Jonathan Wilson: football is broken
- Thread starter berbatrick
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Yeah i read that earlier. Was a good article, probably about a decade late but hard to argue the point. I dont think Bayern and Juventus etc would be that keen on being in a league with City and PSG though. Salary caps or some such would be my prefered solution. Or just for the whole financial side to crash and burn spectacularly to reset things a bit and push the likes of the Glazers and the City despots out of the game.
Not going to happen but would like it too.
Makes for pretty depressing reading but sadly a very accurate state of affairs. Hard to see a way to reverse things though. I live in the USA where parity is controlled by the league in most sports but in a global game that is basically based on free market principles I don’t see how you could control things. FIFA would have to make some strict rules about the global game and actually follow through on them. Which clearly would never happen. And even if it did I imagine there would just be some sort of alternative organization that would pop up that teams would defect to much like the super league that is so often talked about.
Super league is an inevitability at this point.
Definitely a fair point. When you consider that league football is essentially what we spend the majority of our time watching it's sort of farcical that three of football's top five leagues are essentially won every year by the same team. Someone else even managing to win one or compete is fairly remarkable at this point. I don't know if it's because the CL has been entertaining as feck the last two years but investing in league football in general increasingly feels more difficult in a way - the PL's title battle was exciting this year, but when two teams are pissing all over everyone else it becomes hard to care about the rest of the league.
Why would the elite clubs even want that. The current system is so good for them.
This is bullshit. Watford are just going to have to buck up their ideas.
The article cites a lot more than one match. Season-long possession stats, and the repetitive wins in other leagues.
Because it would mean even more money for them.
And that's what bores me. Football is a game of money and power, nothing more. It's like everything else in life. Shit or get off the pot. What was it that Michael Douglas said about Teldark Industries? Whatever it was it applies to Watford FC, and that other failing corporation, The United States of Britain.
So, are you saying that it's Watford's fault some rich guy hasn't taken a fancy to them?
Watford do not exactly represent the romance of the game.
But, teams that are used to winning most of their matches can suddenly become mid table mediocrity in a Superleague.
I don't think Guardiola's team is that strong, if the referees start doing their jobs and start yellow carding the ridiculous rotational fouling to stop counters, the possession system can be easily broken.
The world's full of rich guys. And it's full of Daniel Levys. You explain to me how Spurs could do what Watford couldn't.
I’m not a big fan of the ‘points inflation’ in the major European leagues in recent times.
I miss the days when teams were often winning Premier League, La Liga, Serie A etc titles with noticeably lower points totals, and were finding it far more difficult to beat mid-table teams in their leagues.
I miss the days when teams were often winning Premier League, La Liga, Serie A etc titles with noticeably lower points totals, and were finding it far more difficult to beat mid-table teams in their leagues.
I’ll take quality football over “competitiveness” any day.
Remember that competitive cup final between Portsmouth and Cardiff? That’s what Jonathan Wilson thinks is better than Saturday’s game.
Remember that competitive cup final between Portsmouth and Cardiff? That’s what Jonathan Wilson thinks is better than Saturday’s game.
The PL was fairly decent quality as well as more competitive in ~2007.
The top four were still miles ahead of everyone else to be fair.
Yet all these media and other clubs fans were delighting in City coming along and toppling Utd .
Now it's suddenly boring well tough this is what they wanted .
Now it's suddenly boring well tough this is what they wanted .
Is there a way to provide a better balance between quality and competitiveness though? It seems like the financial asymmetry nowadays is skewing that balance, with more of the top players clustered at the top teams. This means the top teams now play higher quality football and accrue more points, but it also leads to 6-0 FA Cup Finals. Either this is just hyperbole because City under Guardiola are rewriting records or this is an inexorable trend due to the gap between the top six and the rest (I think it's the latter).
Spreading the top players across more teams (e.g. if City's bench players were starters at Watford etc.) might help to increase competitiveness, but that would probably require systemic changes like a salary cap or a squad cap. I'm not an expert, but I know one of the criticisms of the American sports system (unique as it is to their sports and their market) is that it rewards mediocrity though.
It does make you think. Don't it.
Was Jonathan Wilson under a rock till the final?
He's 100% correct. Great article. And good to see Harris question guardiola too rather then joining the line of endless ass kissing journos. It's obviously broken. 250m on the bench in a cup final where your 60m 6th choice attacker bought last year is starting.
If city get CL banned they'll be a shame on British football
If city get CL banned they'll be a shame on British football
Arsenal won a cup final 5-0 a few years ago against Villa and I wouldn’t say the gap between those two as large as between Watford and City. Sometimes these things just happen. Watford obviously didn’t help themselves by just going gung ho in the second half. I doubt it’ll be a regular thing to see in a cup final.
The irony is, if the early rounds of the cup were less competitive, Watford wouldn’t have been in the final and we’d have seen a competitive game between two top teams.
Yes both very fair points. It could've been a different game if Andre Gray had taken his chance at 0-0, and then Watford did also have a few half openings early in the second half too. City ran riot when KDB came on though.
Definitely think there's been a bit of a perfect storm in terms of the media narrative the past week. UEFA leaks to the media plenty of info on City's alleged financial irregularities and then a couple of days later City spank Watford 6-0 in the cup final. It does turn into an easy story for the media to write in terms of City (or the elite clubs if you want to broaden it) killing the game. So we get these type of existential articles (not just by Jonathan Wilson) and although I agree with a lot of what he writes in this article, I do sort of think "where have you been for the last 20 years?" when I read them.
In many ways, it would have been notionally 'good' for football if Liverpool had won the league this year as it would have shown that you didn't need to be an oil club to win major trophies.
