Every Pope has their Day

 

Like any good amateur or professional journalist I will plainly ignore what I said in a previous article about giving managers time and not allowing fans to run clubs by making the crazy assumption that people who own football clubs know how to run them. Not only that but I'm going to give those people a godlike status.

 

The clubs in question are Manchester City and Chelsea whose respective owner’s names shall not be uttered in vain here as they are probably already known to you and if you they aren't they don’t really matter any way. This entire thing will be undermined if either club is sold in the near future however on the assumption that they won’t be the article that follows will show that overall it's probably better to round up and burn a singular prophet than turn against the entity which runs the universe especially if you exist within that universe.

 

What I am of course referring to is the regular smiting’s that take place around Stamford Bridge and other super wealthy clubs whose manager’s always  appear to be the Archbishop of Canterbury or at least modern contemporary's of the assassinated archbishops of old. Of course Kings are not gods but mostly believe they are so for all extents and  purposes the metaphor works and if you disagree feel free to complain quietly to yourself and I'm sure one of the owners will get the message, omnipotence and all that jazz.

 

Before however I explain the relevance of the divine I shall jump to a third club, that club being Manchester United. Now at Manchester United various players over the years have been let go and success has both occurred before and after their time at United. A few of these players being Jaap Stam, Eric Cantona, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo. What all of these players have in common is that they were hired and fired by one Sir Alex Ferguson who has and currently is overseeing one of the most successful periods a club has ever had. Now if you to ask a United fan whether they would have rather seen Sir Alex leave than one of those players it would no doubt be the player that would be chosen to leave every time.

 

Now undoubtedly fans of Manchester City and Chelsea would love a period of sustained success to match that of United but it is not the manager that is allowed to rule the roost at either of those clubs. That does not however mean that the success cannot be achieved or that allowing a manager an inordinate amount of time to achieve success is the only recipe or method that should be followed.

 

Chelsea for example with their current structure seem to be in constant transition in terms of managers however at the more senior level it is certainly fairly stable and if Roman is as in love with the club as he as he seems to be then in 20 year’s time I'm sure his reign will be lauded by all. Whether in the near or distant future Roberto Mancini will leave or be sacked is in the balance but all is not lost for Manchester City as long as their owners stay put. With the current owners in place I can almost safely predict a similar and equally as fruitful period for Manchester City.

 

Why is this, well its simple if you want to control something then you need the most powerful thing, in fact not only the most powerful thing but the most powerful thing over an extended period of time. Just a spoiler alert but power normally equates to money and not the charge stored by electrons that scientists seem quite keen on. Now back to this whole biblical direction that this article seems to be taking.

 

The story of Noah's Ark. (sort of)

 

Noah with prior warning from the heavens and what seems to be an excellent aptitude for building boats should be able to survive any flood. The flood in this case is of course is the vast expendable income and ambition of the owner in order to control society, by society I mean football as the chance of a lot of money and a book being able to control swathes of people for a discernible period of time seems absurd.

 

Anyway if the manager/Noah is up to the task then the Ark will happily float above the flood water riding a wave of success. However after the first flood Noah is unlikely to be keen on building another Ark and will probably just retire to a place that is placed significantly above sea level. God on the other hand needs significantly more water than everyone else as taking a shower when you a infinitely large is tricky and the need for a lot of success and attention will probably irk God to cause another flood and find a new Noah to make sure his pet project keeps running.

 

 Noah is of course now a model for success as opposed to a real person and will probably not have the same ability and way with large floaty things (technical term for Arks) due to the drowning  of excellent potential  candidates  leading to compromises on quality. Therefore the flood originally designed to make Gods chosen man stand out from the crowd or more accurately float on top crowd will backfire and look rather embarrassing. 

 

Through repetition though a good Noah, who between rounding up expensive ineffective strikers and finishing off his basic carpentry skills will be able to bring success again before deciding mountains not only have excellent views but also lack seasonal floods which will most certainly be much better alternative the ark building business, kicking off the whole cycle again.

