Management of Many Is the Same as Management of Few. It Is a Matter of Organization

The revolving door cavalcade of stars that is top flight football management has gotten ridiculous.  In the Premiership, managers like Steve Kean can hold on to their jobs, even though relegation looms menacingly on the horizon.  Yet managers like Steve Bruce have a rough calendar year, and as soon as the opportunity becomes available; he promptly is shown the door.  Bruce’s replacement, Martin O’Neill has quite a bit of work cut out for him at Sunderland.  But, given O’Neill’s philosophy toward management, I get the feeling he will start to see results by the end of this current season.

Humorously, the joke is that Venky’s, current owners of Blackburn Rovers, believe that Kean can take Rovers back to the summit of English football.  That is all well and good, except that I doubt that Venky’s took the time to do some research into BRFC’s history.  Prior to 1995, when Rovers won the Premier League title, they had not won a top flight championship since 1913-14.  They have not won the FA Cup since 1928.  And the most recent piece of hardware in their dusty old trophy cabinet would be their League Cup from 2002.  Other than those two trophies in the last 16 years, Blackburn have not done much in terms of resembling a contender.  But the faith of Venky’s, in putting their backing in Steve Kean is to be commended.  If not to howl with laughter at.  Blackburn, as of the writing of this piece, are currently sitting on 18^th in the Premier League.  They currently have an abysmal two wins, to go with four draws, and 8 losses.  Luckily for them though, Rovers are joined by two Lancashire neighbors, Bolton and Wigan.  It seems like this season may prove to be a difficult one for Steve Kean.  But, if Venky’s are going to give him time to build the team as he wants them to, and not pander to the trigger-happy media and supporters, then I get the feeling in two to three years’ time, BRFC may be mid-table finishers in the Premiership.

Sunderland under Steve Bruce was a team with promise.  Promise that a lot of people accuse Bruce of pissing away.  Read any one of the articles that appeared in places like The Guardian, where painstaking characters were spent belittling and mocking the limited legacy that Bruce had left at the Stadium of Light.  The point that the articles, like Louise Taylor’s mentioned previously, drive home is that Steve Bruce was a man out of his league. I cannot say I completely agree, or disagree, with this statement.  There were times where it did look like Bruce could not have led a horse to water, much less make it drink.  Then there were times where his Sunderland squad could make believers out of fools, as opposed to the fools out of believers stance that so many in the media want to take.  Bruce had Darren Bent, one of the more prolific English strikers in recent history.  He also signed Asamoah Gyan, Connor Wickham, and got Danny Welbeck on loan.  Those four would make for a formidable striker rotation, at any club.  But it also sort of belies one major point, very little was done to shore up the rest of the squad. Wes Brown is a affable defender in his own right.  But he can have positioning problems, and give up own goals.  Lee Cattermole?  As captain?  That is nearly as laughable as Titus Bramble going to Barcelona.  Actually, now that I think of it, that decision defines Steve Bruce.  He is the embodiment of the absurdity of football.  He seemed to genuinely believe that someone like Lee Cattermole, with a disciplinary record that makes him more enforcer than leader, is captain material.  And that was supposed to solve the Mackems’ problems?  Only Steve Bruce knows.  Currently, Sunderland are 16^th in the table.  Doing better than Kean’s Blackburn.  But the Black Cats are teetering dangerously close to the relegation zone.  Maybe a bit too close for Sunderland’s board’s comfort. 

