Football season is back in Europe.
German, Dutch and French leagues are started and English, Spanish and Italian
are about to start in another few days. Sports pages of media is celebrating
the transfer stories, analysing the strengths of each team and predicting their
wishes. As usual, most of them are not behind the news and more interested in
controversies. On the other hand, the clubs are also getting ready for another
long season. Let us look at the specialities of this season.
Absence:
Most important name is Sir Alex Ferguson. He declared his
innings at a high. Then Tito Vilanova, ended his career with a sublime finish
with Barcelona but sadly called off his innings in between his career due to
medical reasons. Roberto Mancini did well but not enough to keep his position.
After spending huge amount of money, the second position in a league is not
acceptable for the owners of the neo-rich.
Merry go round:
Jose Mourinho called himself ‘special one’ when he joined
as the manager of Chelsea just after winning his first Champions League medal
with Porto. At Chelsea, he developed a strong team and won the Premier League
continuously but Champions League eluded him and the rich owner of the club
lost his patience. His first episode with the blues ended up there. He appeared
as the manager of Inter Milan and won both league and Champions League title
and showed that he is special one and still has something special with him.
This achievement caught attention of Florentino Perez, the Chairman of Real
Madrid and brought him to Santiago Bernabeu to win everything possible. He
managed to win the league title but Champions League stood away from Real. In
the third year, he struggled to repeat the show in the league and lost trust of
leading players of the club and forced to resign on an amicable ground.
Carlo Ancelotti managed Chelsea after the Mourinho but was
kicked out when his team lost few matches in the league. He moved to France and
lead the neo-rich club PSG to the league title. When Mourinho left Real Madrid,
they approached Ancelotti and Mourinho was recalled by his former boss Roman
Ibrahamovich. The merry go round goes on and on in both place...in Chelsea and
Madrid. Mourinho, Avram Grant, Scolari, Hiddink, Ancelotti, AVB, Roberto Di
Matteo, Rafael Benitez, Mourinho ..in Chelsea and in Madrid Del Bosque, Carlos
Querioz, Camacho, Remon, Vanderly Luxemburgo, Fabio Capello, Brend Schuster,
Juande Ramos, Manuel Pellegrini, Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti... may be
Vicente Del Bosque...
No trophy but regime continues:
Arsenal won their last trophy at Highbury and then they
moved to Emirates Stadium but on the way they forgot the winning formula and
learned selling formula. Arsene Wenger managed them for last one and a half
decade and won several trophies in his earlier years. For the last eight years,
they haven’t won anything. Still, Wenger manages a team... the board trust him
and still people watches his team’s performance.
Madness with money
Whenever a club was brought over by a new owner, first
question from the fans, pundits, commentators and analysts will be how much
money he will spend on new players. In England, Spain and France appearance of
the wealthy neo-rich owners from West Asian countries and Russia changed the
concept of spending money in Football. To check this imbalance UEFA introduced
Financial Fair Play in football, a policy to force the clubs to spend money
from their own source and protect them from financial meltdown. Chelsea,
Manchester City, Malaga, PSG, Monaco...the list is continuing. The followers
and fans expect the club to spend more and more money every year and get the
best talent for their club. This approach creates high level inflationary
tendencies in the market.
This year, the spending power started from France. A.S. Monaco,
with the money power of their Russian investor Dimitry Rybolovlev, moved out
quickly from the French Ligue 2 and promoted to Ligue 1. Though they are not
qualified for the prestigious UEFA Champions League, they were successful to
convince their target about the prospects of their future plans. Monaco’s prime
capture was Radamel Falcao, the Colombian forwards from Athletico Madrid by
paying 52 GBP million and they added James Rodriguez and Joao Moutinho from FC
Porto for another 45 million. Spiral effect was immediately appeared in French
Market when Paris Saint Germain paid 56 million for Italian club Napoli’s
Uruguayan striker Edison Cavani and a 19 year old Brazilian centre defender
from AS Roma for 27 million GBP.
Transfer episode in La Liga started with the signing of
Brazilian forward Neymar to Barcelona for near 50 million GBP. All rich clubs
were behind including Real Madrid this striker with huge money offer but it was
his choice to join Barcelona rather than biggest offer. Real Madrid, the club of
Gelaticos were little bit slow to splash money this year but they spend more
than 50 million GBP for two emerging Spanish talents Asier Illarramendi from
Real Socidada and Isco from Malaga. At present they are equal of a little bit
ahead to Barcelona in spending but they are waiting for a world record move to
capture the service of Tottenham Hotspurs goal scoring defender turned
midfielder-striker Gareth Bale. If it happens, Real will cross 150 GBP for this
year.
In England buying managers were more important than
spending on players. First three positioned clubs in the league changed their
managers and Chelsea and Manchester City spend good amount of money in the
football market. Chilean manager of City Manuel Pellegrini spent more money to
make the attack more sharp by adding Jesus Navas, Alvaro Negredo, Fernandinho
and Stevan Jovotic for 96 million GBP and now looking for defenders. Jose
Mourinho preferred to stick with the existing squad and add players in
selective positions. Biggest spending from Chelsea this season is 19 million
GBP for striker German Andre Schurrle. They invested another 8 million in young
midfield player Marco Van Ginkel from Holland. Jose Mourinho is keeping a tab
on Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney and if it happens, it will be the
marquee sign of Chelsea for this season and could cost more than 20 million
GBP.