 

This of course without digressing too much refers to the successful period Chelsea experienced under the special one and the subsequent failings of his successors. However as I pointed out good Noah’s are hard to come by and for every Ferguson or Mourinho there are at least 600 McLarens. This is of course referring to Steve McLaren and not the car make although to be honest the cars could probably do a better job, they certainly have more drive. This is summarised by saying the supernatural being that can create nearly infinite floods and find Noah’s is far more desirable than one Noah that could possibly survive one flood or even a couple before vanishing into the history books.

 

Which neatly brings us round to the strength of Manchester City and Chelsea whose power is far greater than that of any single manager and this is again assuming the owners and their bank accounts of miracles stay in place. Even if several supposed chosen ones get crucified there will still periods of success with below par managers that will lead both clubs to success that will in time outweigh the achievements of even the greatest manager the world has to offer. For example the achievements of Sir Alex Ferguson when compared to those of Real Madrid creep away into insignificance. Real Madrid being owned by its members (The Socios) since its inception in 1902.

 

3-4-3, A half a season trick pony?

 This article will look at the incredible feat achieved by Wigan athletic last season in which they narrowly avoiding relegation from the premiership to the championship with a streak that saw them beat Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle on their way to survival. Targeted primarily at the switch from 4-4-2 to 3-4-3 and the results achieved against the top clubs from January to the end of the season, that saw them win three and lose three. With the games listed below in chronological order.

 

•          Manchester City; Home; 4-4-2; Loss
•          Tottenham Hotspur; Away; 4-4-2; Loss
•          Chelsea; Away; 3-4-3; Loss
•          Manchester United; Home; 3-4-3; Won
•          Arsenal; Away; 3-4-3; Won
•          Newcastle; Home; 3-4-3; Won

 

 

After the switch to 3-4-3 Wigan’s results were significantly improved and the victories against superior opposition granted them another season in the top flight. They were not the only ones to successfully deploy 3-4-3 to good effect against England's top clubs. Barcelona and Napoli despite losing gave Chelsea an incredibly hard time in their Champions league ties, Chelsea of course were lucky to make it past them and the two Manchester clubs both suffered at different stages against teams which played 3-4-3. Napoli in Manchester City's case and Athletic Bilbao for United.

 

All of these big clubs favour very attacking wingbacks which leaves space down both flanks that can be exploited on the counter-attack. With 3-4-3 being able to leave the two wingers in the space left by the wing backs pushing forwards and still maintain a rigid defensive structure. That gave Wigan and means of scoring without having to control much of the ball. This coupled with Wigan’s defensive third being packed down the middle with the three central defenders and the two central midfielders incisive passing moves were hard to come by in all the games.

 

Against Chelsea, United, Arsenal and Newcastle this was exacerbated by the fact that all of them played a lone striker instead of the front two leaving three versus one at the back, if no support is given to the lone front man. The opposition all played very narrow packing the midfield to control possession and therefore the game. However in this case the lack of width stopped Wigan's opponents calving out any clear-cut chances and Wigan taking the ones they created on the break.

 

The fact that 3-4-3 in the English game is rarely played also goes in Wigan's favour as the teams are unlikely to know an effective way of playing against the system or have played against it from different opponents and therefore have a good idea of how to exploit its weaknesses and limit its strengths. This is where the problem may arise for Wigan in the future as once the larger teams figure out how to play against 3-4-3 then the results will probably swing towards the superior team. This has been nicely demonstrated at the beginning of this season by Wigan's defeats to Chelsea and United. Although like the defeat against Chelsea last season Wigan on a different day could have got something from that particular game.

 

The fact that 3-4-3 is played by a few other clubs means any potential new signings will have to get used to the system and how to play in it. This has probably contributed to Wigan's poor start as the loss of Victor Moses to Chelsea has forced them to revert back to 4-4-2 for now.

 

Should Wigan find themselves in the same situation around January that they were in last year I do not believe that 3-4-3 will provide the same miracle again, through a combination of the loss of personnel and increased tactical awareness on behalf of big and small clubs alike. It will be interesting though to see Wigan try and use 3-4-3 on a more permanent basis as the structure of how their club plays and if it could gain any popularity within the English game in the long run instead of being their wild card when times get tough. The Champions League should provide an interesting insight into how the big clubs will adapt to play against 3-4-3 given their poor record last season with Juventus likely to be the ones who dish out the most punishment to the English clubs should they ignore the lessons of last year.

