Premier League Nonsense

The Premier League is back and the warm fuzzy glow engendered by such a positive Olympics has been replaced by the harsh reality of people doing a job for the cold hard cash that will see them through their retirement.

Hopes that the humility and dignity showed by Team GB’s Olympic heroes would rub off on football’s seasoned old pros were dashed on the opening day as football returned giving notice that as far as it was concerned it was business as usual and nothing had changed.

Arsenal had all the possession against a defensive minded Sunderland but still failed to break down the visitors leaving many to bemoan the loss of a certain Robin van Persie who had signed for Manchester United a few days earlier. Surely, the masses opined, the Dutchman would have scored. Ergo, this train of thought goes, without the striker who netted 30 times in the Premier League last season, Arsenal will struggle this season despite the promise shown by Santi Corzola and the experienced duo Olivier Giroud and Lukas Podolski who were brought in earlier in the summer.

Obviously we cannot expect a better debate in football.

Everton then went and beat Manchester United in their opening game leaving Sir Alex Ferguson moaning after the game that the home crowd intimidate the match officials; something he, as a knight of the realm, would ever contemplate doing.

Successful managers are deemed to be ‘winners’ and we give them all sorts of leeway we would not offer to lesser mortals. Rather than holding his hands up and saying United were beaten by the better team, Fergie preferred to gripe about the officials and Everton’s style of play.

The perceived wisdom of this approach is that the defeated manager is being seen as not slating his players in public. Implicit in this scenario is the idea that these players, most earning more in a week than the rest of us earn in a couple of years, do not take nicely to being criticized, that they need to be protected from the blame game that usually surrounds most defeats.

Maybe that is how it is with the modern player. Millionaires before their 21^st birthday, they are used to getting their way and if they feel slighted in any way then all they have to do is tip off their agent or pet journalist and a whole heap of negativity will come crashing down on the club and, by extension, the manager. So the clubs and the media pander to them.

Which takes us nicely to a certain Emmanuel Adebayor. The Togolese striker was bought to England by Arsenal and his career has followed a similar pattern ever since. Work hard, get a few goals, get the fans on your side then play up.

It says it all that only one club, Tottenham Hotspur, showed any interest in him and even then Manchester City are having to subsidise his salary for the next couple of years after Tottenham refused to break their wage structure and the player, short of suitors, refused to moderate his own demands.

Another player reluctant to take note of the new reality brought about by the economic crunch is Michael Owen. Formerly a teenage prodigy with Liverpool and England, Owen has been hampered by injuries for a few seasons now and was released by Manchester United at the end of last season having struggled in anything beyond the Carling Cup.

Shorn of his pace, Owen has become just another player looking for a club. He no longer brings much to the table yet, like Adebayor, considers himself a top of the range player with a salary to match. Rumours that Stoke City are interested were followed by rumours that Owen wanted a similar salary to the one he was earning at United.

It is a shame that on a weekend when Swansea City and Fulham both hit five playing stylish football and sat, albeit temporarily, on top of the heap, the headlines are being hogged by the usual negativity.

But we still  love it!

Apart from a couple of clubs who seem to have owners who can print their own money, many clubs in England are not flushed with cash. Neither, it has to be said, are the fans. Not every fan can afford an executive box and a nose bag at the club restaurant with free vol au vants thrown in for good measure plus 40 quid a pop for a replica shirt.

You would think then that the people charged with running the game would take the economic strait jacket into account when arranging fixture lists or cup draws.

Take a look at these league cup ties played this week

Burnley v Plymouth Argyle

Carlisle United v Ipswich Town

Crawley Town v Bolton Wanderers

Gillingham v Middlesbrough

MK Dons v Blackburn Rovers

Preston North End v Crystal Palace

Sheffield Wednesday v Fulham

Stoke City v Swindon Town

Swansea City v Barnsley

Watford v Bradford City

West Ham United v Crewe Alexandra

Everton v Leyton Orient

That’s a hell of a lot of road time!

