Avoiding the Drop

Football managers might have more fun if they played Football Manager.  Between Harry Redknapp whining on and on about pre-season matches and England friendlies and Arsene Wenger making his usual noise about how it’s so incredibly wrong to try to get home-grown players developed, it’s been quite a normal end the Summer season for Prem managers.

The pressures at the top levels of football have to be a bit overwhelming, to be honest, but the sad thing is, happy managers don’t sell papers.  I’ll never say that I’ll miss Phil Brown or anything (and like every other bad penny, he’ll turn up again sooner or later, see Curbishley, Alan and Warnock, Neil) but at least he appeared to be having something resembling fun.

You’ll always (and i do mean, ALWAYS) hear managers talk about everything as if they’ve been personally wounded by any and every thing.  My friends who watch NASCAR play this game when they watch the races, where when a driver is interviewed, they try to guess how many times he or she will mention their sponsors and certain key phrases that they always manage to say.  You, as a footy fan, could do the exact same thing after matches are over, especially with Sir Alex Ferguson and the aforementioned Arsene Wenger.

I’ve had loads of fun over the time that we’ve had this blog working with my “Fun with Wenger” series.  Wenger sends out a supposedly hand-written email to the supporters club after each weekend’s match, and they are so loaded up with his typical quotes it’s almost predictable.  After losses, Arsenal was always “the better side”.  If a match is particularly chippy, you’ll see “the referee would not let us play” or if there’s a heavy foul committed by an Arsenal player, “I did not get a clear view of the play”.  It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.

I think we all recognize the brilliance of the record of Sir Alex Ferguson over time.  He’s put together an amazing managerial record with too many trophies to count.  He’s also the most predictable curmudgeon in the history of the game.  His quotes are almost too easy to figure out once the final whistle has gone.

But let’s get back to the two complaints at the top of this column.  Harry Redknapp is crying about Spurs scheduling too many pre-season friendlies and a tour of America, and is also hitting out at the FA scheduling a friendly with Hungary the week before the Premier League season starts.  His point about too many friendlies is ludicrous.  Most teams play a ton of a friendlies before the season begins, and if you don’t want to come make all the money from the tours of America, then just stay in North London and play Barnet and Bournmouth and Brighton Hove Albion, Harry.  In terms of the FA’s decision to schedule the Hungary match, well, he’s got a good point there.  Spurs contribute a fair few players to the current England squad and they’ll have to get some practice in before the match, so I can see his point there.  Spurs have a tough opening week with the opener against City on the weekend and then a Champions League qualification match in mid-week.  I’ll give him a “he’s just grumpy in general” pass on this one, though, due to the continuing incredible hubris that the FA shows.

Wenger’s rant about the 25 man roster limit could only come from someone who does not have a vested interest in the development of young English players.  He’ll “develop” young players from Spain and France and Denmark and Mexico, but look at Theo Walcott and try to tell me he’s the finished article.  Go on, I’ll wait.  Of course, it’s not all Wenger’s fault with Theo, to be sure.  The player has some responsibility and culpability for his own development, and there is a certain amount of weird privilege that apparently comes with being anointed at such an early age as Theo was.  Still, why the rant over the 25 man roster limit?  The players union accepted the proposal.  They want to see a bit more parity in the league, rather than watching United and Chelsea chase the title year in, year out.  What’s wrong with that?  I’m also not one hundred percent sure that Wenger realizes that a financial course correction is coming soon and coming hard on top level Euro football.  The current wage and transfer structure will need to be adjusted as the economy continues to settle into whatever new vision of it keeps evolving.

I guess we had our time away from constant managerial bitching and moaning.  At least it’s back, right?

Okay, so there’s Emirates Cup today if you have GolTV (9:30 AM EDT and 11:30 AM EDT), but oddly, MLS is all on Direct Kick today.  Community Shield is next weekend and the Prem starts in two weeks, as mentioned above.  It’s getting near.  I’m getting excited.  The managers are bitching.  Very exciting times.

Enjoy your Saturday and come find us here and on Twitter as usual.  As always, thanks so much for your clicks and comments, we truly do appreciate it.