Manchester United
Manchester United
The glory years of Manchester United came to an altogether sudden end in 2013 when at the instigation of his wife, Alex Ferguson decided to retire. But, his Manchester career did not end without a swan song. The year before that was a watershed year as Manchester City, the team he had earlier dismissed with massive contempt as the ‘noisy neighbours’ won their first championship in 34 years over Manchester United, on goal difference. Determined to go out in a blaze of glory however, Sir Alex paid what at that time was a record transfer fee to secure the services of Robin van Persoe from bitter rivals Arsenal. This was a clear statement of intent as at 29 years, Persie did not have more than a few years left of his career. Ferguson did not pay for longevity, neither his nor Persie’s. He was looking for a hit man and van Persie fitted the bill perfectly. He wanted a proven scorer to complement Rooney and Persie had been banging in the goals for fun in recent years. And more than that, delivered. Robin van Persie scored 26 goals including two hat tricks that season at the end of which United won the championship at a canter, beating Manchester City into second place by more than ten points. A fully satisfied Ferguson trotted off into the sunset, his face wreathed in smiles after his mission was accomplished.
It is not unlikely that Ferguson would have won two more Premier League titles but for the spanner thrown into the works by Roman Abrahimovitch, the Russian oligarch who had bought over Chelsea in 2004. It is a little ironic that Chelsea is now regarded as a big club because for a long time, she played in the shadows thrown by several other London clubs including Spurs, West ham and even Fulham, not to mention Arsenal.
In 2004 Ibrahimovitch bought Chelsea and turned the club into a paid up member of the big six within the Premier League. The meteoric rise of the club has been nothing short of astonishing, so much so that it has been more or less forgotten that Chelsea had not won the League for fifty years by the time that she won it in 2005. It was an astonishing turn around to say the least. Ibrahimovitch performed that feat by building a formidable square of players almost with a negligent snap of his fingers. First, he appointed the young Jose Mourinho as the manager and it was he who recruited the formidable team which won the Premier League at the first attempt. Prominent among the team were Africans like Drogba and Essien. This endeared the team to Africans who flocked to her standards and made Chelsea one of the most popular clubs in Africa. The club won two championships back to back and two FA cups, also in quick succession before crowning it all with what at the time was an unlikely triumph in the Champions League cup in 2012. Other victories have followed but Chelsea has not been able to assemble a team of long term domination as both Liverpool and Manchester United have been able to do to extend their respective periods of domination.
Whilst Chelsea ruled the roost in the noughties, Manchester City was only recovering as best she could from a turbulent period during which she was on a roller coaster ride through the divisions which existed at the time. Mired in financial crises, they had no choice but to cobble teams together, more to fight relegation than win any championships. The situation was so bad that they were relegated to the third tier of English Football at the end of the 1998 season. During that period, the club appointed a succession of managers none of whom could come up with any ideas as to the way out of the mess they were in. At that time, there could be no talk of a meaningful derby against Manchester United, a club which was then at the height of her powers.
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There is no doubt that as things stand and indeed as they have always stood, the fortunes of any English club is tied to that of their owners. Those teams that have the required powerful backing were given the opportunity of building powerful teams which won matches for as long as the owners are able to provide their support. This was seen with Everton in the age of their much vaunted Holy Trinity midfield and with Liverpool in the days of Bill Shankly. A little before then, we had the reign of the Edwards family, the backing of which allowed United to build two successive winning squads in the fifties and sixties which won four championships between them.
There is also the case of Ibrahimovitch at Chelsea. He was always ready to make money available but at no time was he ready for the long haul and the patience required to actually build a team capable of wins on a consistent basis. For this reason, no manager stayed long enough at Stamford Bridge to build a team with which his name can be associated.
The days of the single all powerful football owner in the mould of the Edwards family in Manchester United, appear to be over. The trend now is for some American consortium to buy and own a certain percentage of club shares and run the club as some financial institution. This kind of financing has been successful in the United States where their sports culture is different from what obtains in England. A case in point is the Glaziers at Manchester United. It has been calculated that the family has siphoned no less than a billion dollars from the club since its shares were bought over in the two year period of 2003-2005. This has saddled the club with debts which the club is trying to pay back through increases in ticket prices and the laying off of staff. Under these circumstances, money for squad and infrastructural development has become increasingly scarce and their iconic ground at Old Trafford is in need of refurbishment. It has been suggested that a new stadium which is to be built at a cost of £2 billion. With success on the pitch becoming increasingly hard to find or even buy, it is difficult where the money for this proposed stadium can be found.
All things considered, there is a great deal of money being made within the Premier League but it is becoming clear that many of the clubs are not as financially comfortable as they otherwise would like to be. This is perhaps because they have not been as prudent with their spending as they should be. They are all throwing a great deal of money at a small and dwindling pool of players in a pathetic attempt to have one up against their rivals who are in the same predicament and what more, are doing the same thing. The point is that real talent is becoming increasingly difficult to find anywhere in the world and the struggle to find them will become increasingly fierce as time goes on.
Correction: Frank Lampard is the manager of Coventry City, not Ipswich Town as reported last week. The error is regretted.
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