So what does Sunderland do?  They send old Steve Bruce packing.  I am of the mindset that managerial changes should not be done during the season.  It disrupts the team.  It kills any continuity to build from, because it means that the players have to learn a new system, and how to deal with a new manager.  While it could potentially turn results around, this sort of upheaval and rash decision-making should not be done while the season is still going.  But, Sunderland wanted Steve Bruce out.  So, they got their wish.  Who did the choose to pin their hopes on now?  Martin O’Neill.  I like Martin O’Neill.  I think he was a fantastic manager at Aston Villa, before his team was sold out from under him.  I think had Milner and Barry stayed at Villa, they could have continued to fight to break the Top Four oligarchy.  But it was not meant to be.  So O’Neill went on a bit of a hiatus from football.  Now, he is back.  He is taking charge of a team that is underachieving, and in dire need of direction.  Well, they need a direction that is not freefall.  And I believe that Martin O’Neill could be that man.  But I believe this to be the case if a few things were to happen.  First, he needs time to sort through the squad, and to get rid of any dead weight that may drag the team down.  Cattermole, your days as captain may be numbered.  Second, he needs money to bring in players.  This could be necessary come the January transfer window.  When O’Neill could bring in a couple of guys to stabilize the defensive and midfield ranks.  Then, in traditional Martin O’Neill fashion, he takes his team “back to basics”.  Maybe, by March or April, there will be improvements shown by Sunderland and its players, and their supporters will once again believe that this club is capable of producing, like they did in flashes under Bruce. 

Martin O’Neill got Aston Villa to the Europa League, and the League Cup final in 2010.  I cannot see why it may not be possible for Sunderland to set their sights on trophies like these, maybe next season or two seasons down the road.  I also cannot see this happening this season.  The gulf of points, even at this stage of the Premier League, will mean that Sunderland would just about have to win every match between now and the end of May, to be able to qualify for Champions League.  The Roker Men are 27 points adrift of Manchester City, at the top.  And 17 points adrift of Champions League qualifying.  With 25 matches to play yet, it will be a grueling test of Martin O’Neill’s mental acumen, and man-management skills, to see if he can right the ship enough to finish in mid-table respectability.

Violence Is the Last Refuge of the Incompetent

To me, one of the biggest problems that exists in football, and its subculture, is the idea of tribalism.  Or rather, exceptionalism manifesting itself in vehement aggression against those who do not wear the same color as you.  It is gang warfare, or hooliganism, in its latest form.  Without the pomp and circumstance which defined that era, at its height.  With the infinitesimal expansion of social networks, and the opportunity to co-mingle with anyone who has a computer, or smart phone, and the minimal capabilities of putting together thoughts; this tribalist mentality has taken on a life of its own.  Most likely, in ways that I would feel safe in venturing to guess, that the old hooligans never thought possible before.

Growing up in the US, my experience with football hooliganism was limited to brief news blurbs and soundbytes that never delved into any detail.  I vaguely recall hearing about the Heysel tragedy in 1985.  I do not recall ever hearing about the Hillsborough tragedy.  My full education on both of those came much later in my life.  I also remember hearing brief snippets of news chastising the hooligan culture in England.  I never heard anything of hooligans from other nations, only England.

As I have grown, and immersed myself in football, especially its history and culture, I have spent ample time learning about the darker side of the game as well.  I am quite familiar with the sectarian violence that defined the Old Firm derby for many years.  I have become quite familiar with the animosity that exists between West Ham and Millwall.  Or, well, the animosity that exists against anyone who plays Millwall at The Den.  I have read extensively on the political and sociological acrimony that defines the El Clasico, between Barcelona and Real Madrid.  Or the political rancor of the Derby della Capitale between AS Roma and SS Lazio.  Not to mention the perceived malevolence that English teams and their supporters seem to encounter when playing against Roma.

There is a deep history of antipathy that exists in football.  It is defined by borough, in the case of London and its derbies.  It is defined by region, as is the case of any team that seems to play in Lancashire, or the Basque region of Spain.  It is defined by religion, like the divide in Glasgow between Rangers and Celtic.  It is defined by political ideologies, like Real Madrid and Barcelona, or Lazio and Roma.  Even, to an extent, it is defined by national history, like Scotland and England.  There is a sense of identity that exists within the parameters of these heated rivalries.  A sense of purpose on both sides of the hostility.  Not just the pride that comes with defeating your hated rivals, but a sense of karmic comeuppance being played out before you, if you happen to support the underdog in any of these cases.

In understanding these, even in the most basic of senses, then you can infer at the level of passion and emotion that exists within football, and its subculture.  The concept of identity, as paraded by the local club, or regional club, or national team; is a very integral part of being a supporter.  You are judged by the crest you wear on your shirt.  You are judged by the color of that shirt.  You are judged by the dialect you speak.  You are judged by any, and all, who support a football club.  Especially if those supporters do not share your taste in teams.

