FOOTBALL PUNDITS - TIME FOR CHANGE

I love football. I enjoy playing, watching & reading about football.  I have recently added a love of writing about football to the list of things I enjoy. Of all these, I probably enjoy watching live football more. Watching over the ‘telly’ can be deceptive, you can’t see all the off - the - ball movements, you can’t share in the atmosphere and the unique camaraderie of fans.

Reading about football or listening to knowledgeable people talk about football is also a delight. Often these are people who have had some long standing and constructive involvement in the game. They offer uncommon insight, some nuances, some unspoken tricks of the trade that sometimes broaden the understanding of those of us who are observers.

My favourite section of newspapers has always been the sports pages and I have had a love for newspapers from a very young age. Reading match reports from renowned writers was a joy. Their writing took you right into the stadium. You could visualise what they were writing. 

But the world has changed a bit. News is instant, as the Internet has helped the speed at which it is transmitted. Another good or maybe bad thing is that everybody has an opinion and they want you to hear that opinion. Some are subtle about it but others are quite narcissistic about their opinions and will insist on shoving it down your throat even if you are suffering from Dysphagia.

Because of the immediacy of news and what appears the short attention span of news consumers nowadays, many media houses have gone to what appears to be extremes in capturing the attention of their audience. This has unfortunately seeped into football punditry.

As I said before, football pundits generally offer an insight; they might perhaps explain why certain moves are made on the pitch, why certain substitutions are made, the state of mind of players, that elusive thing that produces winners etc.

All of that appears to have disappeared and is more about opinions. Things they potentially know nothing about. Things to make them sound knowledgeable and get people 'yakking' away on social media platforms.  A few examples will potentially suffice:

Rio Ferdinand

“Wales players are more than happy to play with each other”

“Chris Coleman should tell Wales not to concede”

Lee Dixon

“England were perfect last night” (against Russia at Euros 2016)

“England shouldn’t have gone for 2 nil against Russia” (same game)

  

Michael Owen

“In a final, you either pick up the trophy or you don’t”

“Teams that play 2 up front and 5 in the middle do tend to ply 3 at the back”

“If Man City don’t score, they hardly ever win”

Samuel Kuffour

Just put his name in a search engine on Twitter. Remember not to choke or get upset 

It’s amazing. These guys are paid for these insightful comments. People actually sit on their backsides and consider these ‘pundits’ knowledgeable. I get it. They are richer than me. They have had very successful football careers, some playing at the highest level. 

They are celebrities. Very popular. If I saw one of them on the street, I will probably want to take a picture. But are these quotes of any use to me as a fan eager to learn from these guys experiences?   Do these quotes add anything to my knowledge of football? NO IT DOESN’T.

I therefore struggle to see what value some of these ex footballers add as pundits. If their addition is simply for box office reasons i.e. attract the dumb celebrity obsessed punters. Fine. Let us know.

However the media networks owe those of us searching for deeper understanding our own program. If it means waking up at silly o’clock to listen to knowledgeable & sensible talk about football, so be it. It is a sacrifice I am willing to make. But spare us these drones with nothing comprehensive to say.

The fact that a player had a distinguished football career at the very top does not miraculously turn him into a knowledgeable person. He doesn’t all of a sudden know all aspect of football. Rio was a defender, so was Lee Dixon. Owen was an attacker, fantastic players all of them. But they were told at every point in their career what to do. None of them has ever taken a day’s coaching session in competitive football.

Why should we trust anything they then say about a manager’s tactics, about setting out teams, about managerial philosophies, about transfer policies, about football pricing. Does anybody think that Sir Alex consulted Rio Ferdinand when he was planning to purchase Cristiano Ronaldo or the Da Silva Twins?

If the media networks are going to continue with the same format of analysing football games, I will recommend that they seriously consider adding a manager to their panel of pundits. I get that the managers will be loath to criticise a fellow manager but he will definitely offer more & probably better insight into games. If they are able to attract successful manager perhaps as successful as some of the players gracing the pundit chair now, even better.  We will have more confidence in their assertions. Slaven Bilic is getting rave reviews on the BBC Euros coverage at this rime and i think its the way to go. 

To the pundits on TV, please help us. Step up. Perhaps like Gary Neville and Alan Shearer, you might want to take up management. I can assure you, if the experience of Gary & Alan are anything to go by, your managerial experience is likely to be short and sharp. You might then come out of the experience, hopefully not too scarred like Gary but sufficiently well rounded in your knowledge of football for the advantage of those of us lapping up your every word.

