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GREED FC 5 TRADITION 0 22-11-06
Peter Holmes
As this season stumbles on with it's vein of cautious on-field mediocrity, the focus of the game in general has been more on the off-field venue of the boardroom. Namely, the political and financial machinations of the game, greedily grabbing the headlines as often as anything the brilliant Wayne Rooney achieves with the ball at his gifted feet.
There appears to be a proliferation of rumour and innuendo regarding boardroom takeovers swamping the game at present, with its inevitable consequence of uncertainty and negativity affecting the clubs involved.
An example of this is West Ham United.
It didn't take a genius to work out that all was not well at the Hammers. One of English football's great family clubs, also one of the most likeable in a sense that lots of supporters from around the country have a soft spot for West Ham, probably due to their reputation for good football and a bit of a working-class underdog into the bargain.
After last season's very encouraging return to the top flight plus a runner-up spot in the FA Cup final in a barnstorming classic against Liverpool, a lot was expected of the Hammers for 2006-07 under the canny tutelage of Alan Pardew. A campaign in Europe beckoned in the UEFA Cup and they were tipped to be an EPL top eight player.
It's history now, but instead of onward and upward they became mired in the quicksand of political shenanigans at board room level. Shady tales of being bought out by various sharp suited sharks resulted in a disastrous failed takeover attempt by an Iranian bloke with a name which sounded like a Korean garbage truck, Kia Joorabchian, who dragged the club into a crisis of confidence with no thought or consultation with the loyal fans.
It totally destabilised the club permeating every level and thus the team that took to the pitch week in week out played accordingly. The debt hanging over the club of approaching twenty-three million squid did not help the gloom around the Upton Park club either, debt bringing a financial weakness attracting unworthy capitalists.
Bizarrely while this soap opera panned out, one of the world's top players, Carlos Tevez, suddenly appeared in the playing ranks with his buddy Javier Mascherano, all achieved by some apparent slight of hand of Houdini proportions. Rumours abounded rampant that they were both only being groomed to eventually feed to Chelsea. What the hell, the proud Hammers a mere feeder club for their hated arch-enemy at snobby Stamford Towers!
Like most badly planned pipe dreams it thankfully all turned to shite and this week it was finally all sorted by a buyout by Eggert Magnussen's football savvy Icelandic consortium, whose eighty-five spare mill bought around 83% of the shareholding.
Fans expectations have risen and Alan Pardew has been given the backing of the new gaffers and will cop a reserve of transfer cash I'm sure. It will be interesting to see how that one pans out in the future and if the expectations of a Chelsea-esque rival will actually materialise.
One thing's for sure - the faithful bubble blowers of Upton Park deserve much better from their club and it's time that they got some payback on their allegiance. The disgraceful thing about all this is that history, tradition, and loyalty count for zip and go out of the window to the power of the almighty greenback of any denomination.
Football beware as Europe fills up with bored mega-rich plutocrats from the other side of the old Iron Curtain with their filthy ill-gotten gains ready to plough into a hobby, like some unsuspecting Football Club.
The example of Chelsea I suppose is the ultimate tale of buyer finding a club massively in trouble and as receptive to his overtures as a whore at the sight of a wallet bulging at the seams. He wiped out the eighty plus million debt and ploughed his substantial loose change into the ailing club having a profound effect on not only Chelsea but the European game as a whole.
In a frenzy of orgiastic financial excess, he began buying up the world game's superstars for vastly over-inflated prices causing rampant inflation in the transfer market. The result being the stacking of the shelves at Stamford Bridge with players who never play often enough to really hit form and end up languishing on the bench and losing a year or two out of their short careers.
Players who were bought to stop other clubs, other rivals, from getting their hands on them, or as in the case of Scott Parker a doubling of the transfer fee over six months to eventually get their man in the January transfer window. At that time Parker was Charlton's best player, Chelsea kept making overtures which infuriated Charlton's then manager Alan Curbishley, by turning the player's head with offers of 55K wages, even though he'd just signed a five year deal with his club. It got so bad that Parker was dropped by Charlton as he became a disruptive influence in the dressing room and off he went to Chelski.
Then there was the much publicised Ashley Cole saga. Allegations of tapping and bungs are rife when it comes to Chelsea. Allegedly! BUT what AmbramoRich wants he gets, sadly!
Even UEFA's supremo Lennart Johansson has expressed misgivings about Chelski (During a tirade against that whining bugger Moaningminniehio!) and specifically about AbramoRich's rouble laden ownership of the club;
"I am very, very sad about this development, I am against it!"
"Is it morally wrong what Chelsea are doing? For me it is!"
And admitting that UEFA were powerless to stop the Chelsea phenomenon from happening elsewhere. Maybe Platini will have bigger balls than you Lennart when he takes over the mantle as head honcho of UEFA. We will see.
While Chelski are winning titles and competing at the highest level and keeping the fans happy, all in the valley of excess will be fine. The other end of the spectrum is on view at Hearts, now known as Heart of MidLithuania, who are in a state of total and utter disarray to the point of self-destructive anarchy.
With a Borat of their own running the club, Vladimir Romanov, Dracule of the club for two years in which he has gone through the blood of seven managers and constantly infringed on the running and picking of the team.
Hearts have turned into a repository of unpronounceable Lithuanian plonkers both on and off the pitch, with one vodka swizzled minion making stupid statements about the fans of the club being racist for jeering Lithuanian players in the debacle against the Gers. They actually jeered them by all accounts because they were shite, pure and simple.
You see, you can spin, waffle, hoodwink, bullshit and gift-wrap press releases all you want, but in the end you'll be caught out by the press and the fans.
You simply can't fool the fans and once you've tried to you lose their support forever.
A century old club like Hearts could go to the wall while Romanov plays sad games with his money but it wont happen because the fans will not allow it. I hope!
One of the biggest mistakes ever in my mind was to introduce football clubs to the ruthless bulls and bears of the Stock Exchange. History and tradition get mangled in greed, profit margins and dividends. Shares are not bought for any other motive than to make money, apart from by the few real fans who buy a few shares so they can say they are a minority owner of their club.
Look at the effect that becoming a PLC has had on Manchester United, who had to sacrifice on field team regeneration to keep the share price ticking over and the profit margin ever expanding. It had an obvious detrimental effect on the club as they slipped behind the big spending Chelsea and they are only just showing signs of re-emerging at present after a few years of mediocrity. Re-Glazered so to speak.
So, the great game Association Football is mired in a few political power and control scenarios at the moment at every level. The game changes and evolves constantly and in truth it has to but some of those changes are not always for the better. Fans are becoming disenchanted with the culture of money above all, effectively certain clubs prostitute themselves in front of the mega-rich to gain wealth and thus power.
The one truth about the game is that the fans are the constant, ever present souls who support their team near and far, financially and emotionally. Players, managers, administrators, shareholders, millionaires and leeches come and go but fans are there until the fat tart warbles.
Romantic I know but thank God we are!
Enough Said,
ErimusRed.
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