This is especially obvious in the medium of social networks.  I have been witness to friends of mine receiving torment for the club they support.  Duly, I have also seen them torment supporters of other teams.  I found myself aghast at the choice of barbs that have been exchanged.  I have read lengthy articles on places like The Guardian about songs between rival groups of supporters, highlighting tragedies in each respective team’s histories.  I have witnessed such insults and comments traded in comments sections of websites, between rival supporters, and passed off as “banter”.  It is crass.  It is absurd.  And it only serves to complicate the experience of being a football supporter.

This problem is not limited to interactions between rival squads.  It is exists within the confines of certain supporters groups, who support the same team.  There is a certain exceptionalism that supporters a club, say they are from England, carry toward supporters of their club who do not live within a certain distance from the club’s home ground.  Or, in the case of certain political groups within those supporters groups, supporters who are deemed to be “casual”, are ostracized and verbally berated, or even physically attacked, by those who call themselves “passionate”.  I have seen the term “plastic” bandied around at people an absurd amount of times.  In this case, “plastic” is a term used to insult supporters who are considered to beneath those who are doing the insulting.  It is a term that I abhor.  It is a classification that I feel belittles the experience of supporters who support clubs in their own way.  It is classless to me, to treat fellow supporters that way.  And it is something that needs to be addressed within the supporter culture.

Unfortunately, with the relative anonymity that exists within the online medium, accountability is at a bare minimum.  This transition of the hooligan, from a beer-swilling fisticuff-engaging barbarian, into a relatively anonymous collection of words on a screen has been relatively seamless.  The ability to vocalize one’s hatred at a rival supporter is taking the terraces into a new place.  It has taken the street fight and moved it into a textual pissing match.  The vitriol is there, in spades.  The disdain is amplified.  And the virulence has taken on a life of its own.  And that is something that needs to be addressed as well.  As a football supporter, or a fan of any sport, the experience is generally shared.  The agony of defeat.  The exhilaration of victory.  Those are experiences shared with one’s friends, and fellow supporters.  While there is a place for sour grapes, lashing out either in violent means, or verbal, has no place in the culture.  It is as deplorable to me as racism, or sexism, or anytime that Andy Gray opens his gaping maw.  It detracts from my ability to enjoy supporting my club, if I am surrounded by hostility.  It detracts from my interest in wanting to be a part of this culture, when that antagonism is aimed at fellow supporters, and rival supporters alike.

This has to stop.  This in-fighting between supporters.  It leaves a blemish on this beautiful game, that I love so passionately.  This tribalism that led to acts like Heysel and Hillsborough.  This mentality that got England banned from European competition from the mid to late 1980s needs to stop.  Violence, either physically or verbally, needs to be excised from football’s culture.  And it needs to happen soon.  It turns away people who could potentially fall in love with the game, because it shows that it has a repugnant side.  It leads to drastic action that can have a lasting affect on clubs, or nations.  And it makes the media treat football and its supporters as though they have barely crawled out of the primordial ooze.  Football is more cultured than that.  Football supporters are more cultured than that.  They have seen what has happened before.  They need to heed the lessons of the tragedies, and senselessness, of the generations before.  More importantly, they need to bring the game back from this precarious threshold.

His Style Is Chaos Illumined By Flashes of Lightning

I have to admit I've never really considered myself a writer nor have I at any point had any desire to have/be involved in a blog but I have been a fan of the game of football as long as I can remember. (However as an American I just fairly recently started referring to it as football instead of soccer) I played for many years growing up and while I'm far from an expert, nor do I have the credentials to be a coach or manager, I do feel as if I have a very good general understanding of the game and many opinions on it.

Recently I was having a conversation via text with my buddy Eric , having our usual discussion of the recent events of English football and pieces from blogs we enjoy when the topic of Eric’s previous blogging came up. Needless to say, the man has missed it quite a bit since his last ventures in it. He, himself, is a writer, and a damn good one at that. I suggested he start his own blog to provide himself a place to put down and share his thoughts and provide an outlet for his regular musings into the strange and often times corrupt world that is football.

