Premier League managers are always keen to secure new arrivals in their squad, regularly entering the transfer market for the next big thing. With home-grown status becoming more and more craved, due to new squad quota rulings, the prices of English talent has inflated drastically.
Foreign imports have always been much craved in the Premier League, yet the passion and commitment of British stars has always formed the backbone of the set-up.
Due to their increasing price tags, many English players have have struggled with the burden of high hopes weighing heavily on their shoulders. The media often pounce on failure, with a desire to find stories to fill column inches, ramping up the pressure on players still adjusting to new surroundings.
This list looks at 15 victims of the inflated fees associated with English talent.
Click on the Liverpool duo below to see 15 victims of inflated fees
With so many competitions each season not to mention the constant media pressure on both players and managers, is it realistic to expect a team to win it all? For a top club there is four competitions on the table, and when you factor in the not so small matter of internationals too, their players are on the go all the time – risking burn out not to mention injury to boot.
Of course there have been occasions where teams win it all – United did the treble in 1999 and Barcelona have done it more recently, but in reality it takes an awful lot and then a little bit more to win not only the title but the domestic cup and also the Champions League – not to mention a huge deal of luck with decisions and draws.
Players in the modern game have to contend with not only domestic fixtures but also the international tournaments that are on pretty much none stop – Juan Mata has not only played nearly all of Chelsea’s games, but gone to both the Euros and the Olympics to boot – meaning that the player has literally not stopped. This sadly is all too common for players these days and fatigue can play a huge part in deciding where trophies go in the latter part of the season.
Take the Champions League last season – both Barca and Real Madrid were majorly affected from the title deciding Clasico being smack bang in the middle of the Champion’s League semi-finals, with Madrid’s going into extra time and penalties to boot. It can often be forgotten that players are human and feel exhaustion and emotion like the rest of us – and in front of thousands of people every single week, not to mention the glare of the media spotlight.
A full season in the Premier League is 38 games, not to mention the added rigours of the other domestic competitions – it is no wonder that some managers will sacrifice the Carling Cup or even the FA Cup in pursuit of what they and everyone else sees as bigger glory – either domestically or in Europe.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
As we go into an international break this week, some players are able to rest or in Kaka’s case, train twice a day in order to get some first team football in the future, but others such as Ronaldo or Iniesta have to not only contend with traveling but the fixture – and a friendly or qualifier at that. Should such a player come back to their club injured it is entirely reasonable for the club to feel aggrieved – they are paying the wages after all, and with the amount of fixtures the club and players already face, a ridiculous friendly can seriously curtail the chase for trophies towards the latter end of the season. Winning it all? Possible, but highly unlikely.
The idea that fans know better than a manager in football really annoys me. Of course those who watch football are entitled to their opinion about the game and certain players. But I doubt Joe Bloggs down the pub really figured out the future of football was 4-2-3-1 until being told it was a hundred times during the World Cup. (I’m not excluding myself from this condemnation I recently watched the Juventus vs. Inter Milan game, where both teams used formations reliant on several attacker’s and various versions 3-5-2 and 3-4-3. I watched with little to no idea of what either team was achieving with their various formations). My point is there’s nothing more irritating than arm-chair managers and the Sky Sports News era believing they’re Jose Mourinho due to the (lack of) insight Paul Merson gives them every Saturday.
Among my main annoyance with fans who believe they know better than the manager are people who still believe a team playing with one up front is sending out a negative message. Mike Bassett: England manager parodies the out-dated 4-4-2 system in 2001, and yet fans still groan if their team contains only one striker at home. One example of this short sighted terrace simplicity, is Sunderland, since Martin O’Neill’s arrival, the Black Cats have used almost exclusively 4-4-1-1 a natural formation for a team whose best player Stephane Sessegnon likes operating in the hole. Yet when things aren’t going right and the Wearsiders aren’t scoring goals, fans instantly point to the lack of strikers on the pitch, bypassing the more obvious failings of a defensive mindset and poor performances of the club’s three main creative players. Also when looking at the two best strikers currently on the North East club’s books I believe it’s doubtful that both Louis Saha and Steven Fletcher could play together seeing as the two have such similar attributes. Another option is Fraizer Campbell who can operate as a striker but also winger when Sunderland aren’t in possession but their remains major doubts about the England international’s quality, he hasn’t scored since February. Another reason teams rarely use this system is football matches are often won and lost in the midfield, so packing three in midfield makes sense when trying to impose your will on your opponents. Such is the out-dated nature of 4-4-2, Spain were able to grind their teams into submission in most games without playing with a striker of any nature, defending and attacking with over-whelming possession.