People may say if it ain't broke then don't fix it but why not anticipate? Why not just regionalise at least the early rounds of the Capital One/League Cup; an implicit appreciation that these times aren't easy on the pocket?

Many years ago, long before English football was invented by Sky Sports and the Premier League, clubs did all their shopping in their own backyard.

The great Liverpool team of the late 1970s, the one that claimed the European Cup as their own private property, was built on players brought up from lower division clubs. Ray Clemence and Kevin Keegan came from Scunthorpe United; Phil Neal came from Northampton Town; Joey Jones from Wrexham.

Clubs lower down the league had good scouting networks in place and young players knew that if they were good enough they would get a chance not just for their local team but to impress clubs further up the ladder.

No foreign players were available of course and there was seemingly enough talent to go around and then some. Looking back it seems unbelievable that players like Kevin Hector (Bradford Park Avenue & Derby County striker), Stan Bowles (Bury, Crewe Alexandra, Carlisle United & Queens Park Rangers) and Laurie Cunningham (Leyton Orient, West Bromwich Albion & Real Madrid) earned a mere 13 caps between them.

It is a dangerous game to compare across the ages but anyone who saw that particular trimutive in their prime would look nonplussed at the national team and see them fitting in effortlessly.

But football, well the Premier League, has moved on. Players in the lower leagues today carry a premium by dint of their passport alone and the big clubs, looking for value for money in the millions or tens of millions, tend to steer clear, preferring to take a cheaper punt on players from abroad.

Proven goal scorers are as ever at a premium. Only Tottenham Hotspur showed any interest in Emmanuel Adebayor, who for all his many faults, averages a goal nearly every other game, and even then needed Manchetser City to subsidise his salary.

Manchester United spent 24 million pound on a 29 year old Dutch striker with a career littered with lengthy spells out of the game through injury; Liverpool paid 35 million for an English striker and now they are struggling to get him off the pay roll.

You would think given that scenario, clubs would be falling over themselves to sign a 22 year old full international who netted 40 goals last season.

But they’re not. Neither Manchester United, Arsenal, Manchester City or Tottenham Hotspur, all in the market for a top striker, have been linked. Not even the second tier of Premier League clubs, the likes of Everton, Newcastle United or Aston Villa, have been reported to show any interest.

Jordan Rhodes is the young man in question. Formerly with Ipswich Town, his goals have had a major say in Huddersfield Town’s success in recent years culminating in their promotion from Division One to the Championship.

His three seasons in West Yorkshire saw him score 87 goals in 148 games. in that time he hit five goals in oneaway game and recorded the fastest ever hat trick of headers as well as winning the Golden Boot for three successive seasons.

After hitting eight goals in eight Under 21 games for Scotland, he made his full debut against Australia in a friendly last month and scored.

An impressive pedigree but still not enough for any of the big clubs to sit up and take notice.

Instead it has fallen to Blackburn Rovers to seize the initiative and bid for player whose father, Andy, was a Scottish international goalkeeper. Blackburn Rovers, who just dropped out of the Premier League last season and now play in the same division as Huddersfield. Blackburn, a club divided where fans are staying away in the hope that the owners and manager will walk away.

The price is thought to be an initial 4.5 million GBP with add ons should he reach certain targets. Surely not big money by today’s standards.

But still too high for the big clubs who deem it too risky.

I remember them coming to Highbury in 1980. In the modern parlance they parked the bus. They got their just desserts that day against an average Arsenal side, eventually losing 2-0 though, perhaps tellingly, both goals came from defenders.

Their manager at the time, Alan Durban, was unrepentant. He was answerable to Stoke City Football Club and their fans. He wasn’t in the entertainment industry, ‘if people want entertainment they should go to the circus.’

Their present day manager, Tony Pulis, would no doubt heartly agree with that sentiment. Not for them the tippy tappy football so beloved of teams like World Champions Spain. Welly it forward as quickly as possible and hope someone picks up the second ball.

