Paddy's Sports View 10th May 2005

From "The Emirates Evening Post"

The English Premier league is arguably, along with "Serie A" in Italy and "La Liga" in Spain, the strongest in the world. The Premiership is divided into three very distinct tiers. The super clubs who play in Europe and have the best players and finances (Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool); the middle tier some of whom aspire to join the elite (Newcastle, Everton, Tottenham Hotspur…) and the lower tier whose sole real ambition is to avoid the fatal drop away from the top tier (the rest).

The top clubs enjoy enthusiastic support across the globe. Over the past few years the best Italian and Spanish teams of AC Milan, Real Madrid and Barcelona have had the edge in European competitions and the English clubs (Manchester United sole success in 1999 aside) have generally under-performed. Liverpool's recent achievement in getting to the Champions League final (and Chelsea's near miss) can be attributed to the fact that both clubs have managers used to European success. Raphael Benitez at Liverpool and Jose Mourinho at Chelsea understand that to win against continental opposition requires a different style and tactics from what is needed in domestic competitions.

The English league is very internationally visible and Premiership matches are important parts of the sports TV schedules almost everywhere. This is a source of actual or potential revenues to the clubs and the red shirts of Manchester United and Arsenal, and increasingly the blue of Chelsea, are seen on the street from Tokyo to Timbuktu. The Manchester club's revenues from the exploitation of their brand are a major contribution to their resources helping them to afford to buy and pay good players. In a league where increasingly money talks all the revenue streams have to be pursued, unless (like Chelsea) the club is owned by a billionaire with bottomless pockets.

In England the neutrals were delighted with Liverpool's Champions league semi-final success against Chelsea, not least because the win showed that whilst money helps it cannot guarantee success. To be fair to Chelsea, Morinho and the other official at the club know this as well. Although the investment in players has run into the hundreds of million dollars the real reason for their Premier League success this year and their emergence as a real force on the European stage, has been the successful gelling of super stars into an effective team. This has never really been the case at Real Madrid a club which has spent much more than all the top English clubs together over the years, but which has had only the occasional success. Money helps - but consistent success needs more than the handy use of the chequebook.

In North London the respective fortunes of Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur over the past ten years show that consistency of management, team building and a clear footballing philosophy are the factors which make the difference. The Spurs have a club with a tradition almost as famous as their North London neighbours. They were the first team to do the Cup and League double in the twentieth century, in 1960/61, but they have not won the league championship since. Meanwhile Arsenal has enjoyed great success in both domestic competitions and with their great rivals at Manchester United, has dominated the English scene for a decade or more. The Chairman of Tottenham Hotspur said at the last AGM of the club that the Spurs had probably outspent Arsenal over this same period, but with little or nothing to show for it. It's not just how much you spend - it's how you spend it that counts.

Whilst on the face of it the English Premier league may seem to be a successful enterprise there are some gathering clouds around. Bad behaviour by players and occasionally by managers (on and off the field) damages the standing of the clubs and of the league. And the escalation in pay has been such that some club's finances are very rocky indeed. This is the real problem with the Abramovitch effect (he is Chelsea's Russian paymaster). In assembling a team of all the talents he has done so (in part) by offering more money to players than any other club can afford. Whilst Chelsea's finances are secure that of some of their competitors are not and even Arsenal, with a new stadium to pay for, may struggle to get or keep the best players if Chelsea is in the running. `