Somebody once said “it’s a funny old game”, and that was in the days when really it wasn’t that funny at all. Last season the club I was brought up to support came fifth. In days gone by, having 20% of the league’s teams finish above you would have been seen as a failure, but when those 20% consistently earn more money per season than the rest of the clubs can dream of, then being the best of the rest is a success, appealing to that British “plucky underdog done well” mentality.
If fifth is success, then fourth is the Holy Grail. One place higher, yet a million miles away. Fourth gets you into the “Champions” League, so called because back in the funny old game days, you actually had to be champions to get in it. Now you can be outclassed by three other clubs and still get in there. As there’s no real reason to fight for third over fourth (both places go into the Champions League at the same point), Liverpool and Arsenal usually just decide amongst themselves which one of them is going to have more of a “transitional” season than the other and that’s that. As long as they beat everyone else, by having better players than everyone else paid for by Champions League money, it’s all good.
When I was growing up, second was nowhere. Now you can be fourth, and world-class players like Fernando Torres will still join you. Fifth, and you’re struggling to sign anyone.
Cue the arrival of trillionaire Arab owners at Man City, a club who only a few seasons ago were plying their trade in the third tier of English football. Now we have a club which is overnight richer than any of the top 4, and soon enough will inevitably displace one of them. While this is exciting to a point, it does mean that already what was the faintest possibility of progressing from fifth to fourth for Everton has now been wiped out, and perhaps even coming sixth will soon be virtually impossible. Three games in, two of them already lost, this sort of realisation does limit the excitement for some of us.
Understandably, City fans are thrilled to suddenly support a club with far more cash than their city rivals United. City’s fans have always been obsessed with United, although they don’t seem to have the same irrational edge to it that Evertonians have about Liverpool. Could you imagine Ian Rush managing Everton? Of course not, but there was not one complaint when Mark Hughes took over at Eastlands. We don’t care what the red side say, so the song goes, but seeing as there isn’t a song that doesn’t mention them, then it’s pretty clear we do care, and if there is any justice in the world, the only good that can come out of this is the spectacular and rapid demise of Liverpool FC.
If City are to displace one club out of four, it’s going to be either Arsenal or Liverpool. The key difference between those two clubs is stadia. I’m about to go past one of them on this train, a monster that generates 7-figure revenues with every match. The other is an artist’s impression. Liverpool, with their debt-ridden owners and grand stadium plans, simply cannot afford not to be in the Champions League, and where Standard Liege failed, Man City can succeed. Surely the first victims of City’s new wealth will be our lovable neighbours? I mean, is there a God or what?
The only fly in this ointment is DIC, the Dubai-based consortium determined to upset the majority of the city of Liverpool’s population by purchasing its least popular football club / most popular tourist attraction, and flooding it with money. These people just never give up. Not only is there a once-proud club just one mile away which is offering itself for sale like a cheap tart, but there are others, like Newcastle, who would take their money tomorrow with glee. What is it about Liverpool for heaven’s sake? Please avert your gaze.
So, we will have to see how all this pans out. The glass ceiling was reinforced when the Arabs arrived, so if we can’t crack it, then let’s at least hope to see Liverpool come crashing through from the other direction. Watch this space..!
Brilliantly put across Glen, it’s certainly never going to be a level playing field again, thats for sure, i’m losing more, and more interest every day, you never seem to hear any ‘good news’ from footy these days, oh to have the eighties all over again, even the jocks could play a bit then ha.