Ed Lawrie
Football is, I am afraid, so much more about money today than it ever was, and he with the deepest pockets will eventually need to buy silver polish. Now my question is, what is the financial sense of becoming champions on a cost-return basis?
As champions, you can sell more shirts to kids and glory-hunters, Barclays give you a few quid more and demand for tickets to a generally sold-out stadium goes up. So, apart from bragging rights, a pennant on the stadium and memories, some priceless, the returns are not great. Contrast this against the likely costs needed to buy sufficient players to secure that championship, and the wage-increase needed for them and the existing squad, it would seem like investing £50 to get £2 back and anyone who does it is on a vanity project.
In the decade before Mourinho, Arsenal were champions three times to United’s six, with the Blackburn one-off making up the numbers. That makes us the second-best team over that decade, and they were great times. Now that we have petro-funded City and Chelsea on vanity projects, we have descended to fourth as the last of the CL-money-spinning places is now seen as glory.
Granted that United are skint, and Chelsea have issues, there is scope, but we shouldn’t be expectant. Seven years is only a long time if you are under 20 and know little else, yet it is interesting to see the team now free from pot-winning playing great carefree football to ensure they reach their natural place again.
Yet while our recent turnaround started with the Spuds, it’s equally true that they should find their true level, which, with great honesty and minimal gloating, is somewhere below us in the pecking order. For Arsenal this season, the achievement will be to finish above a petro-funded club, or ideally both of them, while the possibility of Spurs finishing above Arsenal is really not acceptable for any number of reasons, including wages spent and expectations. All newly-promoted clubs can float at varying levels of competence in their initial seasons, but will eventually find a level of comfort and acceptability for costs along with the more established members of the league, who do what is required to maintain expectations. In today’s world of work, exceptional performance by players only brings raised expectations from fans and offers no significant financial upside bar a transfer or a new contract, and there is plenty of evidence of players only upping their game at negotiation time.
In short, the Arsenal are more than good enough to be fourth; anything more than that is a bonus and this will continue until the petros lose interest. Hopefully, by then, United will make Rangers look solvent and we can get the dynasty going that 89\91 threatened. As the Guinness ads say, "Good things come to those who wait".
