The King of the Premier League is gone. The man who for two decades set the standards that all others must rise to or be judged by has finally stepped away from the game.
Even when Arsenal and Chelsea claimed the title, the suspicion always remained that it was merely on loan and that Alex Ferguson’s crown was merely tilted on edge, not totally removed. Even when Manchester United went three seasons without a title between 2003 and 2006, his aura loomed large – there was a sense of disbelief that his era of rule could be over, that his time on the throne could possibly end before he decided it was going to end.
There were moments when it seemed the Scot would be thrust from his chair, but each claimant was hugely flawed.
Though Jose Mourinho won back to back titles in dominant style, there remains a suspicion that Chelsea’s flatness in Mourinho’s third season and the start of his fourth was a result of mental exhaustion after the intensity of his two title winning seasons, and that his demanded standards aren’t sustainable over the longer term.
Similarly, Arsene Wenger reinvigorated the league with his ideas, particularly in 03-04 when Arsenal dominated with a style of play that was swashbuckling and tough. But the collapse the following season, brought about by their own frailties more than outside pressure, was so complete that it deeply undermined his reputation. Sadly, the man who at one point brought an intellectual edge to the country has since become a bit of a figure of fun.
Right until the end, Ferguson remained the man who defined and dominated football in England.
But now, his rule has come to a close. And if Game of Thrones has taught us anything (besides the fact that incest is sexy), it’s that the fall of a strong king will lead to a complicated battle to replace him. Predictability is the death of entertainment. Part of what’s promising about next season is that so many are either under a new boss, or in the follow-up to a difficult but intriguing first season. Next year will be a season of change, to an extent that’s unprecedented in England in recent decades.
A man with a tough role to fill. Courtesy of BohemianFC
Despite Manchester United winning two titles from three, all is not rosy at Old Trafford.
If you were to list central midfielders capable of dominating against any opponent in the world, since Roy Keane was released in 2005, it’d be a very short list. Paul Scholes, depending on when you consider him to have passed his peak, and possibly Michael Carrick. That’s it – an incredible run for such a key area in such a consistently successful side. Although it was more of a one-off, the wingers were also relatively weak last season, with Valencia being notably poor and Ashley Young still hasn’t really settled at Old Trafford. Defence and attack have remained strong areas, but Evra, Ferdinand and Vidic are getting older, and Wayne Rooney continues to be disruptive. There remains a suspicion that in recent years, Ferguson’s drive and stubbornness have powered Manchester United, pushing his side to pick up points they never should have collected.
Will Moyes be able to make the changes required without ripping out the iron-willed sense of self-belief?
Will he be able to cope with the pressure of managing at a club where a trophy is a necessity, not a bonus?
Despite an impressive record at Everton, will he be able to command the respect of players who’ve won much more than he has?
And how will he cope with the pressure Mourinho is sure to exert through the media?
While I’m intrigued to see how the calm Moyes reacts to pressure from Stamford Bridge, I’m not looking forward to seeing that behaviour. We can probably expect more behaviour in the pattern of making up lies about Reading paramedics and poking opposing coaches in the eye, or more examples of his melodramatic, so-called wit. He claims not to have heard of Roma manager Zdenek Zeman or Catania Director of Football Pietro Lo Monaco! Lo Monaco sounds like Monaco! Arsene Wenger is a pervert! Given the understated nature of his press conference, Mourinho may actually decide to act like a decent human being this time around, though I wouldn’t bet on it.
What I am interested in is seeing how a team built around Mata and Hazard performs, and whether Romeleu Lukaku can be transformed into the world-class centre forward he has the potential to be. While his teams have always had an underlying physicality, Mourinho can be relied on to build an incredible desire to win, with their physicality and skill intertwined. Despite my dislike of their manager, I’ve actually found myself hoping that the ludicrously counter-productive rumours that Mata will be sold and Wesley Sneijder signed are untrue. With so much talent united, Chelsea should be great to watch if they put together a squad that matches the number of games they’re required to play.
Mata attacks Jerome Boateng in the 2012 Champions League Final. Courtesy of rayand
Manuel Pellegrini is charged with reinvigorating Manchester City, and the signings of Jesus Navas and Fernandinho look an impressive start.
During Pellegrini’s sole season in charge of Real Madrid, his side picked up 95 points, at the time a club record, and he seemed unruffled by the media speculation that he’d be replaced with Mourinho. At both Villareal and Malaga, he led mid-sized clubs into the Champions League quarter finals for the first time – while Malaga spent big at first, key players were sold from under him as Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani withdrew most of his backing, but Pellegrini kept his cool the whole time and kept his squad performing as they were slowly picked apart. His record in itself is impressive, but it was all achieved while playing an attractive style. It should be fun to see if Pellegrini can translate his record to England. Though he’s a bit of an outside bet, I can imagine Pellegrini, with his calm approach and oil billions at his disposal, being the man to come out on top.
After a long time when Arsenal have hovered around fourth and sold their stand out player, this summer looks set to break the pattern. The rumoured loss of Podolski looks to be the closest this summer, but he’s more of a squad player rather than a vital player, and some fans seem to believe they could do more with his wages. There’s the possibility that Cazorla and Podolski could step up their game in their second season at Arsenal, Jack Wilshere should play more often, and Aaron Ramsey looked to be finally getting back to his best at the end of the season. There are also the rumoured arrivals of Fabregas and Fellaini. Admittedly, I’m more jaded about Arsenal’s possibilities than any of the other clubs, and I don’t believe that they will do anything special next year. The possibility remains though, as always, that next year will be the year when everything comes together.
