What a start to the season! It’s not often we sit three rounds into the new season with only one team having secured all nine available points. To compound that, Tottenham and Liverpool have yet to win a match, with Liverpool sitting uncharacteristically in the drop zone, normally free-scoring Arsenal began the season without scoring in it’s first two games, had Manchester United not picked up the talisman Van Persie, they would be sitting with two losses in three, and Swansea sit in second place in this young table with the highest goal difference out of all 20 Premier League teams.
Lest you think that I am prematurely jumping to conclusions (as if that wasn’t what the media world is when it comes to soccer) let’s take it farther back to the close of last season, if I am allowed to compare the two. Manchester City and Manchester United were grappling at the top of the table until the last breath of the season, with the closest competitors a full 19 points adrift, Chelsea was busy proving everything we ever knew about the game to be false by winning the Champions League, while sitting in sixth place domestically, and Liverpool were an amazing 17 points off a Champions League spot. Not very reflective of a team that has held the Champions League trophy aloft 5 times and, until very recently, held the record for the most times as champions of England.
What does all this mean? I have no idea. It is unlike anything I have ever seen in my seemingly brief history with the beautiful game. But I, as always, have my theories. Let’s start with this power shift that is happening in English, and perhaps soon European, soccer. We are witnessing a veritable food chain as teams are bought by the vastly-rich of our world and an astronomical amount of money is poured into buying the world’s best talent. Chelsea, once the top (and perhaps beginning) of this pattern, seem now to be old players in this monetary game, so let’s go back to right before they began playing. Two seasons before Chelsea won their first (within the modern era) title the top five looked like this: Manchester United, Arsenal, Newcastle United, Chelsea, and Liverpool. That is what I expected it to look like when I first started to watch soccer. The super-powers of English soccer consistently taking the top four or five places and no one else really allowed to ever think otherwise. Then in stepped Roman Abromavich (perhaps we can blame him for recent atrocities in league table placement?). Chelsea won the league back to back in 05 and 06, finishing a vast 12 points above the nearest competitor and 18 above Manchester United in 2005, and then winning again in 2010 and finishing runners-up in 04, 07, 08, and 2011.
We can consider Chelsea lucky to catch onto the game a bit quicker than others that are just becoming first or second-year players. See, it isn’t just enough to buy bags of talent and create a large enough chasm between yourself and the competition to ensure victory. Take Paris-Saint Germain or even Manchester City for example. Although City won the league last year they failed to convince in the Champions league and were out before Mancini could say “we are underdogs.” Paris-Saint Germain have been large spenders but have failed to compete with even the most elementary opposition within the French league(they currently sit ninth).
Chelsea managed to immediately compete with their instant influx of talent thanks to, don’t tell Abromavich I said this, Mourinho and Ranieri. But they are quickly coming to understand that buying skill doesn’t translate into buying silverware. Take Anelka, Alex, Schevchenko, Shaun Wright-Phillips, and, until recently, Fernando Torres (we have Roberto Di Matteo and Del-Bosque to thank for his turnaround in my opinion) for example. Huge players with bags of talent but they faltered when it came to helping Chelsea win trophies. Fast-forward to Chelsea’s recent transfer market activity: David Luiz, Gary Cahill, Juan Mata, Oscar, Ramires, and the new terror to premier league defenses: Eden Hazard. We can even include Torres on this list if we consider his recent transformation. We have yet to see Moses in action but I have my hopes. These are all players that contributed to Chelsea’s Champion’s league success last season and to their dream start to this season.
Is it all coming together? It's not enough anymore to be the big kid on the block that can buy any player he wants. Manchester United, Real Madrid, Liverpool, and Arsenal used to be able to dominate their respective leagues with this method. Chelsea, although more recently, also used this method. Because of the number of super-rich clubs cropping up lately, one must buy the right players now, not just the most expensive. The players have to fit the team and vice-versa. Now that Chelsea have learned it they hold the ever-elusive Champion’s League Trophy; Barcelona have known it for a while and have had to buy a new trophy cabinet or two, and the teams that try to stay naïve on this principle (Liverpool, Real Madrid, PSG) will continue to suffer at their expense. This same principle can be applied to the MLS and the time it took the Los Angeles Galaxy to start consistently winning after they became the big spenders (I’m looking at you, Beckham), and to European soccer as well. Personally, with the amount of money possessed by the owners of Manchester City, Real Madrid, and PSG, I fear the day they learn this lesson. When that day comes, we can say goodbye to the “traditional table” we oldies are used to. Until then, we might as well get used to the present state of confusion that occupies world soccer.
Joga Bonito
Dallin Lindstrom
No comments:
Post a Comment