Thank You.

REWRITING JOSE MOURINHO'S HISTORY

When Roman Abramovich put Jose Mourinho out of his misery at Chelsea last season. I was glad we had collectively heard the last of him. I could swear the whole world heaved a sigh of relief.

I could bet my last dollar that, he was toast and would never get another job with a top club again. I was very wrong. I did not factor in the deep routed desire of his mentor, Louis Van Gaal to do anything for a desperate protégé.

LvG knew that the only way for Jose to get the job was for him to flunk out of the top 4 and play badly and he duly delivered both and hence forced Ed Woodward’s hand in appointing Jose Mourinho as the new manager of Manchester United.

Jokes aside. The return of Jose is massive, it sets the scene for a combustible 2016 / 17 season in the Premier League. Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Antonio Conte, Arsene Wenger. 2 top managers will be crying into their coffee at the end of the season for missing out on a top 4 place.

It is also massive for Man United as lack of top 4 qualification will mean a 2^nd successive year outside of the UCL except if they do one better than Liverpool and win the Europa. It has significant implications for their Adidas kit deal and will mean a 4^th year without their league trophy birthright.

United have been somewhat forced down this route because (AT THIS VERY MOMENT) winning is all that matters now. Forget style, forget youth development, forget the Man U way, it is now all about winning. I feel Moyes & LvG have sort of demystified Man U to the extent that most teams go to Old Trafford without any fear and until they start to beat and steam roller opponents again, the fear factor won’t return.

As part of my research for this article, I have re - read the Man U official announcement of Mourinho’s appointment. You can find the statement here  . It is noteworthy in that announcement that nowhere is style of play, youth development or the Manchester United way referenced. It is all about winning. You might wish to contrast that with the announcement of Carlo Ancelloti at Bayern Munich here and the very comprehensive statement made by Chelsea on the appointment of Conte here

Just before the appointment of Mourinho at United especially with the highlighting of Jose’s fault lines (not developing youth and attacking style of play), news articles started to surface about how Jose’s Chelsea squad Mark 1 was the youngest side to win the Premier League and how his Real Madrid title winning squad scored the highest number of goals ever in one season. 

Of course, it will not be the first attempt by anybody to rewrite history. However I am unsure how his youngest side to win the league compares with bringing youth through / developing youth. The gold standard for the latter as far as I am aware is the Manchester United Class of 1992.  David Beckham joined United at 14, same age as Ryan Giggs. Paul Scholes started training with United  at the same age. Gary Neville appears to have joined at age 16 after finishing school while his brother Phil joined in 1990. Nicky Butt the 6^th iconic member of that group also joined at the age of 16.

All six were products of the United academy. Name me one player that was the product of any academy that Mourinho coached in his post Porto years. Just ONE. It is easy to have bought and assemble Petr Cech at age 22, Carvalho at 26, Joe Cole at 23, Duff at 25, Arjen Robben at 20, Huth at 20 and claim you won the league with the youngest set of players. None of whom originated from the Chelsea academy. With the youth set up at Chelsea, you will imagine that ONE youthful talent would have been developed from Chelsea in Jose’ two terms. You will imagine wrong. 

The story is similar at Inter Milan and at Real Madrid. Manchester United fans who expect Jose to help develop young talent will be disappointed. Sorry. Expect Rashford to be chastised soon for not tracking the runs of the opponent’s strikers and wingers and kiss good buy to any talent from your academy breaking into the first team.

Now to that fabled 'Real Madrid under Jose played attacking football' and scored a record 121 goals. Just for context, Barcelona scored 7 goals less. Real Madrid’s 121 goals under Jose included results such as 5 nil against Espanyol, 7 – 1  against Osasuna home and 5 away, 6 against Real Valladolid , another 5 against Sociedad and 6 each versus Zaragoza & Sevilla. Some terribly competitive league which should be used as a standard for attacking proficiency.

Why does  Jose bristle when his style of play is referred to as boring? Why is he regarded as the ‘park the bus’’ master?  In his last title winning squad with Chelsea, he scored 10 fewer goals than Manchester City , 15 fewer than Arsenal in his first Premier League win and same number of goals as Manchester United in his 2^nd title win. So don’t let anybody rewrite history about Jose’s team’s ability to attack. Jose is about tight defences and nicking one to win.

