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.