There’s plenty wrong with modern football.
Ticket prices, diva strikers and players betting on themselves to take a corner in the 37th minute and put it into row NN seat 154. To name but a few.
Having now studied and analysed all of the available data, trawled through club records and press clippings and spoken to a number of high profile individuals involved in the professional game (none of those things are true), I have concluded that the single biggest thing wrong with modern football is…..
Owners.
These are the people that negotiated the huge TV deals, only to discover they had to give all of the money to their squad of mediocre foreign players. These are the people that, in their infinite wisdom, decide that 100 year old club names should be changed because it might make some Manchester United fan in Bangkok start supporting ‘Hull Tigers’. These are the people that change their teams traditional colours because the new colour is ‘Lucky’. That’s right. Lucky. That effectively means that the owners of Cardiff City Football Club believe that MAGIC will help them beat West Brom this Saturday.
Bad Decisions
But worse than all of these decisions, which would appear to me made by a secret society of football club owners, sat around smoking oversized cigars and betting each other on what the most ridiculous thing they can do with their club is, whilst, laughing hysterically at the football fans who are still paying 2 days wages to go and watch their team, are the decisions these people make with regards to managerial appointments.
Andre Villa Boas appointment at Spurs will go down in Premiership folklore as one of the most ill advised in its history, based not only on results but the track record on which club owner Daniel Levy pondered and thought ‘Yes, this is the man for me!’. I eagerly await the ‘Christian Gross or Andre Villas Boas’ debate.
I am currently watching the Tottenham/Glenn Hoddle situation closely. A man who previously took the very same club to the brink of relegation. Get your money on him now.
Football Manager 2014
Jamie Redknapp recently said of Daniel Levy “I think he wants to be (Tottenham) manager”. I fear that this is true of many club owners. I suggest that for the good of YOUR club, you rush out and get your Chairman a copy of Football Manager 2014 for Christmas so he can change your team name, colours and manager without it having a real effect outside of his living room.
The Premiership is NOT the place for owners to experiment with managerial appointments often seemingly lending it the same gravity as I might try a shirt and tie combo (Brian Kidd, Blackburn 1998), it is a place for proven managers to step up or in. Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Gerard Houllier, Jose Mourinho, Rafa Benitez, Martin O’Neil, Brendan Rogers, Malky Mackay even, all cut their teeth with smaller clubs, were successful, and learned their trade.
Football Owners Exam:
(Please show your working out)
Q1. Find the pattern in the below lists:
Southgate, Kidd, Keegan, Hoddle
Ferguson, Wenger, Mourinho, O’Neil.
Q2. If I want the club to be successful I should rely on….
Luck and Magic
Keeping the loyal fans and successful manager happy
(Please note: You are not allowed to confer with your Director of Football.)
(…..or HAVE a Director of Football.)
Source: DSG