Anyway, once the topic came up a few ideas were tossed around and the man extended an invitation to me to contribute whenever possible to provide a little diversity to his works and maybe even entertain a bit while at it. With the offer on the table I was slightly honored to be a part of this and accepted with little hesitation. After all, Eric has been a longtime buddy of mine and I'm more than interested to see what he has to say and who or what will be the subject of his rants which are sure to follow.

Having read his previous efforts I can say that he never fails to entertain and is a well spoken, intelligent writer, who knows his stuff. I will always respect him for his knowledge of the game and its history as well as his ability to form opinions without bias. This is where he is well qualified to be the man writing the blog taking a critical look at the game and its many ups and downs that undoubtedly come year after year. That being said he does have teams/players he likes and supports as well as teams/players he cant stand just like the rest of us but I do know for a fact he calls it like he sees it and while he may be up front and in your face at times, he can always back up what he says and have reasoning behind it. Like he said already, feel free to exchange ideas.

As for me personally, I feel as if I contradict the mission statement here right off the front. I am very biased a lot of the time. I do give respect where respects due (A majority of the time. Some teams and players I will never respect regardless. I mean come on, Tottenham are the Lilywhites and their logo is a chicken standing on a fuckin beachball for fucksake. And don't get me started on the team that’s spent more money in the past two years than anyone in the history of the game. That’s right, fuck the oilers, er uh City), but a lot of my opinions are formed by where my loyalties lie. I am a die hard gooner. The Arsenal FC is by far the greatest team the world has ever seen after all. A fan for many years I can’t help but be slightly consumed by the goings on of the Arse. This being the case you can expect a lot of the pieces I post to involve AFC in one way or another if not completely be about them. I do not however feel this compromises the integrity of this blog as I am only a guest, who will be stopping in every week or so to share a few thoughts and fade into the background once again where I belong here. My role being as it is you may not hear from me as regularly and my posts might be short at times but hopefully I will provide a decent read, possibly a few laughs, and a few moments of entertainment on occasion.

Til next time- Dan

The Mother of Excess Is Not Joy But Joylessness

Whatever happened to European football’s traditional powerhouses?  Are they victims of the current football culture to spend far and beyond their own means, with the hope of possibly bringing home old Big Ears?  Or, more importantly, are they victims of the mentality of extravagant spending to lead to a big European pay-day?

Looking back at the history of European Cup champions, it is amazing to see how many of those teams have seemingly fallen into relative obscurity.  Even more telling, is looking at the teams who were runners-up.  Factoring out Real Madrid’s utter decimation of any, and all comers in the first five years; there was a pretty vast array of club who fell just short of the mark, to be able to lift the European Cup. 

Since the European Cup metamorphosed into the UEFA Champions League, that parity has gradually waned.  Instead of teams from Sweden or Yugoslavia making it to the final match, there is disproportionate domination by clubs from Germany, Italy, Spain, and England.  There have been four teams who have played in the Final, who were not from those nations: Marseille, Porto, Monaco, and Ajax.  These four teams represent an anomaly that stands starkly against the hegemony of the previously mentioned nations.

Prior to 1992, in England for example, before the creation of the Premier League, the top four teams were usually a crapshoot.  Sure, one team may have a run of domination, but the teams just under them could range drastically from year to year.  That, in a lot of ways, was a microcosm of how the European Cup played out.  You could have teams like Liverpool, Manchester United, Leeds United, or Arsenal have runs at the top.  But just on the fringe there would be teams like Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, or Ipswich Town who would be there looking for a chance to steal the championship.

In relation to Europe, there have been dominant teams since the creation of the UEFA Champions League, and the introduction of the Group Stage.  Barcelona being the most recent.  Or Manchester United.  Or even Real Madrid.  Teams who have a history of European pedigree, by this I mean that these teams have either won or played in the Final at least once prior to the creation of the Champions League; they have seemingly fallen by the wayside.  Benfica and Celtic are fantastic examples of this.  As Serie A, the Bundesliga, the Premiership, and La Liga have built a strong financial base, the Scottish Premier League, Portuguese Liga, and French Ligue 1 have fallen behind.  A very large reason behind this relates directly to the distribution of television rights.  In the US, via the outlets of Fox Soccer Channel and ESPN, I have access to the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, the Bundesliga.  To a lesser extent the Dutch Eredivisie and Portuguese Liga are shown.  But that’s really it, unless I watch streaming matches online.  That, in its own way, seems representative of the problems that these lesser leagues face.

