Yesterday’s Daily Banter took us From Real Madrid to Newcastle. The banter started the ol’ rusty wheels turning and pondering relegation in football. The concept of promotion and relegation in football is one of the greatest developments in sport since cavemen started throwing rocks at each other for trophies and endorsement deals. What lessons can be learned from relegation? Other than not sucking, of course.
The first thing that comes to mind is don’t take for granted that you’ll always be good enough without putting in the work.
The second is not to ever, under any circumstances, allow Mike Ashley to run anything other than a 10K.
What else?
Permy J, I honestly believe most clubs have contingency plans in the event of relegation. I think in recent seasons lessons have been learned from the bad experiences of certain clubs when they have gone down. It is a fact of life that three clubs will be relegated and, if you take a view that seven or eight clubs have never been out of the Premiership since it started, your odds become even tighter. So it would be foolhardy to bury your head in the sand and pretend it couldn’t be you. Look at Leeds, Nottingham Forests of the world. Another big fish will eventually go down. I remember Sir Alex Ferguson’s first 6 years incharge of United, they were fighting relagation regularly. Even Everton beat the drop 3 times in the last day of season in the early 90s. My guess is that the responsible clubs will put clauses in players’ contracts to enforce a salary cut in the event of relagation.
But to your point relegation is the most devastating thing for any club. You mentioned Ashley and he is already thinking about selling the naming rights to St James Park as well….
Gotta love this one…The Argentine FA is so gutless and classless that their defense of Maradona’s post world cup qualifier tirade is that Diego Maradona was “in a state of violent emotion” when he made lewd remarks at journalists. Let’s se if FIFA follow suit. I’m surely not holding my breathe that they will actually enforce the rules and discipline this numb nut. Nonetheless, giving the reigns of a world class soccer team to an inexperienced coach and an indisciplined individual (great player no doubt that has more than his share of past demons) is borderline insane!
Life is full of paradoxes.
1. Diego Maradona is the best football player ever.
2. Diego Maradona is the worst football coach ever.
I can’t believe their FA is scared to reprimand him. I am sure they will have something to say if they get knocked out the first stage in the WC.
The Argentine FA hired the guy, so I’m not surprised that they are hesitant to publicly admit their mistakes.
Maradona is an amazing fan though. Seeing him at Boca games is a sight to behold. He loves Boca like Mike Ashley loves donuts. Too soon?
Certainly there are many factors and intangibles that go into making a successful manager. In fact some are beyond their control (i.e., willingness of ownership to spend). One factor that does not rate high, in my opinion, is individual success as a player on the pitch. Intuitively this doesn’t seem to make much sense but i find it more often true than not. What intuitively makes even more sense – perhaps – and probably a worthwhile debate is analyzing how well the truly disciplined players (i.e., Beckenbauer, Matthaus) fare as managers. In my estimation, discipline and organization are key factors. His sublime skills aside Diego never struck me to be a highly disciplined player. Perhaps it’s the South American style but nonetheless my observation.
Look at teams like West Brom and Wolves that seem to go up and down. It’s as though they expect the drop and they’re fine with it. I’m sure the balloon payment the following season helps out with transfers. They know that it’ll be a season or two before they’re back up and getting assaulted Marlon King style in the name of a couple extra bucks.
I am sure Marlon King’s prison team will be one of the best in the country! I do feel for his wife and kids though…
But yesterday Henrik Larsson retired from football at the age of 38. What a career! He scored over 300 goals in spells with Helsingborg, Feyenoord, Celtic, Barcelona and Manchester United. Best of luck to him…