model and I hope, in particular through Ipswich, that we can start to look at what I’ll call a ‘passport club’,” he continued.

“A European continent-based club that we can start to look at how that really supports, in particular now Ipswich are in the Premier League.

“But on a relative basis as well. I feel strongly that USL and I think Rhode Island for a lot of reasons has the ability to be an incredible asset in a multi-club ownership model.

“There are only 25 players who are getting to dress for a game, there is a lot of talent in all of these clubs that are sitting idle that aren’t getting quality minutes.

“If you’re in an environment where you’re fighting for promotion or you’re fighting to avoid relegation, it puts even that much more pressure in terms of you not having the luxury of giving a 17-year-old kid who is clearly a superstar the quality minutes that they might need to advance their career.

“I think over time, a multi-club ownership model allows people the flexibility to give quality minutes and to try to figure out how to maximise your assets, which at the end of the day is, candidly, your players.”

Photo: Matchday Images

ArnieM added 17:10 - May 31 Is he talking about sharing players between the Clubs they own? Is this even possible given the player registration per club issues . Is there even a model whereby a play is registered to a “company” that owns several clubs across continents? Intriguing ….
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BurleysGloryDays added 17:11 - May 31 Tattoo?
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backwaywhen added 17:58 - May 31 That’s loaning bench warmers out to his smaller clubs for game I would imagine IMHO.
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backwaywhen added 17:59 - May 31 Game time ……lol
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RobsonWark added 19:36 - May 31 Very, very, very BAD idea. We want our players to be loaned out to clubs that have great coaches who can improve our players, give them game time and is beneficial to Ipswich Town not beneficial to clubs owned by our owners. Look at how Kieran has greatly improved Omari.
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blues1 added 21:16 - May 31 Robsonwark. As usual, only comment anything negative. Thing is, what u are saying about benefiting our club? It would benefit our club, as well as thd club we linked to. Would work for both clubs, being able to take players from the partner club.
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rugbytomc added 21:18 - May 31 ArnieM-Watford do it with Udinese and to a lesser extent Forrest and Olympiakos. But then you’ve got clubs like Man City who are part of a large group of clubs so it’s easy for the biggest club (city) to both loan players (to girona for example) or buy the best players at a fair market price (again I think they’re buying Savio from Girona). Personally I would see owning a European team as an opportunity to send young players on loan to a less physical league whilst they develop. The premier league is less physical than the championship and league one for example so sometimes young players loans don’t work out as they can’t compete physically

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churchmans added 21:50 - May 31 Good idea with the right club/s I would like to see us linked with fortuna dusseldorf and my favourite eastern European team red star belgrade! Loan our players out to gain qaulity experience and we could pick up possibly some absolute gems! I think it is a great idea! Forward and progressive thinking! Fans should not be afraid of these kind of proposals
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ImAbeliever added 22:30 - May 31 ..we don’t like change.. hilarious.
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JewellintheTown added 23:00 - May 31 If only we had a system in place already to loan out fringe players to other clubs to gain experience.
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andehpandeh added 01:07 - Jun 1 Quite honestly, these words smack of a man who doesn't really have any football knowledge, although he does seem passionate about his project. I'm glad he's on our side and equally glad he has the people in the right places to defer to and guide our decisions on the ground, which is all we've asked for. For the first time in decades. Uppa towen
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Pendejo added 01:41 - Jun 1 Tattoo Brett! Just 'cos you've departed Twitter don't mean you can get away with not being inked.
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MickMillsTash added 07:59 - Jun 1 I'm not so sure it should be allowed - somebody's club is going to be seen as the feeder. One Club, One owner (set of owners), One focus - if things were not going so well at Portman Road would we be happy that Brett was seen at e.g Auxerre rather than sorting out any problems we may have ?
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Secondhalf added 08:21 - Jun 1 I think we all love the football but hate the GrabitAll monopolists who think everything can be bought.
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Westy added 08:55 - Jun 1 Association with another club could work but ultimately it has to be Kieran McKenna who decides what players he lends out and where to and vice versa. We could not accept him being pressured into making these decisions. Nor could he.
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blues1 added 13:06 - Jun 1 Mickmillstash. What are you on about? Neither club would be a feeder club. It's an association that would benefit both clubs, with players able to movement loan either way. As for ur last point. He would go wherever he needed most. Really don't get what the issue is. Works at other clubs, why not ours.
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62WasBest added 13:18 - Jun 1 blues1 - It doesn't work for football at all and just cements the richer owners getting richer and the power being increasingly spread like tentacles through the football world but in the hands of fewer and fewer ever wealthier owners.
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ibisblue added 03:04 - Jun 2 Perhaps the first time, but agree with RobsonWark on this one... buininess links to any other club sounds like a compromise we wouldnt want? Werent Watford linked in that way earlier with another club? (maybe still are?) Not sure its helped them?
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bobble added 10:28 - Jun 3 The yanks love to monetize everything but that doesn't work for many sports as people like tradition and history when supporting a team not a big pile of cash inventing a team...
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