The Premier League champion Manchester United is yet to get
into the transfer market. Their new manager David Moyes is struggling to find
extraordinary midfielders to fill the gap left by Paul Scholes. For Moyes,
first priority is to keep Rooney with the club and then add substantial talent
in their team. It will take little more time to get a clear picture of United.
Arsenal, the fourth placed club in Premier League declared
that they will spend big money in the transfer market for this time. They made
the biggest bid of the season for a player in the English League by offering 40
million plus 1 GBP for Luis Suarez of Liverpool. This offer got into trouble
and become a fight between egos of both club. Apart from this bid, their
transfer activity so far restricted to the free transfer of French player Yaya
Sanogo from second tier of French league.
Interestingly, English league is more competitive than
Spanish, Italian, French and German leagues. So, it reflects in the spending
powers of clubs lower than fourth place. Traditionally strong Liverpool and
Tottenham Hotspurs spend good amount of money to build up their team to compete
for the first four places and a space in UEFA Champions League. First priority
of Liverpool was to retain the service of their mercurial striker Luis Suarez
who expressed his wish to leave the club for Champions League football. Strong
decisions of the owner and the manager helped them to keep Suarez in the fold
and also strengthened striking position and goal keeping by adding Iago Aspas
and Luis Alberto along with goal keeper Simon Mignolet.
Tottenham lost just one point to beat Arsenal to be in the
fourth position and qualifying for Champions League. Performance of their most
advanced player Gareth Bale helped them to achieve this position and at present
they are struggling to turn down the World record bid from Real Madrid. While
transfer battle goes on, Tottenham did not waste time to bolster the team and
added talents of Roberto Soldado, Paulinho and Nacer Chadli for around 50
million GBP. They are trying to add a defensive midfielder and will look
forward to add more players if Gareth Bale departs the club to Real Madrid.
Great Expectations and troubles
ahead
In most of the leagues, present champion expect to retain
its position and the clubs in following positions will try their best to be in
the pole position.
Bayern Munich: the present European Champion and German league champion
expects to repeat the show in this season too. Pep Guardiola, the new manager
of Bayern has a colourful track record of winning multiple trophies in same
year with Barcelona. It will be a very difficult task for Guardiola to overcome
the achievements of Bayern under the guidance of Jupp Heynckes. Any shortage
will be criticised well and could be end up in sacking.
Manchester United: the shadow of their all time great manager Sir Alex
Ferguson and his achievements will be the biggest challenge for David Moyes.
Main task for Moyes is to keep up the league position handed over by Fergusons
and take the team further high. Everyone including the club management knows
that expectation and reality are in different level but potential is there and
will take little more time to achieve it. Even though United failed to perform
like last year, Moyes will remain in the job for sure.
Real Madrid: Expectation, Club policies and Reality are in lying in
different directions and it is difficult to get together in same place,
especially under club chairman Florentino Perez. Managers were the victims of
expectation and reality and the musical chair will continue. Money power will
allow them to capture the best talent from anywhere in the world but coherence
of the team suffers badly. Carlo Ancelotti is one of the most successful and
experienced manager but Madrid’s expectation is much more than he can expect.
If he fails to deliver quickly, he will be sacked and the musical chair will
continue.
Barcelona:
the current Spanish Champion replaced Tito Vilanova with Gerardo Martino. For
the first time, Barcelona moved out from Dutch influence and attracted
criticism of their god father figure Yohan Cruyff. Martino is less known figure
among the managers and has no exposure in Europe. Lack of European experience is
considered as a handicap especially when Barca plays against European opponents
in UEFA Champions League. If everything goes well Martino will get complete
support of the club management and supporters, otherwise the club chairman will
face the heat and will forced to get back to their Dutch tradition.
Manchester City’s Chilean manager Manuel Pellegrini is first time in England
but he has enough experience in high level management. He took Villarreal to
the semi final of Champions League in 2006 and worked for Real Madrid before
Mourinho joined. He was the key person behind the development of Malaga as a
force in Spanish league that performance attracted Manchester City’s attention.
After spending huge money on player transfer, the expectation is very high. If
he can manage any trophy this year, that will allow him to next year but
expectation will be high. For city, UEFA Champion ship is the aim and league
title will be a bonus. If he fail to deliver these, he can look for another
club.
Chelsea:
Mourinho is brought back by the owner who sacked him some time back. He made
Chelsea a successful club but lost out to the rejuvenated Manchester United and
failed to win Champions League. Roman Abrahamovich expects attractive football from
Mourinho rather than his old winning formula. Roman supported him with money
and a good squad still Mourinho fails to deliver, Roman will be ruthless again.
Tottenham Hotspurs: Fourth position in the English league is very important
and crucial for many clubs. Tottenham Hotspurs are expecting to break into the
top four and trying hard to place above their traditional rival Arsenal. Daniel
Levy, the chairman of Spurs supports his managers with money but has a history
of ruthlessness when it comes to result. Andre Vilas Boas is a young manager
did wonders with Spurs last season and lost the fourth position for just one
point. This year, Levy expects a lot and provided enough fund to get best
players from all over the world. So, pressure on AVB is nothing less than the
same on Guardiola or Ancelotti.
World Cup Year
Self expectation for each player will be very high for this
year. The players who are playing in top European clubs expect call from their national
team managers and the managers expect that their players will have a good
season with more number of games and playing time.
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