City are a phenomenal side....but it's not City is it...come on, the team now that play in purple at The Etihad, managed by Guardiola and made up of some of the best players from around the world bear absolutely no resemblance to the side that any of the fan base older than 20 chose to support....even the badge has changed!
It has to be inevitable that we move towards a Super League, virtually every other sport did it years ago. The current format is untenable. There are actually only a few 'big' games each season, there are hundreds of football matches played every year in the PL between two average sides which will prove to be absolutely utterly meaningless and that will eventually turn fans away
City are a phenomenal side....but it's not City is it...come on, the team now that play in purple at The Etihad, managed by Guardiola and made up of some of the best players from around the world bear absolutely no resemblance to the side that any of the fan base older than 20 chose to support....even the badge has changed!
It has to be inevitable that we move towards a Super League, virtually every other sport did it years ago. The current format is untenable. There are actually only a few 'big' games each season, there are hundreds of football matches played every year in the PL between two average sides which will prove to be absolutely utterly meaningless and that will eventually turn fans away
It's been trending in this direction for decades. Having non-champions in the so called Champions League has turned that competition into a VIP club for the rich kids, and has now spilled into the domestic competitions. We are at a point now where even the teams that dominate the top 5 leagues can't compete with England and the two teams from Spain. Yes, there will always be an Ajax or Monaco that sneaks in before they are dismembered and their organs sold to the rich.
People can say whatever they want about the quality of football, but I don't find 70% possession 6-0 games entertaining. Nor do I find it entertaining when trophies are decided with such results as City vs Huddersfield 5-1, City vs Watford 6-0, Bayern vs Frankfurt 6-0, etc. And by the way, these are the dramatic season finishes.
But the owners of the world will never make a move in favor of greater participation and equality of opportunity. Quite the contrary.
People can say whatever they want about the quality of football, but I don't find 70% possession 6-0 games entertaining. Nor do I find it entertaining when trophies are decided with such results as City vs Huddersfield 5-1, City vs Watford 6-0, Bayern vs Frankfurt 6-0, etc. And by the way, these are the dramatic season finishes.
But the owners of the world will never make a move in favor of greater participation and equality of opportunity. Quite the contrary.
A bit like people on here being happy that City beat Liverpool to the league title this season, no?
Does feel like the worm is turning in terms of the media's coverage of City. Hopefully this results in pressure on the authorities to take action.
Yeah that's the end game. The traditional clubs will create their own league and make it clear that City either aren't invited or have to comply with a spending cap. The Glazers, Kroenke etc must hate the effect City have had on their business plans.
If football keeps going this way Pep will be looked at as a villain. His achievements with City will look increasingly hollow, especially if he keeps failing in Europe which he has done post Barca.
This is bullshit though.
Real won the European Cup 5 times in a row 60 years ago and scored 7 (!) goals in the 1960 final.
Cruyff's Ajax dominated the Dutch league and Europe, same with Beckenbauer's Bayern. United won 8 of the first 11 PL titles. Barca won 7 of the last 10 titles in La Liga.
The reason why Juventus and Bayern dominate their leagues to that extent is down to lack of massive investments in other clubs, of sugar/oil daddies. Imagine the PL without Blackburn, Chelsea and City: United would have won 16 of the first 20 titles, and Arsenal the other 4. That would be worse than Germany, Italy and France. The issue with the big money in football is much more complex than Wilson seems to realise. The problem of the Bundesliga and Serie A is the lack of enough money/invsetments, not too much money.
The badge now is basically the one they had up until their terrible rebrand in the late 90s.
And Liverpool may not be an “oil club” but they’ve still spent enormous amounts of money and hired one of the world’s top coaches themselves. In fact, City actually have more “stalwarts” who have been at the club for a significant time in their side than Liverpool do in theirs.
Be careful what you wish for when you ask for the wheel to be broken
France isn't a good example, no teams have won more than 10 league titles.
When United won the title in 08-09 there was a bigger gap to 11th place than there was this season between City and Watford.
Wolves won loads against the top sides in the league and they came straight from the Championship with a very moderate wage budget compared to teams around them. United are in 6th and are right up there at the top in terms of wage/transfer money spent.
There are a bunch of other sides in the PL too who have big money or big money investors who either choose not to bankroll/have bankrolled in a poor way up until now (aka us: Everton).
Yeah City were ruthless but they are definitely beatable. In their last 14 games when they went on that winning streak it wasn’t easy and they are definitely more vulnerable now than they were in the 17/18 season when they gained 100 points.
To win the title this season they had to turn into a monotonous machine which really isn’t sustainable, plus the core of their side in Kompany, Fernandinho, Silva and Aguero is coming to and end, something which we saw in SAF’s side was vital to have in order to create a winning mentality at the club.
Wolves won loads against the top sides in the league and they came straight from the Championship with a very moderate wage budget compared to teams around them. United are in 6th and are right up there at the top in terms of wage/transfer money spent.
There are a bunch of other sides in the PL too who have big money or big money investors who either choose not to bankroll/have bankrolled in a poor way up until now (aka us: Everton).
Yeah City were ruthless but they are definitely beatable. In their last 14 games when they went on that winning streak it wasn’t easy and they are definitely more vulnerable now than they were in the 17/18 season when they gained 100 points.
To win the title this season they had to turn into a monotonous machine which really isn’t sustainable, plus the core of their side in Kompany, Fernandinho, Silva and Aguero is coming to and end, something which we saw in SAF’s side was vital to have in order to create a winning mentality at the club.
I know, I mention the French league because it's "a farmers league". Which is nonsense but there you go.
So you think there should be more oil billionaires in football? That's the way to make things more competitive?