2013-14 review

In this first post-Fergie season, it wasn’t terribly surprising that Manchester United continued to dominate the headlines, albeit not in the manner to which they were accustomed. Although in some ways a shame that they didn’t put up a great fight to defend their crown, it’s so often the case in sport that great champions don’t just slowly fade away, their declines instead being sudden (check) and total (which now rather depends on Mr van Gaal).

It’s interesting that journalists chose David Moyes’s clearout of the club’s backroom staff as one of the biggest sticks to beat him with. After all, most managers bring their own people with them to new clubs. Either the likes of Mike Phelan and future-ex-Fulham-boss Rene Meulensteen were gods amongst men, or United are a textbook example of all that’s gone wrong with football - a toxic bubble where Fergie was God, and players and fans alike are bloated with self-important, preconceived notions of the club’s ‘way’.

Moyes was the personification of the club’s tacit admission that they couldn’t sustain success with the current squad, but nor would commercial forces or fan power allow them to cut all those ageing stars loose so soon. Logic dictates that such a hugely successful club shouldn’t need to overhaul its squad along with its manager. Thus, if a season of underachievement were inevitable by that fatally flawed reckoning, why drag a big name like Mourinho down with them when they could get a patsy figure like Moyes? The poor fellow was doomed from the start.

This season’s title bunfight can best be seen in the context of the vaccuum left by United’s implosion. An absence was always felt, one that couldn’t be filled by Liverpool’s emergence or Jose Mourinho’s return. Indeed, his Chelsea MKII have been rather a damp squib so far, their leader’s incessant we’re-not-challengers-honest mind games becoming self-fulfilling prophecies. Maybe it was a bold experiment in seeing whether you can win the Premier League with no proper strikers (it would explain why they sent their best one out on loan). Roman Abramovich surely won’t make the same mistake again, with Fernando Torres’s decline now obvious to even the most blinkered observer, but the club’s curious handling of Juan Mata suggests that FFP considerations may not allow them the transfer market freedom that Mourinho craves.

Manchester City’s title win wasn’t as easy as it should have been. For a few weeks before Christmas everything clicked – their strikers were on fire and they looked like runaway league winners. Then Sergio Aguero got injured (again), Alvaro Negredo lost the ability to score, and Liverpool embarked upon their own hot streak. Schedenfreude fans will relish the ironic juxtaposition of Steven “Stevie” Gerrard’s ‘this doesn’t slip’ speech and his, er, slip against Chelsea with great fondness, but that Brendan Rodgers had even got this team into a position where they could throw the title away was an impressive overachievement.

Whether they can build on this with the twin albatrosses of Champions League football and massively increased expectations (yes, even amongst perennial ‘this is our year’ Liverpool fans) around their necks is a good question, and watching the answer unfold should be fascinating. If Rodgers is as genuine an article as it seems, you wouldn’t bet against them. City meanwhile have even greater expectations – anything less than building a domestic dynasty and mounting a serious Champions League challenge will be correctly deemed as failure. There’s a lingering sense that they’re still not quite there as a team, that they’re winning stuff through sheer financial power rather than genuine footballing genius, and that it may be impossible to establish a genuine sense of club loyalty in today’s ruthless climate, as evidenced by Yaya Toure’s recent Cakegate outburst.

The financial side of the game has made it harder to gauge how well a manager is doing. For example, Mauricio Pochettino is widely seen as having done a good job at Southampton (Tottenham certainly thought so), but then again he walked into a stable, well-run club with a fantastic crop of young players at his disposal. Meanwhile, his hapless predecessor at Spurs actually appeared to have succeeded on the surface – certainly if you looked at their win percentage and listened to his self-aggrandizing press conferences. But Tim Sherwood is proof that football management is tougher than it’s ever been, in that seasons seem to boil down to a relatively small number of crunch games. His record against sides he was expected to beat was pretty much irrelevant – the minute he was put up against better opposition, his tactical naivety and personal immaturity were laid bare.

It’s also harder to follow up one good year with another, Michael Laudrup at Swansea falling foul of the dreaded Europa League paradox, amongst other things. Seen in this context, Arsene Wenger’s continuing ability to stubbornly dig his heels into the top four is some going, but again context is all, and his Arsenal are so predictably frustrating in terms of unfulfilled promise that I’ve stopped caring when they inevitably implode each spring.

Unsurprisingly, the gap between the top teams and those below keeps on increasing. Everton are hanging in there, although under Moyes it was always with a small-team, them-against-us mentality. They have done well to get a replacement in Roberto Martinez who seems both willing and, more importantly, capable of changing that attitude whilst still managing to improve the team.

The bottom half of the Premiership was a morass of averageness though. There was no lack of money spent, but signings mean nothing if the manager is too cautious (Chris Hughton at Norwich), too mental (Paolo di Canio at Sunderland), or indeed if your owner is (hello Cardiff’s Vincent Tan). Obviously a balance is needed between pragmatism and gung-ho swashbuckling. Ian Holloway at Crystal Palace failed to replicate his Blackpool success so spectacularly that only Tony Pulis’s ultra-orthodox approach could save them. Give it a couple of seasons though and then see how much the up-and-under stuff enthrals them. Entertainment is now at the forefront of fans’ minds – look at how Sam Allardyce is perceived to be under pressure at West Ham despite a decent record (especially compared to his recent predecessors). Given the ticket prices we pay though, it’s perhaps understandable that we fans consider ourselves entitled to watching good football.

Desperation is also a theme. Artistic expectations combined with financial pressures bring about strange bouts of impatience in chairmen, and sometimes outright paranoia. Fulham sacked two managers and still went down. But then again, Norwich gave Chris Hughton every chance to get it right and they still went down anyway. What can we learn from all this? Not much, other than the relentless pace of the hiring and firing surely can’t keep cranking up.

At least the Prem’s lack of quality means that newly-promoted teams stand a decent chance of staying up for at least a season or two. Sean Dyche and Nigel Pearson have obviously done great jobs this season, and deserve the chance to prove that they can repeat the trick. Then of course we have Harry Redknapp, back for one last crack at the big time after bravely scraping his way to promotion with only the most expensive squad ever assembled at Championship level to help him. At least we won’t be scratching our heads for long about where Rio Ferdinand and Frank Lampard will end up next season.  

Meanwhile, last week’s Champions League final was entertaining stuff, and although heartbreaking for the losing half of Madrid, it’s a comforting thought for the rest of us that a team blessed with a lower budget than Queen’s Park Rangers (or indeed any big teams) can still achieve great things in these expensive times.

I won’t go on any more about Europe though, mainly because I don’t know enough about it, and also as I’m planning on doing a World Cup preview soon and don’t want to use up all my limited international football knowledge too soon. See you then.