How money determines everything in the modern game
As the curtains close for Arsene Wenger’s tenure at Arsenal, the curtain have also signified the closing end of time. Nowadays, everything in the game is revolved around money & profits, and how that can almost affect everything. So let’s look and analyse at how money dictates everything in the game.
Spending alter expectations
José Mourinho and Diego Simeone
They’re both occupy 2nd place in their league. They’re on course to winning a trophy this season. And they both set teams based on a strong defensive foundation. Their seems to be many similarities between the way Mourinho and Simeone set up their teams, except Mourinho is based on counter-attacking football, while Simeone slow-style football is mainly catered to the pace of La Liga football. While both teams this season are almost identical in terms of results, and the teams are in built in a similar way, Mourinho gets far more criticism from the media than Simeone. But why?
Because of the money that Mourinho has spent at Manchester United. In the modern game today, as seen with the cases of Chelsea and Manchester City, money can be one of the most pivotal factors in dictating how a team performs and what’s expected of them. Considering that Mourinho has spent a lot of money this past summer, even the FA Cup will considered somewhat a bit of a failure for Manchester United, as the main objective at the beginning of the season was to at least mount a serious title challenge. On the other hand, Atletico Madrid will likely end the season in 2nd with a trophy, and yet will be praised for having a successful season due to the fact that they don’t spend that much money in the transfer market, and also because they sold some of their star players in the window. While the expectations may differ because of how big the football clubs are, money always seems to dictate the expectations of football teams.
Manuel Pellegrini & Claudio Ranieri
Both managers were sacked from top sides (Chelsea and Manchester City), despite having relatively good seasons. Yet, both were sacked. Why? While both clubs need to have high expectations to become a top side, the money that the managers spent (the costs) simply exceeded to the profits or returns from their investments. Because of this, clubs faced a loss, and then resulted to sacking them. Football is nowadays a game measured by money rather than performance, and if you’re costs exceed your revenue, it’s likely that you’ll be sacked at the end of the season. Don’t believe me?
Rafa Benítez
They’re in the top half of the table. They’ve reached the 40 point mark and are almost certainly safe from relegation. Rafa Benítez has managed to work wonders as Newcastle United manager, despite the financial restraints he has. At the beginning of the season, many were expecting Newcastle to go down, after all, they have one of the smallest budgets in the league and few Premier League quality footballers.
But because Newcastle United are in 10th safe from relegation and considering they didn’t spend much in both windows, their achievements seem nothing short of remarkable, as that expectation was purely based on their expenditures in the past.
Sean Dyche
With 2 points off behind and European football all but confirmed, Sean Dyche and his players have had an incredible season. Despite finishing in the lower end of the table, Burnley are now on course for Europa League football, despite limited spending during the summer and the sale of one of their best players, Michael Keane. Following the departures of Keane and Gray, players such as Tarkowski & Chris Wood have definitely stepped up, while Nick Pope is also someone that should be credited for Burnley’s success. But it hasn’t always been this smooth for Burnley.
During the 2014/15 Premier League season, Burnley got relegated, and unlike any other team, the board decided to keep Sean Dyche. Why? Because of rational expectations. The Burnley board knew that they have the best man for the job and know that they were not Premier League regulars. Furthermore, what also makes Burnley one of the main defiers of modern football is the fact that they’ve put a lot of trust into a manager and given him time, despite not having a lot of money. While most football clubs would spend more money and would be more ruthless in terms of sacking managers, what Burnley has proven is that there’s nothing wrong with giving the manager time, because eventually they’ll flourish.
Jürgen Klopp & Liverpool
If you told a Liverpool fan at the beginning of the season that they would be finishing this season in 3rd and are in the Champions League final, they would slap your hand off. It’s been not just a remarkable campaign for Mohamed Salah, but also for Liverpool Football Club as a whole. But because they sold their best player and didn’t spend as much as their top 6 counterparts, Liverpool’s achievements this season seem far more remarkable relative to the money that they spent and also the fact that they sold their best player.
