So it has come to this.
Over the past several seasons Manchester United supporters worldwide like myself have had much to celebrate and be content with. We have won three straight Premier League titles as well as the highly coveted Champions League trophy that signified us as kings of Europe for a third time. To most this period in our team’s rich history has been the greatest times indeed.
This season has been a slight blow to the team standards set the previous campaigns and yet we were still in a strong position to repeat our success of last three seasons while also adding our second straight League Cup and with a little luck and efficient officiating, we could have gone further in Europe than the Quarter-Finals.
As I write this thoughtful and heartfelt rant, I have to sit back and worry about several serious concerns regarding our club’s present and most importantly, it's future. On the pitch I am deeply worried about what has gone wrong with the quality and entertainment value presently on display in the English Premier League as well I am concerned what role Manchester United will play in this league’s future? Our quality of standards have slipped and we can no longer field a team that seriously scares opponents and keeps them up and sleepless the night before they play us.
As we all must be painfully aware by now, our beloved Gaffer Sir Alex Ferguson will not be the Manager of the team indefinitely. He is due for a much deserved and quiet retirement within the next few years. At that point United will have to scramble and find a successor, which if you ask me, is a tougher position to fill than monarch to the throne of England will be (Well at least to Manchester United supporters). United will find itself in turmoil and doubt for the first time in over twenty years. They also will have to find a manager who will try to fill those boots and take the team forward despite a sense of gloom and change that is even now starting to upset the mood around the club and it’s legion of supporters.
Regardless of our present position in the standings and our recent problem with scoring goals and playing our accustomed attacking style of football, the team has some serious issues to deal with both on and off the pitch. Add to this that the pressure is always on from millions of supporters throughout the globe who look to this team as a beacon of entertaining and attacking football, but who see them playing in a league that promotes boring, dirty and highly unattractive football league. The club’s present and future is in up in the air and it’s brand is in serious jeopardy of losing it’s power and financial pull due to the continual neglect and irresponsibility of the owners of the club the infamous Glazer family.
Blasphemy some might yell. The English Premier League may currently be perceived as the strongest domestic league in the world. Manchester United’s success both in the league and in Europe has helped shape it’s success and prestige. Big money and foreign ownership has taken over many of the big clubs and the Bosman rule opened the door for hundreds of European players as well as a growing list of South Americans and others to ply their trade in England’s greatest league. All good except, while all this was happening, two events happened which now threaten the leagues stability and position in the world market.
It doesn’t take a degree in Business Administration to figure out that the present credit and economic crunch that has hit the planet has caused tremendous problems for the league and the many teams involved, not just in England but all over the world. Add to this the growing bias and unfair treatment the league and it’s teams receive from the game’s governing body FIFA, and one can say that the League is seriously balancing itself upon a precarious tightrope.
Manchester United is widely acknowledged as the most popular team in the world. Of course Real Madrid likes to argue the point but the truth is, no team is more popular or sells more related merchandise around the globe than the Red Devils. Yet despite that success and popularity the team seems to be suffering a financial crisis due to the financial trials and tribulations of their American owners the Glazer family. Like many, this family has taken a severe hit in the markets and in the credit crunch, while their shopping mall empire is believed to be 800 million dollars in debt. Already in major debt over the purchase of the team, it’s fair for me and for others to start questioning how solid Manchester United’s foundation is with such precarious and seemingly shady owners?
How well can we continue to compete financially against growing competition from clubs like Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, the two Milan’s and now Manchester City of all teams? These competitors are formidable foes on the pitch but their spending practices should be seen as a great concern for all Red Devil Supporters who like myself, are spoilt rotten by success. The bottom line is those clubs are owned or operated by individuals or groups with incredible amounts of money. The money Roman Abramovich lost in the market crash a a few years ago was greater than the gross value of many countries, and yet it was nothing more than a drop in the bucket for him.
The new ownership group that presently calls Manchester City their latest hobby has to be looked as a serious threat to our club’s future dominance. Oh they may not be a serious threat on the pitch right now but then again, neither was Chelsea six years ago. Give them time and they will build a team that could usurp the attention that United have held for over fifty years not only in Manchester, but all of England. It’s simple really, we are living in very troubled times and money talks.
A trend has started in football that is very disturbing. There once was a time when players wanted to not only win trophies but they also wanted to play for prestigious teams with history and pedigree. Now it seems the footballer is more concerned about money and guaranteed playing time. No longer is it about winning and being part of a team or a tradition. Today’s player is a mercenary and in this climate the highest bidder usually wins. We may have won out on Berbatov sweepstakes, but we stand to lose out on many players in the future simply because it doesn’t appear like we are in the financial position to challenge teams with much larger bank accounts and far less debt.
How is United going to manage to maintain it’s dominance and prestige in an environment that seems to be poisoned by money, greed and a win at all costs mentality? The Premier League has become total rubbish and boring beyond belief. Simply put lower teams set up a Berlin Wall in their 18 yard box and pray for a 0-0 result. And when two of the top teams meet what usually comes out of the affair is a cautious and overly physical match where no team really shows ambition and enterprise but where both do whatever it takes not to lose. The money and the loss of an entry position into Europe or demotion into the second tier leagues has become of such a financial importance that the entertainment value and the object of the sport has taken a back seat to gaining a result and not losing position in the standings. Negative managers like Rafa Benitez or Sam Alardyce would rather play for a 0-0 tie at home than risk losing a game 4-3. The pride of outscoring ones opponents, by playing fast paced attractive football is a distant memory in England. All the negative qualities of the Continental game have infiltrated into England and the game has suffered because of it.
