Back in 2001 the former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein took part in a BBC documentary called The Five Men Who Changed English Football. ‘I was voted to join the Arsenal board in October 1993, I still had my old business at the time and decided that I felt football was really a sleeping giant and still had a long way to go,’ he told the programme makers. ‘Particularly after spending time in the States and seeing how the Americans operated their sport, particularly American football and baseball and basketball.’ Crystal Palace thumped QPR on Saturday - Joel Ward is pictured celebrating the third goal in their 3-1 victory . Wilfried Zaha took one for the team as he clattered into the post during Palace's win over Rangers . Dein, who sold his stake in Arsenal to Uzbekistan billionaire Alisher Usmanov for £75m six years later, is regarded as a visionary. Overseas investment has become an accepted practice in the Barclays Premier League, an attractive market because the top 20 teams in English football pull in more than £3bn a season through television, commercial and gate receipts. Soon it will be the turn of the Crystal Palace board, the four men who formed CPFC2010, to convince the club’s supporters that the US dollar will enhance the club’s long-term prospects. When it comes round to your team, it certainly sharpens the senses. What are the motives behind the investment? Why now? Will they develop the stadium? Will they improve the team? What will happen if it all goes wrong? Billionaire Josh Harris is set to join the list of American owners in the Barclays Premier League . Crystal Palace owners (from left) Stephen Browett, Jeremy Hosking, Martin Long and Steve Parish with sponsor Bill Hill in the middle holding the shirt . David Dein (centre), who sold his stake in Arsenal for £75m, is regarded as a visionary . Assuming the takeover by the American billionaire Josh Harris is confirmed, the ownership constitution in the Premier League will be comprised: . United States (Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool, Sunderland, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace). Russia (Chelsea); United Arab Emirates (Manchester City); Switzerland (Southampton); Malaysia (QPR); Thailand (Leicester); Egypt (Hull City). Swansea, another team involved in takeover talks recently, are currently owned by a group of astute Welsh businessmen. Seven top-flight teams - Tottenham, Stoke City, West Ham, Newcastle, West Brom, Everton and Burnley - remain in English hands. Manager Alan Pardew has Palace sitting in mid-table since returning to Selhurst Park from Newcastle . There will be a good deal of Palace fans who will be sceptical about overseas investment, wondering how a club embedded in the streets of south London came to be owned by mega-wealthy Americans. Visibility is usually one of the main concerns. ‘Silent’ Stan Kroenke, who gathered a few more shares in Arsenal earlier this week, only speaks to supporters at the AGM because they put pressure on the club to hear from him. Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in July 2003 and the fans have never once heard the Russian billionaire speak about his association with the club. They will live with it because Chelsea have won three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, three League Cups, the Champions League and Europa League since Abramovich took control. Results usually do the trick. South of the river, potential is a dirty word at Palace because people have been talking about the size of the club ever since 51,482 crammed into Selhurst Park to see them promoted to the old First Division in May 1979. Back then Raymond Bloye, a Chelsea fan who harboured ambitions to buy the west London club, was the owner and chairman of Palace. Utopia for most supporters is for the Jack Walker-type, the local boy who made his fortune in the steel industry, to walk through the door and spend his money building a team of champions. Walker lived in Jersey, presumably for tax reasons, and nobody complained about his proximity to Ewood Park when Tim Sherwood lifted the Premier League title in 1995. It worked for them. Jack Walker pumped his money into Blackburn -  Alan Shearer (left) and Chris Sutton hold aloft the Premier League trophy after Rovers finished top of the pile in 1995 . At Selhurst Park, the four men who saved the club from oblivion in 2010, taking them out of administration and into the Premier League, are all mad Palace fans. Stephen Browett, one of the shareholders, admits he bought into Palace ‘to stop my Saturday afternoons being ruined’ when the club were in administration. Fan ownership, though, is not always such a success. Mark Goldberg and Simon Jordan, both Palace supporters and successive owners of the club, took them into administration on separate occasions. History is important, particularly to football supporters, but it can also stifle progress. Change has to be for the better. At Palace this means the redevelopment of the stadium, a must if the team are to compete long-term in the Premier League, investment in better players and an infrastructure off the field to cope with the increasing demands of football at that level. When the Premier League was formed in 1992, all 22 member clubs were owned by a spread of, mainly, British-based businessmen. Liverpool, champions of the old First Divison on 18 occasions, were still under the guidance of the Moores family. Redeveloping Selhurst Park is a must for Palace to compete long-term in the Premier League . Is it time for the Eagles to fly higher than ever before under new ownership? Philip Carter, who was among those who championed the idea of a breakaway league, had presided some of the greatest moments in Everton’s history. Tottenham were owned by property investor Irving Scholar; Sam Hammam, born in Lebanon and living in England, was chairman of Wimbledon. Fred Reacher had recently succeeded Maurice Roworth at Nottingham Forest. And so it went on. In those days stadiums were operating at 69.6 per cent of capacity and the combined turnover of Premier League teams was £45m. Compare that with the present-day statistics, where stadiums run at 96 per cent capacity and turnover has reached record levels, it is inevitable that Premier League teams attract overseas interest. In south London, supporting Palace is about to change forever. On that basis it’s run to catch up, or get left behind.
Crystal Palace set to be the next English club under American ownership . Billionaire Josh Harris is the man set to take over the Eagles . Only seven top-flight teams will remain in English hands .