Also like any sport in football you should aspire to be the best and the top teams rarely use this formation, the marquee game of the weekend just gone saw Manchester United out-wit Arsenal with a variation of 4-4-1-1 up 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1. Manchester City have such a plethora of attacking options Roberto Mancini rarely only puts one of his four top-drawer strikers on the pitch. But the Italian doesn’t just limit himself just to 4-4-2 trying 3-5-2, 4-3-2-1 and 4-3-3 among other formations even if the former Inter Milan manager has had varying success with his systems this term. England’s failings with 4-4-2 in the world cup should also have shown fans just how ineffective the formation can be, attempting pin-ball football to try and get the ball forward in the Euros regularly saw England out-played and somewhat fortunate to reach the quarter finals.
Tottenham Hotspur fans have also condemned management for the use of just one striker. But last season by consensus Spurs were playing the best football in the Premier League with just a solitary forward, relying on excellent creative players such as Aaron Lennon, Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Rafael Van Der Vaart to create chances in a team that cannot be considered negative. I also think the fans booing vehemently when Jermain Defoe was substituted for Emanuel Adebayor said as much about the popularity Andre Villas-Boas then it did about a negative approach. Spurs played the last half hour with Gylfi Sigurdsson, Gareth Bale, Aaron Lennon and Clint Dempsey supporting Adebayor hardly a dearth of attacking options. The team they were playing in that match-up as well Wigan have enjoyed great success playing with a 3-4-3 system a style no other team in the division regularly use.
My point is 4-4-2 was going out of date ten years ago, let alone now, in 2012 the idea of playing with just one striker shouldn’t be stereotyped as negativity.
Let me know your thoughts on 4-4-2 on Twitter where you can find me: @jimmylowson
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Most of Europe would have been stunned by the event taking place at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night. Barcelona was being overrun, outplayed and humiliated by a stronger and much more lethal force. In Manchester, Alex Ferguson would have had a sinking feeling; despite knowing the Premier League title was wrapped up and his side were the kings of England, United are currently far from matching the excellence set by Bayern in the Champions League.
It would be premature to write about this Bayern team as if they were the champions of Europe already. Let’s not take too much away from a fantastic Dortmund side, currently the joint best in Europe and yet one who saw the Bundesliga champions clinch the title with a 20 point gap. United put together a similar feat in England, but the road to glory was nothing like that of Jupp Heyncke’s Bayern.
And that’s what they are. We speak so glowingly of Pep Guardiola and what his Bayern side might achieve in the future, but many are quick to forget that this is Jupp Heyncke’s team. This is a team who have been piecing together something as dominant as this for a number of years. It’s a side in Europe who are unrivalled in terms of depth. It’s a side who look infinitely stronger and more dangerous than the last two Bayern teams who reached the Champions League final. In England, we’re a little way off seeing a team who can match the side who shocked the world by putting Barcelona to the sword, in the Champions League semifinal no less.
For much of this season we’ve looked on at the products in Europe, both as a collective in terms of leagues and of individual clubs. We’ve questioned the merits of English football and whether it is still the undoubted best in the world. Yet at every stage of the Champions League, and notably with every emphatic statement in domestic competition, we’ve been provided with more and more indicators that the Premier League is falling well behind.
It’s already been said that this Manchester United team won the title because they were the best in a distinctly poor season for English football. Manchester City did very little to put together a strong defence of their title and Chelsea haven’t been a regular in the title picture for two seasons. When United stretched their campaign into Europe, they were far from convincing. They were left to rely on Robin van Persie at various points, while the defensive or attacking frailties of their opponents offered United safe passage out of the group stage.