It certainly makes for an interesting contrast in styles when Stoke do come up against teams that play along the ground and like their possession.

Such tactics of course are widely derided by many in the game but to be fair to Pulis it has kept Stoke in the top flight for a number seasons after a near three decade gap. Stoke are never going to have the budget to attract big name players.

English football has fortunately moved in from the days of great lumps kicking great lumps out of leather and opponent if Stoke haven’t. However the local support seem to glory in giving the football purists the middle finger.

Stoking the flames ahead of Sunday’s clash, Pulis responded angrily to the abuse dished out by Stoke fans to the Arsenal midfielder Aaron Ramsey.

In a feeble minded attempt at petty point scoring, Pulis said that Arsenal fans weren’t exactly angels. They abuse Shawcross too.

Pulis seems to have forgotten how his defender became public enemy number one in the red half of North London. It was a reckless challenge from Shawcross that broke the Welsh midfielder’s leg, leaving his football career in serious doubt.

So yes, there is a certain amount of ill feeling towards the former Manchester United defender.

Yet when Ramsey came on as a second half substitute, the home support showed their class by booing and jeering the player. The ugly side of football tribalism where a club’s badge is enough to cover up the sins of the game.

In their logic Ramsey is the villain. Maybe for allowing himself to get injured in the first place. Or because he recovered. Or because he wasn’t tough enough to withstand a good old fashioned Made in the North challenge. Ramsey entered the Brittania Stadium arena with the crowd baying for blood akin to a scene from Gladiator.

Stoke fans do seem to have a fascination for Arsenal and Arsene Wenger. There was a call for supporters yesterday to mock the Arsenal manager so we had the bizarre spectacle of hundreds of fans trying to get at Wenger by wearing, umm, Wenger face masks.

Stoke do have their place in the Premier League. With other recently promoted clubs like Wigan Athletic and Swansea City earning the plaudits for playing the game the ‘right way’, it is refreshing that the oldest team in the division, they celebrate their 150^th anniversary next year, should cling on to the old ways so doggedly.

Like I said, a funny bunch!

I’m sorry you find 40,000 GBP an inadequate income. It must be tough having a job where you run around a few mornings a week, kick a ball once or twice and you have to get by on such a meager salary.

I tried recently asking my boss to increase my salary threefold. That was last Monday. More than one week later she still hasn’t stopped laughing. ‘What planet are you living on?’ she asked me incredulously.

Ade, I recall an interview recently where you mentioned spending 750 GBP on a pair of jeans. And you’d bought a new Bentley. And you still need to increase your salary to 120,000 GBP a week? Just what will the 80,000 extra bring you eh?

I know we’ll get all the player apologists come out and say it’s a short career and if someone gets offered such sums of course they should take it. My heart bleeds for the poor darlings.

How difficult it must be to get by on a salary that could allow you to buy a house on the outskirts of London every three months?

You can bet your last pay cheque most fans who chant your name week in, week out would be happy to earn 40,000 GBP. A year! Following a football team in the Premier League isn’t cheap. Well, for you maybe but not for most of the population.

A season ticket can cost nearly 1,000 GBP. Or slightly more expensive than a pair of jeans. If the fan has kids then they’ll want the club jerseys, two new ones a season at 40 GBP a time. Transport costs are rising, food and drink aren’t cheap. A day out at the football with two kids can cost in excess of 100 GBP!

Listen Ade. Last season you did well. 30 goals is always a good achievement. But you went missing in important games fella. When the club needed leaders on the pitch you were nowhere to be found. Think on that.

You came from Monaco where no one knew you. Arsene Wenger showed trust in you when many of us were unsure. But one good season does not a good player make.

Take a look in your trophy cabinet. If you have taken it out of its box yet! You have won nothing Ade. Nothing.