 

Why fans should avoid owning football clubs

 Football fans are normally a very loyal and emotional group of people who defend their chosen club to the bitter end. This extreme loyalty and attachment throws up a couple of issues, one of which is anyone who wishes to manage a football club is at the constant mercy of the hive mind that is their supporters.

If a season is going well this of course no problem, so if you're a supporter of the Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid hybrid super team that has been dominating the fictional world hyper league then you have absolutely no worries.

However in the real world every club has its ups and downs and with every down comes the doubt and the criticism from journalists and supporters alike. Now with every single participant in a clubs fan base able to buy football manager or enter a fantasy league they are one or two successful seasons from being a self-declared football genius whose own view is law and anyone who challenges it should merely look at their awe-inspiring screen-shots. This of course causes dilemma when the clubs management and a fan or fans view begin to differ from one another in times of hardship.

There can be no better example of this than when at an Aston Villa game one of my fellow fans who was particularly dismayed after a defeat that put us out of Europe. Talking to him for awhile he brilliantly unearthed the single reason as to why we went out of Europe and began to simply explain what this was.

Basic training he says simple stuff, Martin O'Neill then manager of Aston Villa clearly didn't understand how to get them to pass and shoot properly which was clearly causing the side an untold amount of damage. To all of this I nodded politely and went on my way.

Two weeks later just after Aston Villa had defeated Chelsea 2-1, I remarked to the same fan that the basic training was clearly being sorted out. To which he grumbled for while before leaving. Now by the end of the season Villa finished sixth and reached the Carling cup final and FA cup semi final. Considering the issues effecting basic training they did pretty well!

This odd game by game judgement fans seem to make about an entire season on one game cant be helped though, should they ever have control of the thing that effects their emotions so much then trouble is sure to follow.

Which neatly throws up the main topic of this article, Chelsea football club and their charismatic and extremely wealthy multi-billionaire owner Roman Abramovich. Who is undoubtedly a massive fan of the club, anyone one who has spent as much as he has and takes large chunks of time out of his schedule to watch them will have become highly attached to the club but is it in the clubs best interests.

Anyone who pays the slightest bit of attention to football will realise that Chelsea relieved Andre Villas-Boas of his job last week. AVB is the latest of many managers who have lost their job because of period of poor performances followed by Romans wrath. Listed below are these managers and the titles they have achieved as well as the length of time there are in charge.

• Claudio Ranieri: 1 Season, 0 Trophies
• Jose Mourinho: 3.2 Seasons, 5 Trophies
• Avram Grant: 0.8 Seasons, 0 Trophies
• Luiz Felipe Scolari: 0.6 Seasons, 0 Trophies
• Guus Hiddink: 0.4 Seasons, 1 Trophy
• Carlo Ancelotti: 2 Seasons, 2 Trophies
• Andre Villas-Boas: 0.7 Seasons, 0 Trophies

All these managers have one thing in common with the exception of Mourinho and that is Mourinho is himself and the others are not. Mourinho's tenure as Chelsea manager saw untold success compared to all the others and created a core at the centre of the team made up of players like John Terry, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, Michael Essien, Ashley Cole and Petr Cech.

The core of the Chelsea squad has remained unchanged since Mourinho's departure and it appears that the main defect with the core is not their age or ability but their influence over the rest of the squad and the club's owner. This has led to a clear series of events which goes as follows.

• A new manager is hired to reinvent style of football played at Stamford Bridge.
• Results go okay but the amount the team adapts is limited and the manager gets tough on the core of the squad in order to speed change
• The core of the squad then no longer wishes the manager to be there as they thoroughly believe they know best and therefore stop playing their utmost every game.
• This drop in performance level is seen by club owner Roman Abramovich who like most fans only appears to see a few games infront or behind the present. With the players having previously been successful during Romans tenure as owner all the blame falls on the manager who is swiftly sacked.
• Millions of pounds are spent on paying off the ex-manager with step one being repeated.