Bayern’s biggest shock of the season in Europe came with a loss away to Bate Borisov. On the night, Heyncke’s men were also guilty of failing to take their chances. The game at home to Arsenal also should have raised some eyebrows; a marker that will stand as Bayern’s only loss so far in 2013.
The importance for United will be to ensure they retain their league title next season, and you can already sense where they’re likely to strengthen this summer. But then what? Bayern Munich have a side who blew away one of the best attacking sides in Europe in Borussia Dortmund, taking back the Bundesliga title in the process and marching thunderously on to the European Cup final. Next season, Guardiola will arrive, as will Mario Goetze and at least two or three others. How much further can you strengthen a side who humiliated Barcelona 7-0 on aggregate?
Sky love to make the point about the balance of power shifting from one place to another, it’s their party line alongside “best league in the world.” But how much disappointment is there that the Premier League isn’t at the head of that topic? We need to stop talking as if the rest of Europe has caught up with English clubs and their consistency in the Champions League. The clear case now is that English clubs have fallen way below while those on the continent have continued to soar.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Manchester United may be proud of their 20th league title, and rightly so. But come the end of May, it’s possible we could be looking at the makings of another dynasty similar to what we saw in Catalonia. At the moment, the very best in England holds very little in the way of challenging or toppling the next superpower in the modern game.
The words common sense and Newcastle United don’t often go together. Certainly, the Toon Army have seen some interesting times at St James’s Park since the Premier League began, ranging from Kevin Keegan’s infamous rant about Sir Alex Ferguson to Mike Ashley’s beer swilling appearances in the home shirt of those who despise him so much. Things are looking up these days for the Magpies after Alan Pardew’s men mounted an assault on the Champions League last season with the likes of Yohan Cabaye and Papiss Cisse all excelling.
Transfers don’t always go that well on Tyneside, indeed there seems to be no shortage of names that makes any Newcastle fan cringe by simply remembering them. Considering the club attracts some of the most passionate and vocal fans in the league, they’ve been represented on the pitch by some appalling footballers. We revisit the past two decades of Newcastle history and put together the worst Newcastle United transfer XI since the Premier League began.
Mario Balotelli admits he would love the chance to play against Manchester City in Europe if Milan qualify for the Champions League.
The 22-year-old left City during the January transfer window to move back to his homeland and he has been a revelation since moving to the San Siro.
A dip in form and problems away from the action saw his time at the Etihad Stadium come to a premature end, but he has shown his true colours with Milan and looks at home back in Serie A.
However, the controversial Italy international hit-man still has feelings for his old club and admits he would jump at the chance to face them in Europe’s elite club competition next season.
“We at Milan are trying to qualify for the Champions League directly, without needing the preliminary phase,” he told mcfc.co.uk. “And I am sure that City also will qualify for the Champions League. I hope to come back to play at the Etihad.
“If that will happen I will come back with love and respect for everyone – club, players and supporters. I would love a Champions League group with Milan and City, it would be great.”
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Scans on Manchester City defender Micah Richards have revealed that he may only miss up to two months with a knee injury.
At first the knock was believed to be a lot worse and Richards will see a specialist on Tuesday to decide whether or not surgery is going to be needed.
It was originally feared that the big City defender had damaged his ligaments and could have been a long term injury concern, but the area of cartilage between his knee and thigh bone looks better than first feared.
Reports on Monday suggested that the England defender has already undergone surgery but the club has come out saying that’s not the case and that the club’s medical staff were discussing the best course of action.
Richards might have to undergo keyhole surgery today at a Manchester hospital and that could keep him out for up to six to eight weeks.
The injury came in the club’s 1-0 win against Swansea and after collapsing in agony in the penalty box, the defender was stretchered off and given oxygen.
It was a painful blow to Richards who was only making his third appearance of the season after a number of setbacks. It’s the second injury he’s suffered this season – Richards also missed the opening to the season after injuring his ankle while playing for Great Britain at the Olympics.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has insisted that his side shouldn’t get carried away after the Red’s 2-1 home win over Sunderland last night.
The English midfielder scored a 39th minute free kick to calm the nerves during a tense night at Anfield.
Fellow countryman Daniel Sturridge scored Liverpool’s second, before Korean Ki Sung-yeung pulled one back for the Black Cats to set up a nervous finale to the game.