Another theory regarding the problem, that I have seen postulated, is that the implementation of the Group Stage, was designed to make sure that the power in the European Cup, stayed with the nations whose clubs traditionally drew large crowds and strong gates.  The oligarchy at the summit of European football have come to depend on the financial boost that is dispersed following the Champions League final.  Therefore, it stands to reason, to those who believe it to be so, that they will do everything in their power to maintain their stranglehold on that financial boost.  This includes going as far as insinuations of match-fixing and favoritism being aimed at the powers that run UEFA.  I cannot say that I necessarily agree with this stance, but there are all sorts of patterns that could be interpreted as being a bit suspicious, if one is inclined toward that school of thought.

However, it should be noted that the Champions League has gone through a few changes since its rebranding and modification.  The biggest of which being the elimination of one of the Group Stages.  That alteration, though, does not make it any easier to qualify for the Group Stage.  There is still the knockout round that begins shortly after the previous season’s final.  But those teams, if they manage to make it past that knockout phase, tend to be little more than fodder for the giants, to be able to qualify for the Knockout Phase.  If those teams are lucky, and can manage to get a shock result or two, they may get parachute into the Europa League, but the money there is nowhere near the same, nor is the prestige.

If Celtic or Benfica are the example of the power-shift that occurred in movement from European Cup to Champions League, then Ajax must be the exception.  Ajax has won Champions League, to compliment their European Cup successes from the 1970s.  However, nowadays, Ajax is seen as little more than a developmental club for the European elite.  Because of this status as a developmental territory, Eredivisie titles are now harder to come by.  However, this past season, they won for the first time since 2004.  But this is a team that is rich in European lore, and a team whom I feel should be represented more often in the later stages of Champions League.  But, unfortunately, due to the power of the teams coming out of Spain or England or Italy, teams like Ajax tend to miss out on opportunities to advance.

As an epilogue to this tale, I just wanted to mention Stade de Reims and Eintracht Frankfurt.  Reims were unfortunate to lose to Real Madrid twice during the Galacticos’ run at the pinnacle of the fledgling European Cup.  Eintracht were Madrid’s opposition in what was considered to be the greatest European Cup final ever, at the end of Madrid’s amazing run.  Reims has currently been languishing in the second division of French football, Ligue 2.  And even spent a bit of time in the Championnat National and the Championnat de France amateur, the third and forth divisions of French football.  Unfortunately, it does not appear that they will be fighting to return to their former European glory and status, anytime soon.  Eintracht on the other hand have spent much of the last fifteen years bouncing between the Bundesliga and 2. Bundesliga.  While they have not duplicated their run from the late 1950s, they still maintain a devoted following, and mid-to-lower table finishes in the Bundesliga, that ultimately led to their relegation at the end of this past season.

The financial monopoly that the European elite have created in the Champions League has effectively shut out teams who have a proud history of in Europe.  Teams who are considered to be “small market” are knocked out of the competition early, or get their chances snuffed out in the Group Stage.  Thus, forcing them to ply their trade for European glory, in the Europa League.

While I did not discuss it in this article, I will touch on it in a later article, I do sincerely hope that the Financial Fair Play regulations open up the door for lesser teams to advance and create a stir in the later stages of the competition.

With Rebellion, Awareness Is Born

This is a beginning.  A new way to look at football.  A new way to look at its culture.  A new way to look at its world.

This is Zidane's Razor.

This is our mission statement:

Our aim is to take a critical look at football, and to boldly go where so many blogs aspire, yet so many fail to reach.  We intend to examine the issues we see, without bias or prejudice or tribalism.  We want to convey our love and affection for the game of football.  We want to encourage a free exchange of ideas.  We want to encourage intellectual discourse, without falling into the traps that undermine other football blogs.

Most importantly, we hope you, the reader, enjoy the essays that comprise the content of Zidane's Razor.  And we hope that you join the conversation.