It is very sad to see a good team which plays a positive football got relegated on the last day of the league season. There was nothing wrong in the victory of Manchester United against Blackpool on the last day when they collected their 19th league title. But, on the other side, a team, with very limited resources, which played throughout the season very attractively, lost their final match and relegated from the Premier league. I really felt very bad for Ian Holloway, the manager of Blackpool and for their well committed players. On the ground, Blackpool entertained people more than half of the teams in the league.
By winning the league for 19th time, Manchester United surpassed the existing record of Liverpool of 18 titles. In fact, Liverpool never won a ‘Premier League’ title from its beginning in 1992/93 season. In fact, from creation of ‘Premier League’ until now, one can see the domination of a single person –Sir Alex Ferguson. He built several generations of Manchester United team and reaped success from all of them. Many pundits observe that his best buy was Eric Cantona who had a big role for ManU in their first EPL success. For me, his induction of a bunch of players was his best contribution for the team. Cantona helped them to galvanised in the team and Roy Keane’s captaincy helped to bring them up together. I am talking about the upbringing of Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt, David Beckham and Neville brothers. They were the core of ManU’s success until this year. Acumen of Ferguson and financial support of United management helped them to pick the right players at the right time to add ammunition to the team. Still I believe the best buy of Sir. Alex was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his second best may be Javier Hernandez of present team.
Chelsea managed to climb up after a slump in their form in the mid season. When the season started, Chelsea took off with flying colours and everyone believed that they can even remain unbeaten till the end. On the other hand, United was struggling to find goals from their usual strikers and compromising with draws in between. Chelsea’s match against Sunderland changed the whole picture. During the mid season, they lost good number of crucial matches and eventually that lead to the departure of Carlo Anchelotti, the manager, at the end of the season. In fact, they allowed some of the senior players to leave the club and failed to replace the positions with right players. For me, their major loss was the departure of Ricardo Carvallo from the defence line. Jose Morinho brought him to Chelsea and picked him from there to Real Madrid. Chelsea never expected this departure had that much impact and they realised in the later period. He was slow and not powerful as John Terry, but, as a natural defender, he had ability to read a game and keep position.
Free spending Manchester City was expected to buy a position in top four and they managed it at the end of phase of the season. They gave a real challenge to Chelsea in spending money on players but failed to produce the same against their neighbouring power Manchester United on pitch. The failure of Arsenal provided them a higher place in the in league this year. Where money wins, it is difficult to find how football as a game will win. Under Jose Mourinho, Chelsea dominated the league but their football was not attractive. Manchester City tried to produce passing game but ended up in producing result oriented games. At the end of the season, they can show at least one major trophy –FA Cup to the world as the symbol of their successful spending.
Most disappointed team was Arsenal, the team which i love to watch. They were in the top three positions until March. Lack of depth in the team is a real problem for any manager and if the manager is not ready to resolve it, it becomes the problem of the team. Emergence of Chelsea, Manchester City and to certain level their neighbours Tottenham Hotspurs in spending money curtailed the possibilities of Arsenal. The shift from Highbury Park to Emirates Stadium forced them to find an alternative in rebuilding process of Arsenal team. Manager Arsene Wenger was successful in retaining their captain Cesc Fabregas but failed to strengthen the defence line of the team. They scored more goals than many teams in the top but struggled to keep clean sheet against others. Disaster was the 4-4 draw against New Castle at Emirates. In the first half, they were leading with 4 goals and in the second half, they gathered as many to make the game a big zero. Everyone says that they are lacking a personality like Patrick Veira in the holding midfielder position. Fact is, their method of the game has changed a lot from Viera’s departure. Yes, they lost a wall in front of the defence line –it was Gilberto, not Viera but eventually their midfield become more attack oriented. The irreplaceable loss was the departure of Thierry Henry. They lost a player who can assure more than 20 goals in any condition in him. Adebayor was successful but was a different type. Robin Van Persie has the qualities for an ace striker but his health condition is not supportive to produce more than 20 goals in a season. They desperately need a Henry type striker and a pair of good defenders.
If somebody ask me who was the best buy in the league for the season, I would have struggled to find an answer until the end of January transfer period. At the end of the season, I must say, it was Luiz Suarez of Liverpool. Everybody expected that the loss of Fernando Torres to Chelsea will finish them in the bottom end but Suarez changed all such feelings. In fact, his inclusion provided multiple dimensions to the struggling Liverpool and helped them to end up in the top six positions. Liverpool made 50 million British Pound from the sale of Fernando Torres and used all those money to purchase two upcoming good talents. Andy Carroll from New Castle United was a more costly deal because of his English tag, but 23 million GBP for Suarez was the right business. After his arrival, Liverpool started picking up points from tougher matches and he started showing his impeccable skills in creating goals and scoring too.