Will his appointment at Old Trafford work out. Nobody knows. Not even Ed Woodward and Jose himself. What Mr. Woodward has done is to play the percentages. Jose’s track record is such that he has won the league everywhere he has managed except at Benfica & Uniao de Leiria.

Will it happen again though? I am willing to put money that it won’t. The Premier League genie is out of the bag in my opinion. There are now 12 also ran teams in the Premier League who are plotting to do a Leicester. Winning games by turning up is passe, brow beaten opponents based on reputation is gone. C'EST FINI. 

I only hope the referees and the Premier League play a straight bat.  

WHO WANTS TO BE A FOOTBALL MANAGER

According to the League Managers Association’s End of Season Manager Statistics, (click here for the full report ) 70 managers in the 4 tiers of England’s Professional Football league have lost their jobs in the recently concluded season. 54 by way of dismissal and 14 via resignations. It is conceivable that some of the resignations are constructive dismissals. 11 of the dismissals were Premier League managers. In the words of the LMA the dismissals are ‘unprecedented’.

As things stand, the average tenure of a football manager is 1.5 years and the average tenure of dismissed managers is 1.34 years. In the Premier League, the average tenure of current managers is 1.91. With Arsene Wenger amongst that rank with c20 years of service and Eddie Howe at 3.6 years as the 2^nd longest serving manager, if you take out Arsene as an outlier and perhaps the last of his kind, you can be sure the Premier League average is nearer 1 than 2.

So who wants to be a football manager? Who wants a job with the immense pressure of potentially 30,000 cursing and swearing at you every weekend or midweek? 

Who wants the job where a megalomaniac owner is breathing down your neck every day thinking he can do the job better than you but refusing to take the reins himself after realizing it will be difficult to sack himself? 

Who wants a job doing what you love with a young family to feed knowing that job is going to be yanked away from you in less than a year? 

Who wants a job where the whim, oversight or ‘dodgyness’ of  a referee or his assistant can lead you to the sack despite setting your team out to play well and doing ‘everything’ right football wise? 

Who wants the job at all, knowing that football is a cruel old game? 

I get it, the rewards are massive. Remi Garde & Tim Sherwood probably walked off from Aston Villa with at least a £1m in their back pockets. Louis Van Gall was last seen crying into his £5m pay off and Jose Mourinho has reportedly earned c£40m from Mr. Abramovich’s propensity to ‘Fire & Fire’ and that is £40m without the imminent Red Devil inspired big fat juicy pay off to come. 

Yes, those are the glam stories and works well for managers in demand. Tony Pulis, Dick Advocaat and Sam Allardyce reportedly earned decent money from saving their club from relegation. Good on them.

What about the managers who are not at this level? Leaving with nothing because their contracts didn’t contain bulletproof clauses?  Because they couldn’t demand such clauses in their contract? Managers who are regular Joes like you and I? 

Yes I get the fact that they know what they are signing up for but imagine the man who did everything required and still gets fired? Slavisa Jokanovic? Quique Sanchez Flores?  Both at Watford.  Don’t get me started on the Pozo, they probably have an Abramovich sized complex. 

What about Chris Hughton at Newcastle who appeared to have been fired because his face didn’t fit? What about Rene Mulensteen at Fulham whose trajectory was on the up?

Personally I blame managers who agree to be employed by a maniac like Cellino at Leeds. Forgive me, you deserve everything you get if you decide to sleep with a mad man no matter how long you have been waiting to have your itch scratched :)  

We all know the drill about getting fleas while sleeping with dogs. Personally I will advice the League Managers Association to put a notice out to all members letting them know that they wont be represented if they work for Cellino. 

Also I thought Rafa Benitez agreeing to stay at Newcastle was strange, knowing what we know about Mr. Ashley. Personally I would rather be at home spending all my millions than work for Mr. Ashley despite all the promises we heard the latter has made to Rafa. Everything about Mr. Ashley in the public place especially his dealings with the Investment Community suggests he will break all & any promises. Dont cry or moan to us Rafa when it ends in tears.

Am I contradicting myself about managers? I don’t think so. Every rule has an exception I am told. Mine are Cellino & Ashley. Two peas in one exception pod.

