Will boring football become the norm?
This week, Tony Pulis was the latest Premiership manager to lose his job.
His charge? Losing too many games and secondary, his brand of football was excruciating to watch. Claude Puel lost his job last season because his brand was also boring (Remember the Hull home game anyone?).
The top six money bags clubs are totally out of our reach. Their attempt to enrich themselves this year with a bigger slice of the TV money was thwarted… for now. The rest of the clubs in the Premiership are scrapping it out to stay in the league and maybe, with luck, win a cup. And therein lies the crux.
Puel walked in spite of finishing 8th and a trip to Wembley. Quite bizarre? Yes and no. Watford finished 17th, but only 6 points behind Saints. This season the league is equally as tight. Every point is precious and last season, the difference between each league position was a staggering £1.9m
With the eye-watering riches of the Premiership up for grabs, it is little wonder, and a huge cause for concern, so many of our clubs are in foreign hands. Most of the clubs in the Midlands are Chinese owned as is ours.
After every weekend, football owners, hedge funds and big business all around the world study the performance of their asset, i.e the clubs we pay to support. The league position is begin all, end all. For every owner around the world, it is imperative their investment stays above the dreaded bottom three and continues to maximize the yield. The Championship is full of ambitious clubs with even more ambitious foreign owners waiting to pounce.
This brings us back to Pulis and Puel. I dare say their remits were the same, entertain the crowds… because we are in the entertainment business after all? But, you can bet your bottom dollar they had it drilled into them not to get relegated. Try and get as high as you can but….that trap door must be like Chinese torture to managers.
Could this be the reason so many managers up and down the league adopt such pragmatic attitudes and strategies? Is this the reason so many managers are more than prepared to bore the crowd to tears by setting teams up not to lose…and hopefully sneak the odd goal? Puel was dismissed only for Pellegrino to take over and do exactly the same!
Could this sort of football now become the norm, especially if the next TV deal goes through the roof even more? I hope not but I have a feeling it will. The boards of big businesses around the world do not have to sit through turgid Saturday afternoons.
The big question is now… are us supporters going to put up with it? The only option is voting with our feet… but will we? Even if we do, I doubt the far away owner cares.