Tottenham Hotspurs was the only team moved out from the top four position to UEFA cup. They built the team during the summer transfer season and had a bumper bye in Rafael Van der Vart who was sold by Real Madrid on the final minutes of transfer season. He made a big impact in their games along with their young talent Gareth Bale. Team building helped them to do well in the Champions League better than their neighbour Arsenal and finally defeated by Real Madrid in the quarter finals. Just because of the tight schedule and inexperience in Champions League, they struggled to cope up with the demands of the EPL and dropped more points through draws and by the end of the season they forced to satisfy with UEFA cup place.
Everton, as ever struggled to bring out their real potential due to injuries managed a better show by the end of the season. In between they went down below 10 but David Moyes managed to bring them up to a comfortable zone. However, another team which performed very well in between and finally succumbed to middle order was Sunderland. The team managed by Steve Bruce produced an emphatic show in the middle season but failed to make same impact in the end of season. Inclusion of Ghanaian striker Asimov Gyan and loan player Danny Wellbac helped Sunderland to pick points and gather seventh position in the league. Departure of the manager Martin O’Neal troubled Aston Villa in the beginning but the appointment of Gerald Holliour and induction of striker Darren Bent helped Villa to reclaim the middle position in the league.
Ownership of the half of Premier League clubs belongs to foreign investors. Among them, there was only one club belongs to Indian investors. The transfer of ownership processes of Blackburn started in the beginning of the season but took time to complete the deal by Indian investors Venkeys. First step of the new owners was to show the door to the existing manager Sam Allardyce. They expected to make a change in the way of playing model of Blackburn from their pragmatic style to an attractive style by kicking out the most pragmatic manager Allardyce. The management failed to find a replacement in time and ended up in handing over the responsibility of the team to the assistant manager Steve Keane in charge for remaining season. Until the last day of the season, they struggled to know whether they will remain in the league or not for next season and on final day, they defeated Birmingham and managed to scrape through.
New Castle was one of the promoted team to the EPL from the championship last year. New Castle holds the third position among all EPL teams in Stadium capacity and the only club was brought over by an English owner in the last decade. Chris Hughton managed them to bring up in the Championship and back to Premier League but was kicked out by owner Mike Ashley. Manager change and sale of their key striker Andy Carroll showed their future again the in championship but the new manager Alan Padrew made an impact in the ending part of the season and managed for a middle level finish.
Manager change in the middle of the season is generally considered as a destabilising factor. This season, two teams in the EPL changed their managers and brought back their good fortune. Liverpool changed their manager in the beginning of the season. In fact, Rafael Benitez decided to quit the club and he was replaced by Fulham manager Roy Hodgson. The success in Fulham making them into a UEFA cup finalist, Hodgson become most wanted manager and Liverpool appointed him. But Hodgson failed to create the same impact in Liverpool and by the middle of the season both, Liverpool and Hodgson separated on mutual consent. Liverpool appointed their legendry player Kenny Dalglish. Interestingly, the separation benefited for all three parties i.e. Liverpool, Kenny Dalglish and Hodgson. Under Dalglish Liverpool retained their performance and move up to the sixth position in the league. On the other hand, Hodgson moved to West Bromwich Albion and helped them to move out from the relegation zone. Whey Liverpool met West Brom, the victory stood with Hodgson.
Stoke City made a usual performance again and managed to be in the middle of the league table. Most pragmatic approach in the league is produced by Stoke city and was criticised by many managers in the league. Under Toney Pulis, Stoke followed ‘long ball’ approach which was based on long throws, long passes from the centre to the opposition goal box for header and they specialised in getting goal from corner kicks. With a limited resource, they managed to get decent result from this highly competent league. Their peak was the performance they brought out against, the so called most attractive team in the league, Arsenal and defeated them for 3-1.
Relegation was not a nice story to remember. But, even before the season starts, pundits’ picks up some teams as relegation bound. Some will definitely escape and some will struggle till the end and then succumb to their fate. Generally the newly promoted teams were more vulnerable to this position. This time, it was Blackpool, the team which has least resources, West Bromwich Albion and New Castle. Everyone knew about the tradition and financial background of New Castle and was sure that they won’t come to relegation line. At the end of the season, as many as five teams ended up in the relegation zone with similar point levels. West Ham, who was struggling from the beginning moved first to relegation but the other five i.e., Blackburn, Wigan, Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Blackpool continued their fight until the last day. On the final day of the season, Birmingham who lost to Blackburn and Blackpool who lost to the champions accepted their fate and moved down to Championship.
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