The Football Blog

Nowadays, success seems unattainable in football unless you have a mega-rich sugar daddy signing the cheques. The amount of takeovers that have occurred recently has brought to attention the need to have tremendous financial clout in order to compete. And not just in the Premier League. Notts County have shocked the world by announcing the arrival of Sven Goran Eriksson to the club, and whilst reports of Sol Campbell and his proposed two year contract on £90,000 a week may be wide of the mark, it has certainly shown what hype and excitement a takeover can bring.

But there are consequences of this. As unpredictable and illogical the lower leagues are, the first weekend of results would indicate that Notts County are in a strong position to get promoted this year. That’s one promotion spot gone. Take into account the 23 other teams fighting for one place and playoff positions, and suddenly the pressure cooker is turned up a notch. The financial chasm in all divisions is clear to see, with Notts County being the top dogs in League 2. As is inevitable, there is always a large fallout from what happens in the higher echelons.

In the top division, the only way to succeed is to become a big spending club. To be big spending, you need a big backer. This summer the main focus of money (apart from Real Madrid) has been on Manchester City. After being taken over in September 2008 by the Abu Dhabi United Group, this summer they have splashed nearly £100m with more than two weeks of the transfer window to go. But despite spending all this money, what is the best that they can realistically hope for? The businessmen in charge of City are not spending money for no gain. They have to be challenging for the Champions League this season with a view to be challenging for the title in the next couple of years. They have managed to entice players this season with money and the promise of a progressing club. If they fail to reach the Champions League, next year will be a lot more difficult to persuade big name stars to Eastlands.

Several other Premier League clubs have undergone takeovers in recent years, Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Aston Villa to name a few. The biggest teams have continued to be successful after their takeovers, Chelsea have become title winners, and Aston Villa have made great strides in the last couple of years. So with those clubs progressing, what happens to the other clubs who still have to try and compete? Everton have done terrifically well without large sums of money, leading to manager David Moyes to being linked with the Manchester United job when Ferguson retires. But without a big spending owner, Everton will slowly be overtaken by those with money to spend on players. It will be a cause for concern when the best that a club without a big backer can aim for is eighth place. If you have not historically got the finances like a club like Tottenham, or a rich chairman, then it would seem that anything other than mid table or lower will become a shock.

All this has a knock on effect further down the leagues. Last year, two relatively successful and wealthy clubs were relegated from the Premier League – Newcastle and Middlesbrough. Of course, Newcastle’s proposed takeover is a subject all on its own, but it comes to the situation where Scunthorpe’s Matt Sparrow and Garry Thompson are competing against the Jonas Gutierrez’s and Fabricio Colloccini’s of this world. Whilst last season’s performances did little to suggest that these players deserve to be on different pitches, the difference in wages would point to a different scenario. So straight away you have an imbalance on the pitch, and unsurprisingly, Newcastle, despite the fiasco following them for the past year and a half, start as one of the favourites to get promoted, and Scunthorpe one of the favourites to get relegated.

Such is the way of modern football however, and whether you or I like it or not, as the gap between rich and poor increases, the face of football will no doubt change with talk of European Leagues and Premiership 2’s and suchlike. So until a time of financial equilibrium (will there ever be such a time?), forgive me for being excited at the prospect of Manchester City competing for a top four place. From a neutral’s point of view, a big four has to be better than a big four! And good luck to Notts County. The money they have invested deserves some sort of reward. Even if some of that investment is in Lee Hughes.

Takeovers can certainly be exciting if they progress, but for other fans they can be as excruciating as pulling teeth. Take Portsmouth for example. They have seen a bid for their club accepted on the 27th May from Sulaiman Al Fahim, yet nearly three months later, the takeover has still not gone through. Due Diligence has been completed, and Al Fahim has passed the necessary “Fit and Proper Person” test enforced by the Premier League. After doubts about who was to become manager, Paul Hart was given the full time job. But what does all this point to? Hart is undoubtedly a “cheaper option” than a big name manager that were previously linked. Since January 2009, Portsmouth have sold Lassana Diarra, Jermain Defoe, Glen Johnson and Peter Crouch for large amounts with loan signings and frees making up the incomings. More outgoings are rumoured. So whilst Portsmouth wait for this takeover, their squad is being torn apart in order to provide the right deal for the buyers and sellers of the club. The longer this goes on the weaker they will become, and with the transfer window approaching, they will face difficulty in strengthening it again. It would seem that Al Fahim does not have the funds to enable a Manchester City style takeover, and the current owner Alexandre Gaydamak has no money to run the club. So they are left in limbo until the takeover materialises, as neither the current of prospective owners are putting any money into the club, so instead the firesale continues to keep the club afloat.

Virtually all clubs are up for sale, and all clubs need extra investment. With a limited amount of billionaires willing to invest in football clubs, not all clubs will get that investment. The cream will rise to the top, the biggest spenders will become in a league of their own, literally. Everyone else will fight to win the second division. Armchair fans will support the Sky 10 with no promotion or relegation, and the rest will be relegated to watching 30 seconds of highlights on Channel 5 at 12 o’ clock on a Tuesday night.

