You're famously a Wolves fan (the only one we know of), tell us about your soccer background?

Hey, there’s loads of us in Wolverhampton! My Wolves fandom is a family tradition. My dad used to go and watch the team back in the 1950s, when they were at one point the best in England, maybe even in Europe. I started going to Molineux with my older brother in the 1990s, and also go with my sister and brother in law whenever I’m home. So it’s a thing that really connects me to my family and to the region I’m from.

My soccer fandom starts with the England national team. I didn’t care too much until the 1990 World Cup happened, and England made the semifinals. I was all in after that, but with England as my focus, and then the Premier League launched a couple of years later and English football was suddenly exciting and glamorous, and then I started going to Wolves games a few years later.

How high do Wolves have to finish to consider the season a success?

I’d say top 10 is a success. I’d love to see them qualify for the Europa League, either via the FA Cup or by finishing seventh. In both cases, Watford stand in the way right now.

You're from a different country, so we assume you have a unique perspective on American culture. What are the major differences between your country of birth and your country of choice?

You mean in a wider sense than soccer? I’m going to steal this answer from Zadie Smith, the (excellent) English author who splits her time between the UK and the US. I was at one of her readings a couple of years ago, and in the Q&A afterward I asked her essentially the same question you’ve asked me, because I knew she’d have a great perspective on it. She said if she could transpose one thing about each, she wished the UK culture had more of America’s spirit of adventure and can-do and get-up-and-go, and she wished American culture had more of the UK’s spirit of togetherness and willingness to try and look after everyone in the society. I think it’s a perfect answer, and I also think it gets at the (maybe impossible?) balance any nation has to try to strike between the rights/needs/demands of the individual versus the collective good of society.

Let's zero in on the difference in soccer culture. Obviously soccer is more popular, but aside from that, what differences would you pinpoint?

I think the biggest difference among fans is the club versus country hierarchy. Seems to me that in the US, the national team comes first for a very high percentage of soccer fans, maybe because watching the US at a World Cup was there introduction the game. There’s constant interest and news and debate about every aspect of the national team and I love it. But in England there’s a lot of fans for whom their club is everything, be it Arsenal or Liverpool or whatever, and the national team is at best secondary, and at worst getting in the way. Everyone gets into it for the World Cup or the Euros, when the whole nation gets hyped up, but outside of those summers, a lot of people are very much focused on their club team.

The other major difference is the media. Because football is so high profile in England and the players are A-list celebrities, there’s endless coverage. Some of it is great, but there’s also all kinds of nonsense rumors and speculation and manufactured drama. I kind of enjoy that in the US the soccer news is, for the most part, actual soccer news, as opposed to TMZ-style content.