Back to managers knowing what the job entails before signing up. Yes they know what they are signing up for but it still doesn’t make a lot of the hiring and firing we have seen sensible.

Is there a solution? I honestly don’t know. But what I hear and read is that club owners believe firing managers is a quicker and easier fix than firing players even when the players are the problem.

Is there a proper set up at the club? Recruitment, Training facilities, football ‘practical’ & football business knowledge within the club and independent of the manager that the owner posses or can access? 

Does the manager have a free hand to choose his team? Are there targets set? Hard firm targets e.g. Top 10 by Christmas? Push for Play off places? Or even go one step higher and do per match targets i.e. look at the list of clubs in your league at the start of the season, judging by squad strength etc., you commit to 3 points against ‘X’ number of teams within reason (referee errors, a dodgy lasagna moment etc.).

It would appear matrices like these are way beyond the imagination of football owners or football itself with a preference by all to keep things fluid with an acceptance that a manager can then be fired for no reason and at the whim of the owner with the manager receiving a pay off that ultimately adds to the cost of following football by us fans.

I read this article about Carlo Ancellotti and came to the conclusion that perhaps managers and not owners are the problem of football. Yes, the hiring and firing worked for Roman, Chelsea won a Champions League Trophy and have won 3 league titles in 12 years but what if he did it differently? Could they have won more? It is a possibility.

On a final note, I hope the above is a pointer to fans who are devoted ‘Sack the Manager’ advocates. It is unlikely to be the solution if the average sacked manager has only been in role for 1.31 years. If your club is a truly top top club, how long before you burn through top-level managers. Roman has craved Pep Guardiola but it is unlikely Pep will ever work for him. To Pep, Roman is probably like Ashley & Cellino.

Arsenal - Season Review of Sorts. Looking Forward to Next Season

I started to write this post the day we played Manchester City at the Etihad. Through a combination of travelling across 5 different time zones, work, laziness & lack of motivation I couldn’t finish it. I honestly give kudos to committed bloggers who combine their blogging with other daily endeavors. I struggle to cope with my attempt at weekly blogging.

I suppose the fact that we came 2^nd in the league should have given me some motivation to write and gloat but I was too busy lapping it up to find the time or inspiration to write.

Right after the City match, I thought it was a precious point at the Etihad. What a delightful goal from Alexis Sanchez to level the tie following a delicious lay off from Olivier Giroud. If you need a man to do delicious lay off, Giroud the pivot is your man. Fortunately for him, he broke his 15 game barren run.

He gets a lot of stick the Frenchman, some of it deserved but check the stats this season, he is leading goal scorer at Arsenal, as he should be. He is Arsenal’s number one striker with 24 goals in all competitions despite that barren run. The man has 82 career goals for Arsenal in 188 appearances. The best strikers in the world apparently have 1 goal to 2 games ratio. Giroud has 1goal to every 2.3 games. Yet he is shite. Football pundits and fans  - a difference of 0.3 lowers you from excellent to shite. Yes?

Anyway,  watching him score his first goal during the final match of the season, I reiterated the fact that Arsenal don’t play to Giroud’s strengths. Take it wide often, cross it in often and leave the rest to Giroud. I realize we might be getting a better striker this summer but if we retain Giroud’s services, we do need to play to his strength. He can be our plan B in situations when Plan A is not working. That plus players like Alexis, Theo and Ramsey actually passing the ball forward to the striker rather than sideways help. When we are 2 nil or 3 nil up, you can glory hunt for all I care. Make the game safe first. 

And then St Totteringham’s day happened when already relegated 10 men Newcastle defeated the Middlesex Bottling Club. Although he didn’t score, Andros Townsend was on fire and was instrumental to birthing the worst day of the managerial career of the man who never believed in him. Forever in our shadow.

Back to the Man City match. I was quite surprised with their aggressive approach to that game. I wonder if this was an approach taking out of the ‘Arsenal can be bullied’ template or was it one borne out of desperation. Limp out of the UCL, entitled neighbors right on our back, lets get the 3 points any way possible.

Unfortunately it didn’t work. Despite looking very disjointed and sometimes listless, Arsenal managed a point and set themselves up to finish 2^nd.