Is Cesc coming back? Courtesy of Ronnie MacDonald.
TalkSport presenter Adrian Durham, in an impressive combination of stupidity, stubbornness and jingoism, has been sticking to his argument that Vilas-Boas has failed compared to Harry Redknapp. While I’d agree that Redknapp did a good job at White Hart Lane, his success was largely a result of clearing his players’ heads of doubts, filling them with self-confidence and sending them out to play in a more or less freeform way. Vilas-Boas has worked out a more sophisticated way of attacking, with Gareth Bale being moved around the forward line to the point designed to hurt the opposition most, whereas he was more or less left to run wherever he felt like under Redknapp. It’s a style of football Scott Parker’s looked out of place in, and the absence of Sandro through injury had a major impact on the team. The loss of Luka Modric, too late in pre-season to replace him with a player of equivalent ability, also hit Spurs hard. The abysmal form of Emmanuel Adebayor, one of only two senior strikers and their only real option as a focal point, was also a major problem. The fact that Spurs did so well with so many weaknesses is pretty impressive, and bodes well for what they can do if those weaknesses are fixed. The addition of a deeper playmaker, defensive midfielder and a decent forward or two, should give a massive lift to Spurs given the ludicrous weaknesses in those areas, probably pushing them back into the competition for Champions’ League places.
Brendan Rodgers is an easy man to mock. He has a painting of himself on his wall at home, and his management includes trying to scare his players with the threat of having their names written inside an envelope. But despite his David Brent/Nev from the Call Centre style, he’s a talented coach with an entertaining and free-flowing style of play. Last season, Liverpool were massively inconsistent. They tore apart Newcastle, Fulham, Wigan, Swansea, and Norwich twice, but lost to Aston Villa, Stoke, Southampton, and West Brom twice. A forward line that includes Dan Sturridge, Philippe Coutinho and possibly Luis Suarez will be more suited to Rodgers’ fluid style of play than the squad he inherited and many players, most notably Jordan Henderson, will feel more comfortable with the demanded style than last year. And a deeper squad should allow Liverpool to utilise Raheem Sterling without burning him out.
Raheem Sterling can do better than last season, and should be hungry to feed his families. Courtesy of md.faisalzaman
Roberto Martinez has earned plaudits for years for playing an attractive style of football with one of the league’s lesser teams, showing that it isn’t necessary to squeeze out every ounce of joy from the game to avoid a financially crippling relegation. He’ll probably want to switch Everton’s approach to a slightly more open style, and has spoken about aiming for the Champions League. But can he successfully do so without disrupting what made the side work for years? In many ways, Martinez faces a tougher task than Moyes does at Man Utd, as he’s also replacing a man who set the standards high, but he’ll probably want to change the style. As has been pointed out elsewhere, the Merseyside derby should be an attractive match next season.
Given that so many things are in flux at the top end of the table, it’s not impossible for a surprise team to break up the status quo.
As I’ve written previously, I find di Canio a fascinating figure. Not in the sense that he gives melodramatic quotes, but I’m genuinely fascinated by the way he goes about managing his sides. When Titus Bramble announced he’d been fined for not showing up for training, most took the manager’s side. But last summer, di Canio decided to freeze out his title winning captain Paul Caddis, named in the League Two team of the year, because he felt he’d lost his intensity in pre-season. This happened shortly after Caddis became a father, and he wasn’t even given a chance to prove di Canio wrong.
With actions like that and the unusual step of substituting a goalkeeper for performance reasons, di Canio the manager seems to be the physical embodiment of the concept of intensity. With Mourinho, di Canio and Holloway in the Premier League, the amount of time Sky Sports and the like refer to ‘great characters’ will be unbearable. But the management and football philosophies of each are interesting and it should be intriguing to see di Canio tested at a higher level.
di Canio, pictured waving, not saluting. Courtesy of Hilton Teper
With a series of January signings settled, will Newcastle return to their impressive form of 11-12, perhaps taking advantage of one of the top clubs under-performing, or will Pardew’s seven-year contract come under threat? Aston Villa looked more cohesive and threatening in the latter stages of the season, with Matt Lowton and Ashley Westwood particularly impressive. If they can build in the next season, they could be the best team with a core of English youngsters since David O’Leary’s Leeds.
There is an unusual sense of uncertainty ahead of next season. This time last year, despite City’s late surge for the title, I strongly suspected that Manchester United would hit back harder and seal the title easily, and I wasn’t the only one. Next season looks harder to predict.
In other countries, the dominant managerial figure changes on a regular basis. In Spain, Guardiola was for three years the figure who loomed large over every other club. Mourinho’s title-winning season was so impressive, breaking Guardiola’s La Liga points record and Pellegrini’s points record at Real, exhausting Guardiola in the process, that he caused doubt about the viability of the Catalan philosophy. Real’s deeply disappointing performance this season and Barcelona breaking the La Liga points record despite the disruption of having the manager away for long stretches has thrust Tito Vilanova (or at least an abstract representation of the Barca ideal) to the position of dominant figure.
The King of the Premier League is gone. Who will be next to claim the throne?