Cycles of Football
Manchester United are, still, on a six year long ‘post-Ferguson’ decline. Their place in the coveted top six looks like it may even be under threat from the likes of Wolves and Leicester.
But if you go back a few years and tell a football fan in 2007 that there would be a top six in the Premier League, they would have struggled to comprehend. The noughties were, of course, dominated by the top four of United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal. Between 2005 and 2009, no other teams finished in the Champions League places.
Tottenham, in 2010, broke that top four bubble as Liverpool started to decline. It was their first real step on a long road which has now seen them become an established Champions League side of recent years. So much so they were able to seal the highly impressive signing of Tanguy Ndombele.
The incredibly thin-wearing Ferguson era joke of ‘lads, it’s Tottenham’ has surely been thrown onto the tip now. Especially considering the fact that Spurs were successful in swatting away a late attempt from United to hijack the transfer. Ndombele wanted to go to a big club with Champions League football.
What all this really does is highlight the cyclical nature of football. Manchester United hadn’t won a league title since the days of Sir Matt Busby before the first Premier League season in 1992-93. They then preceded to dominate English football, joined by Arsenal later that decade when Arsene Wenger took over.
Leeds United took over the mantle from United going into the seventies before years of Liverpool dominance into the eighties, briefly punctuated by Brian Clough’s consecutive European Cup wins. Now Liverpool are without a league title in decades, although are back on the rise under Jurgen Klopp with the 2018-19 Champions League title to their name.
Leeds have fallen far from grace after years of financial mismanagement. From the last ever winners of Division One, to League One in 2007. A return to the Premier League is, though, looking increasingly likely under Marcelo Bielsa.
But the cycles of English football aren’t just big teams having a winning streak, falling from grace and then returning years later. It also about teams breaking into the status quo, usual as a result of large cash injections.
The two prime examples of this are, of course, Chelsea and Manchester City. Roman Ambramovic burst onto the scene in 2003 to take over Chelsea, and used his riches to turn them into a consistent fixture at the top of the English game.
The 2008 takeover of Manchester City was been as similar tale - a vast injection of cash completely transforming a side. The Abu Dhabi bunch got it wrong for a few years with various flop signings and managerial appointments, but have now built a footballing juggernaut spearheaded by Pep Guardiola.
So if you’re a United fan lamenting the recent demise of your team, or an Arsenal fan wondering why things didn’t get better after the departure of Wenger, don’t despair too much. Historically, it is just a part of English football.
And with the ever closed off nature of the elite clubs of European football, things will probably improve as wealth is continually funnelled towards your club(s).
The pan European Super League is on its way with all the wealth that will bring. The flip side is that it does mean your team stands a far stronger chance of finishing bottom of the league.