I was a nervous wreck during the match itself especially as I had only 4 hours sleep in the 24 hours leading up to the game. I couldn’t understand why we conceded the 2 goals. I don’t think Koscielny defended Aguero’s shot properly and Kevin De Bruyne should not have been allowed to get anywhere close to the  point where he took that shot to score. Gabriel backing of De Bruyne is the way he plays but I would have committed to a tackle just outside the box and fouled him if necessary.

Much as attention has been directed towards Wenger, Giroud, Theo and Ramsey for most of the past season, I think we have a lot of work to do in defence. We allow too many shots on our goal and I don’t think our defenders are robust enough. The back 4 gets easily bullied. Gabriel shows a lot of spunk and desire but the others are too nice or too technical. I hope Gabriel improves significantly as a lot of his shortcomings remind me of Koscielny in the early days.

Defensively, we cant have 3 outfield players in Ozil, Alexis and the main striker (Theo / Giroud) who don’t / cant / wont defend. That’s why we get run over easily. Most solid teams leave the one up top when they need to defend. In Arsenal that one up top has to be Ozil, I don’t think he is cut out for defending. So our striker (new or old) and Alexis will have to do that job or worst case Alexis and Ozil interchange on the ‘wont / cant defend’ duty or we don’t play both of them. 

I think we also need to vary our play when playing against the proverbial 2 banks of four. Stop trying to play around them. It is boring as we usually find it difficult to unlock this type of opponent. Our worst games in my memory comes against this type of play.

When confronted with two banks of four,  play for set pieces and make sure you bring your ‘Set Pieces A game’. Alternatively as some have suggested, adopt the high press when the opponents have the ball as a quick turnover at this point often leaves the two banks of four no room to reorganize.

Personally I think the problems with goal scoring are easily solved with the amount of chances created by the team. A striker with a better conversion rate will / should deliver 30 goals.

So where do we go from here. It appears one signing is already done. Xhaka. I haven’t seen him play one bit and I have restrained myself from going on YouTube to see. Come and show me what you are made of on the hallowed turf of the Emirates after a successful and incident free Euro. Come and destroy Man U, Chelsea, City, Liverpool and all of them for me. Then I will know what you are made off.

I don’t think the job in the midfield is done yet. We are losing 3 bodies I hear, Rosiscky & Arteta gone. Looks like Flamini too. We appear to have signed one so we need more bodies.

I think we need that striker that is an upgrade on Giroud and I think we need centre backs as well (2 possibly) Per is on his last legs, Koscielny is 31, Gabriel needs improvement. We need competition for Bellerin and Monreal. I don’t think Gibbs is pushing Monreal enough. Although the latter is easily one of the most improved Arsenal player, I don’t think he has advanced in the 2^nd half of the season. Bellerin needs to add a bit of steel to his play, I hope competition will help him do this.

On goalkeepers, I will not be surprised if Ospina wants a move away. I think he was happy to be a cup keeper in the just concluded season (UCL, CoC & FA) however the way things turned out in the UCL suggest Wenger might not be in a hurry to repeat that experiment. To be fair, its not as if Cech has set the world on fire too. However, I expect Ospina to be tempted away. If James (Hames) Rodriquez turns up at Old Trafford, I wont be surprised to see Ospina at Everton for family reasons.

Looks like Szczesny wants away too and I don’t blame him. Probably doesn’t think he will be displacing Cech anytime soon. Him leaving the Emirates is not a straightforward decision because of the emotional ties. Don’t forget the Polish lad is as much a born and bred Gunner as Kieran Gibbs. Wojciech joined Arsenal at the age of 16 and has stayed at Arsenal for as long as Rosicsky / Walcott etc.  From the little I saw of Emiliano Martinez two seasons ago, I think he is ready to be Petr’s number 2 if both Ospina and Szczesny depart the Emirates.  

A few final words to Wenger – Rashford, Fosu - Mensah, Borthwick – Jackson, Varela, Lekko, Watmore, Iwobi etc. Time to rekindle some faith in Project Youth again. Yes some of those youths were played due to circumstances. Let us trust our youths a bit more. I think we tried to be too mature this season, too safe, ready to be boring and not throw matches away but some of the play was turgid in bits. Some came good in second half of matches but some were disastrous like Southampton away. We would have lost nothing playing the youth in that game. Maybe we would have discovered a gem.

 As all junkies will tell you, I am looking forward to my next fix. To next season. I hope we go one better and clinch the damn thing. I pray that, that small Middlesex club come second next season.  When they do, you know for sure that Arsenal won the league.