The win now sees the Merseysiders only one point behind league leaders Chelsea, however third placed Manchester City are still in pole position for the title as they have two games in hand and only trailing the league leaders by three points.
“Credit to Sunderland, they came to shut up shop and made it difficult,” Gerrard told Sky Sports.
“I don’t usually get a go (at free-kicks). Luis Suarez has been magnificent on set-pieces but sometimes you need people to step in and I got it right.
“He let me take one! He wouldn’t let me take one at Cardiff! But it doesn’t matter who gets the goals. We’ve won nothing yet.”
Sturridge has also won plenty of praise, scoring his 20th league goal of the season and only trailing Luis Suarez – who has 27.
“It’s a great feeling but it’s more important for the team,” Sturridge said. “It’s not about personal accolades.”
Manager Brendan Rodgers believed the patience and grit his side showed led to their victory.
“It was always going to be really difficult. There’s a perception that we’re always going to score four or five every game,” he said.
“There was a block of eight which was hard for us to penetrate.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
“We had to be patient and then our quality came through. Our work rate was outstanding and we scored two excellent goals.
“We made the point that we had to show patience.”
When prompted if this results gives them a chance of the title, Rodgers said: “Certainly it’s a win that good teams grind out.
“We’re one point behind and this is it. We will recover for the weekend.”
The in-vogue saying this season in the top flight is most definitely the term ‘transition’, but as Liverpool embark upon a deliberate change in tack under Brendan Rodgers, bumps in the road such as their slow start to the new Premier League season were to be expected, but what will the club’s latest boss have learnt so far from his charges?
To make matters simple, let’s start from the back and work our way through the side, beginning with goalkeeper Pepe Reina. The Spaniard should be comfortable with the ball-playing role that he’s been asked to perform, as it could be seen as fairly similar to the sweeper role he was given under Rafa Benitez during which he enjoyed his best spell of form at the club.
However, the 29-year-old’s dip in form has become a slump from which at the moment, there looks to be no return. With the club’s coffers being tightened, Reina remains an attractive saleable asset and without an upturn in form, Rodgers may want to follow up his initial interest in former Swansea goalkeeper Dorus De Vries again, or move for a more recognised stopper altogether next summer.
At centre-back, Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger have both struggled initially with their new roles too. The 4-3-3 system is heavily reliant on the wingers hugging the touchline and the full-backs getting up and joining them in attack. This in turn should see the centre-back pairing be pushed further apart than they are normally comfortable with as they pass the ball between themselves, while also being in a position to cover the flanks.
You would presume that Agger would be familiar with this role given his skills and how Denmark like to play, but both he and Skrtel could be found guilty of committing some game-changing and result-defining individual errors against West Brom and Manchester City, with Skrtel’s pass back to Reina that gifted Carlos Tevez a late equaliser the best example. Jamie Carragher is still on the wane and Sebastian Coates still shaky on the rare occasions he does start, but even during a period of adjustment, they’ve underperformed hugely in what on paper is one of the team’s strongest positions of strength and a platform of their good form in recent times.
The full-backs are a tad more promising, with Glen Johnson starting the season reasonably well, even if he was caught woefully out of position for Lukas Podolski’s goal against Arsenal. Martin Kelly could hardly be blamed for the Yaya Toure striker against City either which saw Reina flapping hopelessly at a Tevez cross before it bounced off the unlucky defender.
There’s still a worry whether they are good enough technically to play the roles that they are being asked to perform and whether the likes of Jose Enrique and Johnson are too wasteful on the ball. Stewart Downing’s conversion to a left-back role in an attempt to prolong his future at the club is an interesting development that could pay dividends further down the line, even if it is somewhat humiliating for both the player and club at the same time in the short-term.
In midfield, Joe Allen has settled superbly into his new surroundings, while Jonjo Shelvey has been excellent whenever called upon so far. Lucas Leiva’s injury against City was extremely unfortunate but to be expected after such a long spell on the sidelines, with niggling muscle injuries sadly the norm in these cases, but it also robs the side of anyone capable of breaking up play in the middle of the park.