With any potential new manager at Chelsea being undermined by the players it is going to be difficult for anyone to truly get success until the core is broken up. This added to Abramovich's random marquee signings like Shevchenko which started the chain of events that caused Mourinho to leave. As well as Torres which unsettled Ancelotti's side it is difficult to see Chelsea working seamlessly as a club in the near future.

What Chelsea need is for Abramovich to distance himself from his emotions as fan and act more like owner of football club rather than a football manager save. This would allow the manager to have authority over the squad re-establishing a much-needed command structure which would allow the club to stabilise and then push to the position it once held in the English and European game. This is unlikely though with fans being creatures of emotion and not logic. Chelsea and other clubs run by a single fan will struggle for stability and ultimately long-term success.

The Opening Batsman of a Different Blog

 Odd though it may be to start a blog that is intended to be mainly about football with a title entirely connected with cricket. Football may have the man however it distinctly lacks the bat but I could think of no better way of describing the nature of this my first entry into the overpopulated world of blogs.

Opening batsmen in cricket primarily being solid and able to at the crease for a long period of time accumulating runs on the board and providing a good platform for the rest of the batting order, it seemed a fitting title. However a title does not make an article and the solid defensive stroke which will encompass this article will be a few issues of football's home nation. Why England well i can think of no safer zone in football than to pick holes in something that could almost be made out of holes.

England’s national team has come under scrutiny from former players, fans and the media and has yet again been thrown in at the deep end with the loss of Fabio Capello. Now although Capello's reign was not successful at tournament level it did provide a very successful qualifying campaign and an attempt to change England into more tactically aware side. However despite anyone's complaints about him I'm positive that a stable England going into the European Championships might have fared slightly better than one surrounded by uncertainty.

This latest in a cavalcade of major stories primarily being negative surrounding England is a theme that ideally needs to stop. The main issues seem to be more and more centred around coin toss decisions that the FA makes on a regular basis and that the fans get to either applaud or moan about usually the latter. Listed below are just a few.

• 4-4-2 or not 4-4-2.
• English manager or foreign manager.
• Keep the old stars or burn the old stars in a media witch-hunt and start again with youngsters.
• Make John Terry captain – Strip Terry of the captaincy and appoint another older player before making John Terry captain again.

All these issues are very different but have one thing in common. They entered the fact that England for a long-time has been unsure as to what its identity is. With constantly changing goals and doubt as to whether England's natural style of football is capable of winning major tournaments we need only to look to 3 of the most successful nations in world football for guidance. Brazil, Italy and Germany, what these three have in common is a sound belief that their style of football is the best style of football with no alternatives. This focus allows each of these nations system to improve instead of trying to continuously reinvent it.

Now instead of England looking upon these nations as one's to emulate in terms of their style of football we should aim to take on board their principles that they apply to their footballing identity. If England stuck to its guns and kept the system that is ingrained in all English players from a young age and then to manipulate that system with minor tweaks as opposed to radical wholesale change England's tournament performance is likely to improve significantly. For example Tottenham in their adventures in the champions league last year and the Premier league this year have shown that 4-4-2 is perfectly capable of beating the best even if touch and unreliable.

Even if England were to gain a stable footballing vision there is still one very large and difficult problem to solve. In the Premier league at the moment several under fire managers are receiving incredibly harsh criticism from their own fans during games. Now to any side under pressure whether bidding to qualify for the champion’s league or to avoid relegation they are going to receive a significant amount of negative attention from the vampiric media that haunt the English game. With this in mind the team requires more than at any other time to have the support of their fans. A change in attitude and no matter how bad the performance from a team their fans should still be behind them for a simple reason radiation. If the fans show an immense amount of support passion and enthusiasm some of that will radiate to the players on the pitch which can lead to an inspired comeback. Liverpool's comeback in the 2005 champions league final and Arsenals recent comeback at the Emirates against Tottenham both were fuelled by what can only be described as an awe inspiring atmosphere generated by their supporters.

If the England team knows their system and are confident with it then hear 40,000 lions roar off the pitch they are likely to roar along with them. Then at least England would go out in a blaze of glory instead of limping timidly out of every major tournament.