Fulham owner Shahid Khan preaches American sensibilities, with respect to English traditions Khan's story is fascinating, starting in Lahore in 1950. You'll be amazed, especially today, how revered the British Empire is in India, and especially in Pakistan. In Pakistan especially for the last 60 years what the British Government left there are things that endure like English law, the British railroads, the English language."" And cricket?"" "That would fall under "religion"! I used to have Hanif Mohammad's flip-card where you would see his batting position. Asif Iqbal was a great bowler. I played street cricket. Just a bat and a ball, no formalities like lbw and all that gimmickry! I loved batting."" He was not born wealthy. My grandfather, a doctor, had multiple wives and my father was from the youngest wife, and by the time it got to his education, they had gone through most of the family money. So my father had to work and put himself through school. Then he worked for the British railroads. He was a station-master at Lahore. He got married, an arranged marriage, and had to provide for the family, so he started running a small retail store at night. That taught me my work ethic and that paranoia is a healthy thing. It could all be gone! I feel that now!"" Really?! He moved to the States as a teenager, working ferociously hard, building up a 17,000-employee business and is himself worth £3billion so why the paranoia? "Auto-parts is hyper-competitive,"" he explained. In football one wins, one loses. In auto-parts four or five guys have to lose for one to win. If we're not innovating we might have to close facilities. You have families counting on sending kids to school, making mortgage payments, who are going to be on the street. I don't lose sleep over that but I do have a sense of responsibility over that."" He feels a responsibility to those who call Craven Cottage home. It's a special place. It's the history but also the make-up of the fans, the civility, the welcome, family values which are really very much in sync with NFL. There's also a very tribal aspect that goes with English clubs. American sports don't have that tribal aspect today."" Khan won the respect of many supporters when ordering the removal of the Michael Jackson statue, a sensitive issue that arose during negotiations to buy the club from Mohamed Al Fayed. I thought it would be very easy for him to comprehend that this was time it had to go but he really struggled with it. Al Fayed threatened jokingly he would remove Khan's moustache if Jackson went. "He has a good sense of humour, unique, a very Middle Eastern, Asian sense of humour, a humour from my dad's generation's that I relate to,"" Khan smiled. He's got a heart of gold. In all reality Fulham might not exist without Mr Al Fayed."" So what's Khan's game-plan? He definitely enjoys the sport, hugely admires the Premier League's chief executive Richard Scudamore and appreciates the league's commercial possibilities such as generating additional income from those 200m tuning into Fulham-Arsenal. "That will come with time,"" he says of earning more from the overseas audience. Khan envisages the "EPL" becoming the world's dominant sporting league. "Absolutely."" So he was sitting on a potential goldmine on the banks of the Thames? No, I wouldn't say that but the best is yet to come for EPL. I met Scudamore, a great guy, and he's more American than British! He's one of the most American guys I've ever met! I mean it in a very, very good way!"" He likes Scudamore's ambition. The NFL, and particularly Khan's Jaguars, are playing regular-season games in London. So could the Premier League revisit Scudamore's controversial idea of a "39th game" with a match overseas? "Right now that would be blasphemous for me,"" replied Khan. I've been in this league what three months, four months? It would be heresy to suggest something like that. I spoke to Scudamore and he said "I still have scars from the 39th game." I think there will be a time but it's not right now. I thought it was a very, very ingenious plan that he had and eventually it would make sense but it has to make sense to everybody. It can't just make sense to one person. In the mean-time, Khan encourages Fulham and Jaguars executives to operate in tandem, maximising revenue. "Our goal is 2+2=5, working with each other, helping the NFL effort but more importantly helping Fulham."" He sees the Premier League learning from American sports and vice-versa. Khan is passionate about "analytics"," the use of data to assess and predict performance. In the auto-industry now it's second nature. In sports, baseball doesn't have a hard salary cap so some of the smaller teams - Oakland are a good example - use the analytics, the patterns, for "how do I identify the high-value players," so they can compete without the (larger) salaries of much bigger clubs. Analytics is not a magic cure-all but it's another tool that might give you a leg-up. A hard salary cap (as in the NFL) would certainly sustain soccer in a big way. In the Premier League it's very much a "you eat what you kill" concept. Merchandising and marketing is all done at club level whereas in the NFL you sell the rights to the League, split them up and each team is going to end up with more money. That is very, very difficult when you have relegation and promotion."" He would not change the flow between divisions. It absolutely does add to the drama. It adds to the Cinderella factor. I saw - do you pronounce it Yeovil? - a tiny club, who came up into the Championship. Isn't that wonderful?! A feelgood story. You wouldn't have that without promotion-relegation. There's a lot of commercialism in American sports. Every minute or two the play stops and "here's a TV commercial." I don't think you can do that with soccer. You can't mess with the spirit or karma of something just to do make it more commercial. EPL is doing a lot of things right."" Information is key. He introduces his factory workers to the Jacksonville coach Gus Bradley after games. It's the sharing of experiences. It benefited Gus Bradley much."" One wonders what Fulham's manager, Martin Jol, will make of such proffered advice. Fulham are already seeking another coach to assist him. Khan supports Jol, whose position was strengthened by Monday's thrashing of Crystal Palace. "Right now, Martin is our manager,"" said Khan. What we are looking at is how do we help Martin to be more successful? Martin has a lot for resources. Another coach is not something being done in isolation without his counsel, encouragement and involvement."" Very polite and engaging, Khan is a demanding owner.