Monday, May 20, 2013

How was it for you?



Okay so it wasn't a vintage Premier League season, Man. City imploded, Chelsea were in a period of transition, ditto Arsenal, ditto Liverpool which should have left Everton, Tottenham and Newcastle in a position to do something about breaking into the hallowed top four but in the end they all blew it. That shouldn't take anything away from Man. Utd who won the league at their leisure and next season will be under new management for the first time in a generation.

In Europe the 'honours' once again went to Chelsea and whilst the media constantly reminded us that there were playing a match every twelve hours between the end of January and middle of May they just got on with winning the Europa League. Looking at their squad you couldn't help thinking that a less tactically reserved manager would have led them to the Premier League title, next season with the annoying one back in charge it will be win ugly and win at all costs - probably.

For West Ham finishing 10th surpassed my wildest expectations and the season was peppered with some very good performances (Man City at home, Liverpool away) and some very poor performances (Arsenal away was unacceptable) - I'll settle for a minimum of tenth place next season albeit with a little more consistency away from home.

My own player of the season wasn't a Welshman with a silly haircut, a Dutchman with a silly haircut or a Spaniard with a haircut that looks like it was done by his Mum (sorry Mrs Mata) but Yaya Toure. Toure is a force of nature, a beast of a man, watching him is like watching Billy Bonds and Emlyn Hughes rolled into one - literally! His bursts forward from protecting the back four through to the front two often took so much out of him that you were sure the referee was adding on time simply so he could make it back into his own half.

When the new season beginnings, on 17th August, Cardiff City will be in the Premier League for the first time, they will be the 46th different club to have made it into the promised land of apparently endless wealth generated by millions of Sky/BT Vision subscribers, shirt sponsorship and commercial partnerships. Twelve Premier League clubs have changed their manager since this time last year a managerial turnover repeated across all four leagues in England, the perilous nature of being a football manager in England perfectly illustrated by the fact that the 35th longest serving manager in England is currently Brendan Rodgers - he was appointed as Liverpool's manager on 1st June 2012.

So there's no World Cup or European Championships this summer, time for a few weeks off before the pre-season friendlies start and the qualifying rounds of the Europa League begin on 4th July.  

8 comments:

Span Ows said...

Incredible those manager stats!...been a great year for me as it is the first time I have had Sky so have enjoyed most of the rugby (inc Super XV and 7s etc) plus last day drama and most of the play-offs for the 4 divisions...I simply don't believe there could have been as many late, late goals and penalties and extra time drama as there was in so many games this year (maybe it happens every year, I just haven't noticed!)

Re EPL, Man United aside (doffs cap), once again several hundred million only gets you a few points above the gooners! I suspect Abramovich wants the league and this explains the manager turnover, cups are good but he wants to be top! Chelski Spuds and Arsenal could all have swapped places on the last game, I couldn't understand why nobody had mentioned Arsenal pipping Chelsea, everyone was on about 3rd place play-off but had Chelsea lost Arsenal 2-0 instead of 1-0 they would be 3rd!...and had Arsenal lost they would be 5th!

Span Ows said...

Should read "...but had Chelsea lost and Arsenal won 2-0..."

Span Ows said...

Me again...THIS tells it's own story...

A Northern Bloke said...

I agree entirely about Yaya Toure and I think City missed him a lot when he didn't play. Having said that, I think City "didn't turn up" on several occassions and I think that had a bearing on who won the Premiership.

I saw them away at Southampton on ESPN and they were awful, very much like they were in the Cup Final but worse.

Paul said...

Even in the form table we came 10th!

Agree about last few minutes to matches and about City - I think the derby defeat at home in the last minute changed everything for them.

Big summer ahead for Arsenal Span, will the moths be released from the big wallet?

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