Moving stadiums alter expectations
From the Boleyn to the Olympic Stadium
Following a successful finish in 6th place and now moving to a stadium with a 66,000 capacity, thing were looking up for West Ham. However, it’s now been 2 seasons at the Olympic stadium, and West Ham are yet to finish to the top half of the table since moving out. Even though moving to the Olympic Stadium didn’t incur a lot of costs, there seems to be a mismatch.
While West Ham fans have been expecting to the team to at least compete in the top half of the table and even compete with top 6 sides, the club hasn’t spent smart in the market nor have they brought in players that will improve the side. Their recruitments of Patrice Evra and David Moyes proves at the moment that West Ham are still a mid-table side, and still a long way to achieving what they want to become. Because of this mismatch, there’s also a massive rift between the board & the fans, especially about the expectations and future of the club.
From Highbury to Emirates
When Arsenal made the move to the Emirates, while many were sad, many were optimistic. Optimistic that now they could compete with the best teams in the world on and off the field. However, because they had to pay off the debts of moving to Emirates over an extensive period of time, Wenger had a smaller budget to work with, and because of that, Arsenal’s expectations were lowered.
Instead of aspiring for the title and spending big on world class players, Wenger was instead forced to result spending cheap on players that had the potential to become world class. Because of the change in moving stadium and the change in budget, this completely changed the way that Arsenal approached each season, each game, and recruiting players in the transfer market.
Changing managers alters expectations
Louis Van Gaal
When Manchester United announced the appointment of Louis Van Gaal, many were excited. Many believed that finally, Manchester United had a manager since the Fergie era that could bring the club back to the glory days. Many even believed that Manchester United would cruise the league, playing an attractive brand of football the recruitments of Angel Di Maria and Radamel Falcao also added to the hype.
However, even though Manchester United finished 4th this season, they didn’t end the season where they would’ve liked to. Why? Because of the expectations of the fans. Because Van Gaal was a Champions League winning manager, many expected him to light up the Premier League, but it was not meant to be.
Frank de Boer
When Crystal Palace hired Frank de Boer, many were surprised. While many were optimistic that he would be pivotal in shaping the style of football that Crystal Palace would play in the many years to come, other were not. But still, the optimism didn’t stop Crystal Palace believing that they could go to the next level. Fast forward to match-day 4, Crystal Palace have just lost their 4 match on the run and have sacked Frank De Boer. Well why did it not work out? Because Crystal Palace is a club with players that aren’t particularly equipped to play “total football” and also a club that doesn’t necessarily have the patience to wait for such a certain system to work. Frank De Boer tried to play a certain brand of football that hardly suited anyone’s strengths, and failed to build a team around players that suited his system.
Ticket Prices
Even though football has a fairly inelastic demand, if the team are not performing well and fans aren’t getting a good return on their payments, then they’ll stop attending. This season, due to Arsenal’s dip in form at the beginning of the new year, many fans have decided to abandon home matches in protest of the team’s performance. Arsenal’s season ticket is the most expensive in the Premier League, and using the principles of economics, the most expensive thing should be the one that yields the best returns. This means that the team that has the most expensive ticket prices should be the team that are the best in the league. However, ticket prices are simply modelled on the idea that there’s an inelastic demand for football, so they can charge extortionately high fees. Because of this, what this means is that people are skeptical of buying tickets.
Recently, Manchester United introduced subsidised costs of attending matches for 18–25 year olds. This is because the club cares more about the attendance and the well being of the fans, and are also afraid of pricing many out from attending matches. Football is non-discretionary, meaning that it’s not a necessity, and one of the best policies to encourage more people to attend matches is to subsidise, even though you may miss out on more profit.
Glamour over consistency
In 2016, FC Barcelona won La Liga and Real Madrid won the Champions League. But many thought Real Madrid had a better season than Barcelona that year. But why? Because there’s more glamour in winning the Champions League than being consistent throughout the whole campaign and winning La Liga.
There’s also a larger audience at a Champions League final and more to gain at the hands of the opposition’s loss. While a league measures a team’s collective success throughout a campaign, the Champions League measures success through individual matches and how that team fared in those individual matches. As also seen with Real Madrid this season, they’re 3rd in the league but in the Champions League final, which further highlights the importance of Champions League over the domestic league, despite it being harder to remain consistent throughout a season.
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