Sunday, May 20th, 2012 « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
By Tony Attwood
I have tried to get this article written five times, and each time something else happens. It is as if there is more action in the Premier League out of the season than within it.
The idea of the original article was to do a quick review of a few clubs in terms of what they are facing in the close season. But events move on.
However in the hope that nothing happens in the next half hour while I write this piece, here we go…
Liverpool.
They finished 8th in the league a lot closer to being relegated than to winning the league. They reported a loss of around £50m for the last financial year as a result of the failed new stadium costs and payoffs to the former manager Roy Hodgson and other staff.
Now they have another pay out for the sacking of Dalgleish and other staff.
Fenway Sports Group has already wiped £200m worth of debt out in buying the club and the club is still being sued by Tom Hicks and George Gillett. Roy Hodgson lasted 191 days. The departure of MD Christian Purslow cost a further £8.4m. It is called turmoil
Ian Ayre, the current managing director, said ” We have written off a huge amount on the stadium project. A big chunk of that £50m loss relates to the HKS project – which is now defunct – and associated costs around that.” That was before the latest managerial sackings.
As we noted in an earlier piece, it is interesting that Mr Dalglish was sacked after winning their first trophy in six years. Clearly in the eyes of Liverpool’s owner the craving for a trophy is outweighed by the need to a) finish above Everton and b) get into the Champs League. In fact the owner stated at the start of the season that it would be “a major disappointment” should Liverpool not finish in the top four having spent £120m investment in new players.
And that is really the problem. There are a lot of clubs that want to finish in the top four: Man U, Man C, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle…
Moving on there is Man City, whose manager is demanding more money to secure the next league win on points rather than goal difference. They want Van Persie, Eden Hazard… the list could go on and on. But the top dogs are saying the club should not spend, as it wants to meet the FFP regulations. So the battle here is, who is going to win – the owner or the manager?
Mancini said, “Barcelona and Real Madrid every year buy two or three players and spend a lot of money. I think for Manchester City it will be the same. We need to improve. We need to have the strength to play Champions League and Premier League.”
Tottenham have a different issue. Redknapp, every year, loves to deal in players and repeatedly said that he did not have a big enough squad at Tottenham this year. He has made it clear he wants to unload a lot of players, keep some like Modric, and buy all sorts of others. It is the normal Arry style. The issue is, will people want to buy Tottenham’s unwanted at a price that does not make Tottenham a big loss, and then will Arry have enough money to buy the sort of players he wants?
At the same time Tottenham have a stadium to build – which means raising a lot of money there. The double requirement of funding stretched Arsenal’s arrangements considerably, but it could stretch Tottenham even further, even with the donation Mayor Boris has promised Tottenham.
Moving down the scale there is Aston Villa – with their worst season in quite a while and four managers in a couple of seasons. The problem with such a club is that it is clear that there is not much money for transfers (it seems to have been spent on managers) and yet there is a large amount of transferring to do. Would Paul Lambert really fancy such a challenge knowing that the fans want a top six finish to get Euro football?
Last time they chose Alex McLeish, a man that Villa fans liked because he had relegated Birmingham twice – but didn’t fancy as their own manager.
Villa’s chief executive Paul Faulkner, recently said, “Aston Villa as a club is very strong – there’s an awful lot of reasons you would want to come here.” I really can’t see that, especially as he also said, “This is the worst year Villa has had in a generation.”
So what of Newcastle?
Ten years ago, they finished fourth under Sir Bobby Robson. The following year they finished third, but after finishing fifth the year after that, he was suddenly sacked.
It shows how problematic achievements can be. As relegation candidates, a rise to mid-table would have suited the current manager. Now he has to improve on a performance that has surprised everyone. Robson became a victim of his own success. This might happen again. Would the board be satisfied with a drop down to mid-table obscurity next season?
West Ham have Sam Allardyce who is threatening to sue Steve Kean and Blackburn Rovers following a video that shows the club’s manager making disparaging remarks about his former colleague. Mind you Sam the Slug has threatened for years to sue the BBC over something they said about doing naughty things, but never has.
Kean’s video shows him saying Rovers will definitely finish in the top 10 this season just finished, and win the Carling Cup.
Meanwhile there is Rangers FC. There seems no settlement in sight of their tax bill, they will lose some of their first team this summer (because they all negotiated new contracts at lower salaries in return for agreements that they could leave this summer), they will get further punishment if they go into liquidation, they are being fined for past errors of judgement, and they are not allowed to sign any players over 18 for a year.
And thus we come to Arsenal.
Our big surprise packages this past season were Arteta and Rosicky, plus the arrival of a stunning goalkeeper at a time when the AAA said we had to buy one, plus a really powerful pair in defence (Kos emerging wonderfully in this role).
At the moment of writing I don’t know about Van Persie, but if he were to go we would presumably have a replacement in mind.
With luck Jack will be back, and we won’t have any more long term disasters. Oxlade-Chamberlain looked a great talent, Theo came good, and waiting in the wings is Coquelin.
In addition to that we usually have an unexpected signing and an unexpected youngster moving into the first team. It could be rather interesting.
Of course we need to make up 18 odd points on Manchester. This could be done by
a) beating them where we were defeated (3 points to us -3 to them = 6)
b) winning four games we lost (=12 points)
I know it is never as simple as that, but it is certainly possible. What we do know is that we are very unlikely to lose a whole section of the team (Jack, Nasri, Cesc) just as the season starts. Yes the departure of Robin would be a great blow, but there are other talents out there.
But here’s a thought that keeps bobbing up in my mind. I never thought that Robin could be the centre forward he has been this year – I just didn’t believe it possible. I didn’t believe that Henry, who I had watched endlessly drifting down the left, could become the greatest player we had ever seen. Yet both were there in front of my face.
So way out answers are possible. Oxlade Chamberlain as a centre forward. Ryo on the wing, Theo in the middle? I certainly don’t know. That’s why I write about it.