The club’s captain Steven Gerrard has been a big cause for concern so far and he looks as if he’s really struggling to get to grips with Rodgers’ methods. It’s not that he’s prone to trying the outrageous Hollywood passes like he used to, but that he seems positionally lost at sea, neither helping out either defensively or in an attacking sense and his form has been ropey and his passing very poor by his own standards.
Up front is where the main problems lie, though and the fact that Liverpool have scored just two goals from their opening three league games, with not one of them coming from open play, is a huge cause for concern. It’s worth remembering that Rodgers’ Swansea side failed to score on 15 separate occasions last term – the most in the league – and scored just 44 times altogether, so it may just be that this ethos is simply not conducive in English football to the free flowing of goals.
Luis Suarez has been at his profligate best , despite a corker of a free-kick against City and has been exceptionally poor on the ball, acting as a brake to any potential build-up play in all three fixtures so far. Borini has also struggled to involve himself enough and he looks a little lightweight on first inspection. The one ray of light has been the form of 17-year-old Raheem Sterling though, who was rewarded with his first senior call-up to the England side just the other day after breaking through into the starting eleven and displaying a maturity well beyond his years.
With so much changing both on and off the pitch in terms of the team’s style of play, the fresh faces and the swathe of departures, coupled with a tricky opening run of fixtures with Manchester United still to come on the horizon, a slow start was to be expected. It’s not that the pace of change has been too fast, because in these instances, dragging it out could do just as much if not more damage, but Rodgers has issues to overcome right throughout the side.
Would he have spent so much on both Assaidi and Borini is he knew he wouldn’t be able to find £6m for Clint Dempsey this summer? It’s extremely doubtful and the operational problems at the club are still getting in the way of progress, with Ian Ayre a big part of that, while FSG’s dithering is now bordering on the systemic. Their failures in the transfer market were a stark and harsh lesson in resource management which he will be hoping not to repeat in the future with the setting up of a technical committee at the club, while a recognised executive is reportedly being pursued to replace Ayre in the near future.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
His 4-3-3 system is reliant on the players right through the spine of the side performing, while those out wide add the sprinkling of panache to proceedings and only Joe Allen is in any sort of form at the moment, with Reina, Suarez, Skrtel and Gerrard all struggling. Andre Villas-Boas has proven at Chelsea and to a lesser extent at Tottenham, that sometimes players need longer than you might expect to learn a new system and teething problems are inevitable.
One of Rodgers’ greatest strengths is his belief in his own methods and he’ll need that this term, particularly after a terrible deadline day for the club which left them a striker light until January. He has a small and unbalanced squad at present, wrestling with a change in style and burdened by the financial failings of the previous managerial administration.
Change will not be easy, nor will it be solved overnight and when it comes to truly assessing his work, we may not fully know even by the end of the season. But one thing is for certain, restoring the club to the top six, let alone the top four over the course of the next two to three years is going to be an absolutely huge job and the side will continue to be unpredictably frustrating for the foreseeable future as they continue to get to grips with the changes being implemented by their new boss.
Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has condemned the section of his side’s fans that chanted unsavoury taunts aimed at Liverpool fans and the Hillsborough disaster.
A small section of Red Devils’ supporters were said to have sang the chants in the team’s 4-0 win over Wigan on Saturday, and the Scottish boss has stated that the incident was unacceptable.
“I didn’t hear it but everyone seemed to hear it and I could tell from the directors’ box, David Gill [the chief executive] was disappointed,” The Telegraph quote Ferguson as saying.
“That’s a new chant, it only started after the Suárez situation but in view of the climate and having spoken on Friday asking supporters to adhere to the policy that we want to adopt [it was disappointing].
“We are completely in support of Liverpool Football Club at this moment and we understand what those families must have felt reading that report.
“So it was disappointing to hear that and you’re right, it was a minority and in our society there is a minority that want to be heard and that is the difficulty nowadays but as a club we are totally supportive of Liverpool Football Club in this situation they’re in.
“It’s going to be a very emotional day on Sunday and we’ll support them in every way we can,” he concluded.
FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.
By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept Valnet’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You can unsubscribe anytime.
United take on Galatasaray in the Champions League on Wednesday.