So one nearly good season and you want to triple your earnings? What would you want if you won the Premier League and the Champions League?

Your 46 goals put you below Tony Adams in the all time goal scoring lists at Arsenal. But then he was a legend and you are a long way from being remembered in such illustrious company.

If you don’t want to stay then go. Players come, players go all the time in football. Just don’t bleat on about needing money for retirement or that you want to challenge yourself. Be honest, be a man and say you just want more money.

If you stay? Don’t even think about kissing the badge. Such a hollow gesture would be an insult to a great club and its fans.

This piece was written 30/6/2008 for www.espnstar.com I forget whether they used it or not!

Perceived wisdom has it that Arsenal are not one of the biggest payers in world football. If that is the case then why are the parsominous ones finding it so hard to get rid of fringe players like Nicklas Bendtner, Sebastian Squillaci and even Denilson who is back in Brazil but only on loan?

Bendtner, the Danish striker with a big opinion of himself, has been linked with a number of clubs by his agent but when push comes to shove no deal has happened yet and one reason for that is few clubs are willing to match the salary he currently earns at Arsenal. And despite having spent last season on loan with Sunderland his stock his relatively high following a reasonable Euros with his country.

Another player a club can’t get shot of is Emmanuel Adebayor. His proposed move to Tottenham Hotspur has not happened yet with the north London club reluctant to match his wages. It’s obvious City no longer see him in their plans; the year before last he spent on loan at Real Madrid and they too didn’t see enough to want to sign him.

Adebayor of course is earning a whole lot more than Bendtner but while the Dane is seen at least as a hard working striker Adebayor is seen as looking after himself. Not a trait that will endear him to team mates or employers.

Indeed Robin van Persie’s proposed move to Manchester City is unlikely to ever happen all the while Adebayor is with the Premier League Champions owing to apparent tensions between the two when they were both at Arsenal.

More column inches and cyberspace have been taken up with Robin van Persie than perhaps any other supposed transfer. If you believe the media over these things then City have had the deal signed up because they can match his wage demands, which as far as I’m aware have never been made public, then they fell out the running for Manchester United to become favourites. The latest destination is thought to be Juventus though other reports suggest they may no longer be interested.

And that is all we have to go on. Reports from uncited sources or just the mere guess work of journalists who know that a juicy piece of transfer gossip will add thousands to their website.

Last year’s transfer non event was Luka Modric’s proposed move to Chelsea. Tottenham kept upping the price, supposedly, Chelsea kept accepting, supposedly, then nothing happened. Now it appears he is being linked with Real Madrid.

His former team mate, Nico Kranjar, came out recently guns blazing, accusing Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy of being greedy and trying to milk as much money out of a transfer fee as possible. Well, shucks Nico. That is his job after all, to protect his club and to get the best possible fee when they decide to sell. It’s not as if players are known for their generosity when it comes to contract negotiations.

Perhaps the biggest non story of this year so far has revolved not round a player but a manager. When Fabio Capello left the England manager’s job it was assumed by many, not least in the English media, that Harry Redknapp was a shoo in for his replacement. Ignoring the fact that he had just one FA Cup triumph to his name they tried to convince everyone that Harry was the best man for the job because, um, he was English and he liked to talk to the press!

He never got the job of course and the appointment of Roy Hodgson was one reason why England entered the Euros accompanied by less media driven jingoism than usual.

And as for Harry? Surely a man good enough to be linked to the biggest job in English football could walk into any job he wanted?

Not quite. Liverpool looked for someone to replace Kenny Dalglish but opted for the relatively novice Brendan Rogers. Aston Villa opted for Paul Lambert from Norwich City. Liverpool and Villa may no longer be the forces they were on the field but both are still big clubs carrying an aura about them. And neither, it appears, were interested in Harry Redknapp.

Indonesia is no stranger to far fetched transfer gossip. A few years ago Bambang Pamungkas was linked with Derby County. The fact that he would never have qualified for a work permit did not stop that particular story doing the rounds for a few days.