There has been a lot of talk about Darren Bent in the press recently. With the main focus being on the way his move has been “orchestrated” via the medium of social networking phenomenon, Twitter, the story behind the transfer has been somewhat lost. Here is a player who was Tottenham’s leading scorer last season. Here is a player who cost Tottenham £16.5 million from Charlton just two summers ago. Here is a player who, since his move from Ipswich to Charlton in June 2005, has been the second top-scoring English striker at the highest level behind a certain character by the name of Wayne Rooney.

So the obvious question to ask is why did Tottenham not appreciate him? It appears from his latest comments on joining Sunderland that Bent is very much a player requiring an arm round the shoulder. With Harry Redknapp being an experienced manager, it would be expected that he would be able to meet this need and get the best out of Bent. Indeed, at the start of Redknapp’s reign, Bent was rejuvenated and went through a purple patch – this renaissance in form was directly credited to the new manager. But something must have changed. Despite the run in front of goal, Bent never appeared to be first choice. Redknapp publicly lambasted Bent for missing a single chance against Portsmouth, clearly a contrast to what man management tactics had proven to be so successful earlier in the season. Was it a case of Bent’s face just not fitting? The acquisitions of Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch from Portsmouth suggests that Redknapp has his favourites, and bringing back fan favourite Robbie Keane from Liverpool may have been just as much for public relations as for goalscoring prowess. Bent never received the same sort of adulation from the Spurs faithful as the more exotic names of Keane and Berbatov and there could perhaps be a reason for that.

Put simply, Spurs fans did not seem to be able to accept that their club record signing was from a recently relegated “inferior” club like Charlton. There is somewhat of a correlation between being a Spurs fan and expectations. These same fans could not possibly bear that fact that when their beloved club had recently been linked with the greats of Real Madrid and Barcelona, their record signing ended up being from little old Charlton. It is true that Charlton bargained exceptionally well when selling Bent, however when you look at the remarkable rise of the player during his time at The Addicks, the fee is perhaps not quite so ridiculous. From an England under 21 international with potential, to a full England international and the captain and talisman of an established (at the time) Premier League club. His strike rate was impressive for a struggling side and age was certainly on his side. In other words, he was proven in the English Premier League, and had his best years ahead of him. Roman Pavlyuchenko and Dimitar Berbatov were not proven and are both older than Bent. But they come from Europe, and have interesting sounding names, so of course they should be worth more! What is honest hard work, movement and goalscoring compared to the ability to sulk, enigmatic talent and the occasional backflick? To my mind it seems that Bent was never given the respect that he deserved from the management or fans, and nothing showed that more than his departure from the club.

Darren Bent has always come across as a likable, modest and well spoken footballer in interviews. Nothing he says is too controversial, keeping his feet on the ground and exuding an innocence rarely seen in the age of the Baby Bentley crew. So his recent outburst on Twitter was certainly a surprise to this blogger. Understandable? Yes, Professional? No. It was the rant of a man at the end of his tether with a regime blocking his every path. Simply playing was not possible as he was clearly unwanted, and having the opportunity to move on was looking impossible as well. Rather like the rest of his Tottenham career, Bent was played with as and when it suited the management. When players were unfit, Bent would come in and certainly some of the time, do well. But when those players were back fit, Bent was out on his ear again. When Levy thought he could recoup his outlay for Bent he was hauled off a plane. When Levy discovered the offer from Sunderland was lower than the sum he paid, Bent was left alone with nothing to do. It may alarm some to think that an unprofessional tirade allowed a pampered player to sulk his way to a transfer, and whilst I don’t agree with it either, I do believe that Bent had justification. Nowadays there are many players who are willing to sit around collecting huge wages without playing, and these players are rightly criticised, with Winston Bogarde at Chelsea being perhaps the most famous example of this. Yet this was a situation where the player was desperate to play and was unable to due to internal politics.

Bent himself claimed that his last two years have been the worst in his career. This may not be strictly true on a professional level as Bent was Tottenham’s top scorer last season and included European competition. Tottenham are generally bigger and better known globally than both Charlton and Ipswich, so Bent will go to Sunderland with increased exposure and despite his problems, perhaps an enhanced reputation. But most definitely on a personal level, the last two years will have been particularly tough for the 25 year old. Will he be a success on Wearside? Nothing is ever guaranteed, but at a “smaller” club with a regular run in the team previous evidence shows that Bent has the pedigree to score the goals that Sunderland require to push on. Steve Bruce has acknowledged the need for strikers to have an extended run in the team, and so is likely to ensure Bent this at least. Now that Bent has woken up from his White Hart Lane nightmare, hopefully he will be able to get his career back on track, and do his talking on the pitch, rather than resorting to Tweeting about his problems being allowed on it.