When one looks at things closely, it is simple to conclude that what we have been forced into accepting is something akin to World War 1. Games have become nothing more than trench warfare. Today I make up ten feet of dirt and tomorrow you take it back. Football that is boring and depressing beyond the words I use here to express myself. Most teams are filled with players whose one role in the game is to tackle and harass the other team’s best player. We are in the age where now it’s trendy to have not just one defensive midfielder on the pitch, but instead, some managers incorporate two. I don’t understand why there is such an emphasis on defense, considering not many teams have the ambition nor the talent to attack. Since every team’s first and foremost goal is to prevent goals and not score them, why are teams so intent on stacking themselves defensively? Why do they fear a 4-5-1 or 4-6-0 formation? The over cautious approach is at epidemic proportions and really, it seems to be far too excessive.
As far as I’m concerned cowardice and caution is simply smothering the lifeblood of the game. Why are there so many managers who do nothing but smother creative and visionary play and punish players for using their God given tools instead of defending for 90 minutes? The EPL has become a league of Javier Mascherano’s, JS Parks and Claude Makele’s. Hard players or very blue collar players who offer very little in attacking skills but who are very adept at boring us all to death with there defensive hustle and physicality. Players of this kind seem to be more valuable than the genuine artists. And when one of the artistically talented players becomes to great like Cristiano Ronaldo or Fernando Torres, tactics will eventually come into place in a team’s playbook to make sure that they feel the pain for their success and ambitions. How I miss the freedom that was allotted the Cantona’s, Ginola’s, Hoddle’s, Zola’s and Gagoigne’s of past years. Today, they wouldn’t last a minute before getting mercilessly hacked down. Back when they played they were marked men, but not like today. Today they play with a target on their shirt.
Where this has brought me is in my friendly tirade friends is concern that not only are these on the field and off the field conditions eroding and destroying the English game, but that Manchester United may be going down a path I as a long time supporter don’t want to follow. I have been a supporter of this great club since 1977 when I was eighteen years old. I became a fan after seeing highlights and games and noticing how attractive the team played. Seeing the Charlton’s and Bests were great but watching United defeat the hated Liverpool in the 1977 FA Cup was so sweet. Since then it has been a love affair. Oh sure the eighties were a bit rough but even through all of that, United maintained their high prestige in the league and always tried to play attacking football.
Obviously the arrival of Sir Alex turned my love for the team in to a truly utopian twenty year experience that I am so incredibly grateful for. So please tell me then, why all of a sudden has Sir Alex adopted a style of play that is right out of the slums and sewers of Italy? As an outsider looking in, it seems like he has sold his soul to the Devil in order to ensure that he continues to win trophies, no matter what the cost. It’s bad enough I and millions of other footballing enthusiasts are subjected to the elitist garbage known as the English Premier League. At least I was always proud to say yes but I am a Manchester United fan. My team is better than that and we play a game that is attack minded and entertaining, and we win with style. Sir Alex appears to have flushed the inspirational and playing tradition of the team for a dull and completely depressing style of football, which is difficult to tolerate but has had success. He now prefers to win a game not by outscoring the opponent but through that ugly battle of attrition I previously mentioned. 0-0 and 1-0 is as good as 3-3 or 4-0.
Clearly all that matters nowadays is the result and the entertainment and excitement value is of no concern to the Gaffer. It’s really sad that so late in his career he has succumbed to the style of most Italian managers and the hated former manager of Liverpool, Rafa Benitez. Many have had success but are still not qualified to shine the man’s boots. For decades I have been a loud and defiant proponent of attacking football. I loved the innovations made by Germany and Holland in the seventies, the Brazilians before that. I grew up watching the Beckenbauer’s, Mueller’s, Cruyff’s, Maradona’s, Hoddle’s, Rivelino’s, Zico’s and Rummenigge’s and was spoilt by the attack minded clubs that liked to play “Total Football” and who used a 4-3-3 formation for attack, not defense.
All through those 35 years of watching the game and loving it beyond belief, there was one country and one brand of football I detested and despised with such a passion I could go insane just thinking about them. ITALY. A beautiful country filled with enchantment, architecture, history, art, food but who are unfortunately also, the Anti-Christ of football. The inventors of Catenaccio, and a mentality that openly supports this defend at all costs system of play. God how I detest the Azurri and Serie A? How could a country that spawned the mighty Roman Empire evolve into a nation where 0-0 or 1-0 football results were seen as joyous and wonderful accomplishments? Where did their adventure and killer instinct go? Cowardly lions. Instead they have delivered to the world of football a system of play and a habit for dirty tricks and theatrics and gamesmanship that has brought them much success in winning, but no success in entertaining or in sportsmanship. And I blame them for everything that is wrong with the modern game. Today’s motto is to win at all costs and to Hell with the fans and the image of the great game. And from where I stand, I am afraid to say that it seems that legendary Sir Alex Ferguson has adopted the very thing he fought his entire career to discourage.
His reasons are obvious, with no transfer kitty available to him due to the owners continuous siphoning of all the club’s profits, Ferguson has been forced to resort to negative tactics to keep his team of aging stars and prepubescent teens competitive. Having sold what was arguably the world’s greatest player in Cristiano Ronaldo for a fee close to 150 million dollars, and not receiving a dime of that money to buy new players, he has been forced to scramble and come up with new ways to extend United’s success. Well, he did an outstanding job with what he had this season as we just missed out on a fourth consecutive EPL crown. But the cracks are showing more an more and the Glazer’s do not look to be going anywhere soon. It appears that Manchester United is on the brink of a decline and a return to the Dark Ages of the mid 70’s and early 80’s. A club that is almost a billion dollars in debt and growing, and an ownership group that is content to allow the ship to continue taking in water while our brave skipper tries to keep it afloat. Perhaps I am all doom and gloom, but the facts are there for all to see. Icebergs ahead.
So it has come to this.
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