Brad Friedel spent the best part of two decades keeping goal in the Premier League. He is now sporting director of a club sitting 15th in League Two, and he does not appear to regard that as a step down so much as a different kind of job.
Scott Davidson’s Biscayne ST LLC consortium, of which Friedel is part, completed its takeover of Shrewsbury Town on Monday, buying 87.4 per cent of the shares and allowing Roland Wycherley to hand over control after first saying he was looking for a successor five years ago. Before Shrewsbury, the group had looked at clubs in Turkey, Poland, Portugal and Holland.
Why none of the others worked
“Scott and I met through friends in Miami and through the love of football and nothing more or less,” Friedel told BBC Radio Shropshire. “As we got to know each other, our thoughts on business and football aligned — we got to the point where we said let’s try to find a club which fits a whole bunch of criteria.”
Something failed to line up at each of the European options, and a good deal of it, he says, came down to whether the group believed it could actually help. Davidson already holds a majority stake in The Spartans, the Edinburgh club in Scottish League Two, so the UK was familiar territory. What sold Shrewsbury was the shape of the town around it. “The one-town club really appealed to us because we want to integrate the club even more into the town than it is now,” Friedel said.
Recruitment first
The early work is going into how Shrewsbury find players. A department is already assembled and working, built around a customised data platform, with more people to come. Friedel is careful about how far he will push the numbers: “I’m very much data driven but I’d never sign a player just on data as there are so many different elements to signing a player. What data does is speed up the process.” The stated intention is to look in parts of the world Shrewsbury have never looked in before.
He also plans to be there in person rather than on a video call from Florida. He is moving over, he says he will be at training every day, and he describes the relationship with head coach Gavin Cowan as a collaboration with defined roles and no dictators. Cowan, a former Shrewsbury player, was appointed in January and steered the club 10 points clear of relegation last season.
How far, and how fast
Friedel is not putting a date on promotion, though he is not pretending the ambition stops at survival either. Stability, structure and resources for the first team and the academy come first; after that the group wants to be in the promotion conversation this season or next, and to keep going if it gets one. This is Shrewsbury’s second season in League Two after a 10-year stay in League One ended in 2025. The last time they played in the second tier was 1989.
“I don’t look at football anymore as I would only take a job in the Premier League or the Champions League,” he said. One of the jobs he enjoyed most after retiring was coaching the United States under-19 side, where most of the players were not even professional.
Club business: Biscayne ST LLC completed its purchase of 87.4% of Shrewsbury Town’s shares on Monday 9 November 2026. Brad Friedel, 55, is sporting director; Scott Davidson leads the consortium. Friedel played for Liverpool, Blackburn, Aston Villa and Tottenham and kept goal for the United States. Shrewsbury are 15th in League Two under Gavin Cowan. Quotes via BBC Radio Shropshire.
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