A few games into the 2011/12 season and our pre-season expectations are exposed as fact or fiction. Except if you’re a Manchester United fan. What have we learned?
So far we know Danny Welbeck is the real deal, Tom Cleverley can pass and has a football brain, Ashley Young and Phil Jones are great players, and Nani is talented, Chris Smalling is cream, Anderson has an engine, Antonio Valencia is solid. All great news.
The problem is that we also know Patrice Evra leaves the door open, Rio Ferdinand is a crock, Nemanja Vidic is vital, Wayne Rooney is unstable, and Michael Carrick is too negative to be the player he could have been.
Thrashing Arsenal showed us the league is getting worse, beating Chelski showed us that old players are slower than youngsters; we know Liverpool paid too much for Jordan Henderson and Andy Carroll, and that City bought superior talent in David Silva, Sergio Aguero and Yaya Toure.
What this means for the season ahead is that it’s a 2 horse race, the Premier League is now like the one north of the border, and Chelski are Hearts with a rich owner with no patience, and Manchester is Glasgow.
I love football, I breathe United but frankly the games are less competitive than ever, and that’s disappointing for the fans. In Europe we treat the group stage like the Carling Cup, and so the season starts in earnest after Christmas.
It has to be said if things keep polarising such that money takes the competition out of the sport, then will the real fans want to watch in 5 years time or will it be just a game for TV? I think the fact that Spain, Germany, Italy and England now have only 2 teams who can win each league, means a European League must come, and with it only home fans will attend, with a rich few away fans making a little noise.
I live in the US with the sport salary cap, the draft and the drive to keep games competitive. I’ve never supported that idea for football but a few weeks into this season I’m becoming a fan or containing the spending, closing the wealth gap and making games closer.
I want United to win everything but the games need to make my pulse race, be in doubt and exciting. This season has been amazing but not exciting, the games were over at halftime, the opposition weak and beaten before they started. That’s not why I love the game and its not good for the fans.
We have discovered some talent but also discovered that we are better because we are richer and socialism in sport has gone, and it is now a capitalist game. That’s wrong as its for the people, so how do we bring it back to earth?
Steve Burrows CBE @ifollowsteve