The best of all came last year when clubs were busy recruiting players for the debut season of the Indonesia Premier League. The team from Padang in West Sumatra came out and said they were interested in signing Dennis Bergkamp, the legendary Dutch striker who has a very real aversion to flying!

We all love a bit of transfer gossip but much of it is just that. Gossip. Clubs, agents and players themselves have been known to plant stories with their own pet journo for their own reason be it an improved negotiating position or to bolster sagging season ticket sales. They are great fun but best served with a pinch of salt!

To the outsider Scottish football can seemly both quaint and ugly at the same time. Quaint in that there are clubs with delightful names like Cowdenbeath, Stenhousemuir and Queen of the South. Ugly? The sectarianism that dominates the game, divides the mostly Catholic Celtic and the mostly Protestant Rangers who have dominated the game almost since its inception and whose every victory becomes a triumph for Irish nationalism or British supremacy respectively.

Before last season when Rangers saw it all unravel when they were deducted points for administration the Glasgow giants had held such a stranglehold on the game north of the border that only once since 1996 had another team finished in the top two (Hearts in 2005/2006). Since 1965 only Aberdeen twice, under a young manager named Alex Ferguson, and Dundee United have won Scotland’s top flight and they were back in the early 1980s.

Now though the duopoly is over. Before a ball has been kicked Celtic are the champions of the Scottish Premier League. Quite simply there is no other team that can match their resources.

Rangers must start anew. SPL clubs didn’t want them. Division One clubs didn’t want them in their division. Rangers, mighty Glasgow Rangers who reached the Champions League Semi Final in 1992, only to be beaten by Olympique Marseille who went on to win the final but ended up disgraced on match fixing charges, must start again in Division Three and it’s a decision that hasn’t gone down well in many quarters.

Scottish football, if it exists in people’s minds at all, is all about the Old Firm Derby. Celtic v Rangers. There is nothing else. Take that off the menu and, so the reasoning goes, people have no interest. Attendances at SPL games not featuring the Old Firm rarely break the 10,000 barrier. In the basement that will be home for next season a few hundred is the norm.

There is a feeling among many out there that Rangers are just too big a club to fail. That Scottish football at the highest level needs them. That sponsorship and TV deals are at risk. That may all be true. Some clubs in the top flight may struggle without the income that comes from two full houses when Rangers and their large travelling support come to town.

But that is the cold hearted business approach. An approach that overlooks emotions such as passion and romance. The business approach so beloved of many has sucked much of the western world into the longest recession since the 1930s. Perhaps it’s no bad thing that these realists and their obsession with the bottom line took a back seat.

Maybe Rangers absence from the Scottish Premier League will announce a time of famine for the top clubs. But for the clubs in Division Three it is surely an unexpected, but gratefully received, windfall.

The new reality began at the weekend when Rangers played Brechin City in the Scottish Challenge Cup. 

This competition was created in 1990/1991 to allow teams outside the Premier League a chance to win some silverware once in a while. Last season it was won by Raith Rovers. Before that Ross County.

Brechin City play their trade in Division Two, a division above Rangers. When they met at their tiny Glebe Park  just over 4,000 fans filled the stadium. Local pubs and small businesses were overflowing with customers who would not normally have headed their way. One pub reported his business was 500% up on a normal match day!

Rangers eventually won 2-1, does it count as a giantkilling(?!), thanks to an extra time winner by Lee McCulloch leaving the travelling support in a good mood and the home team luxuriating in the take at the gate.

Forget the naysayers. Rangers season down below is going to be a triumph. The other Division Three clubs are going to experience a cash bonanza every home game, local business’ will find their cash flow eased and the loyal supporters will get a buzz from visiting grounds they would never normally get to.

Books will be written, DVDs released and future generations of Rangers fans will hear from those who were there and dream, wistfully, they too could have followed Rangers during those never to be forgotten years.