Sustainability, the unsung hero.

With the financial shambles Rangers and Portsmouth find themselves in currently, the concept of sustainability seems to have finally reared its reserved face.

The news of administration followed by a ten-point deduction for Pompey and the Gers won’t come as much of a surprise, the slip from sustainability is a gradual one but at the same time a very much obvious one.

The day clubs decide to spend money they don’t have on facilities, wages, transfer-fees and where ever else they see fit to spend it, they put themselves in danger of not merely rearing off the path of suitability but stepping closer and closer to the endless pit that is administration and ultimately falling off the map of football through liquidation.

There is no doubt that money has many positives for many clubs, but ultimately you need to have it use it. Money has shaped future superpowers of world football, in the form of Manchester City, Malaga and PSG to state few. But only through the fortunes of multi-millionaire owners investing.

Many clubs look to millionaires in shining armour, but more to their reliable cheque books then sword. Yet for many clubs these nights in shining armour never seem to come their way.

From this fans and players grow frustrated through a lack of achievement in their eyes, but many football fans alike need to take a step back and see the bigger picture for what it is, so what if Arsenal fail to make top four this season, at least fans can sleep knowing the club has a great setup and will be successful for years to come. That being down to sustainability being cemented in the clubs ethos.

Jose Mourinho will constantly be talked about for all the trophies he has won, but he cannot be spoken of in the same bracket as managers such as David Moyes whom is the third longest serving manger in England’s top four divisions.  Moyes has spent a messily £94 million in all of his time with Everton, and making £40 million on players in that time. In the modern era we are in, Moyes has done miracles with the tools available to him.

While many clubs will be spending the big bucks on wages and transfer fees this summer, Moyes, Wenger, Rodgers and other such managers will have other prerogatives. But the fact remains their fans will be quietly confident of the clubs long term future with these men in charge, sustainability is the name of this game.

The rise and fall of Steve McClaren, wait what rise?

We could have been fooled into thinking when Steve McClaren took the Nottingham Forest job on the 13^th June, it was a win win situation for club and manager. Wrong, we would have been less mislead in believing England weren’t going to disappoint us in South Africa.

Once again McClaren has let thousands of fans down with just overall poor managerial skills and decision-making. For the second time in his managerial career, he looks towards Europe for redemption upon a second nightmare of an effort to conquer the English game. His first attempt, well lets not even go down that road all that matters is that it ended in McClaren standing alone in the pouring Wembley rain with him becoming the latest laughing stock of the country, yes that “Wally with the brolley”. Not much has changed in this instance then.

 Lets hope his failure at the sacred but almost scary vacancy that is England manager hasn’t scared the likes of Harry Redknapp away, for he looks like the only saviour of what has been a nightmare of a run for England in all major competitions over the last couple of years.

When his name was announced as the new Nott’s Forest boss most Forest fans thought they had just hit the jackpot and this would finally be there promotion-winning season to the English Premier League. Now they’re looking down the harsh barrel of relegation, so where did it all go wrong?

With McClaren bringing a first major trophy to Middlesbrough, working as Sir Alex Ferguson’s number two with a world class Manchester United and being the first manager since Sir Bobby Robson with Porto in 1996 to win a trophy outside of England in Europe, there is no doubt the managerial ability is there its just whether he could handle the pressure of his demons looking down upon him every second of the day. 

McClaren blamed his misfortunes and ultimate resignation as manager of Nottingham Forest Football Club down to a failure in communication sense between himself and the chairman Nigel Dougherty. In McClaren’s words,   "They don't share the ambition that I came for." There is no doubt McClaren did not get the investment he wanted in his squad that he requested over the transfer period, but Billy Davies showed that this was no excuse for resigning as he took Forest to the brink of promotion by marginally being knocked out in the dying minutes of the Play-off Semi-Finals by the very impressive Swansea City. 

In a world where failures are more frequently highlighted over our victories, Steve McClaren couldn’t afford this latest bump in the road, yes the chips were down but he should of grabbed the bull by the horns and held on for dear life. His name now has no doubt been pushed towards the top of the list where life after England management isn’t as easy as it seems, jumping the queue where Sven, Glenn and Kevin stand waiting.

So many questions lay wait in his pathway but the one he will be more worried about than any other, will he get his shot at redemption in English management?

Money can buy you happiness.

Whoever said money can’t buy you happiness has clearly not seen the excitement and happiness oozing from the blue side of Manchester, which can be seen from just about the darkest corners of the earth.

With Manchester City posting a British record loss of 195 million pounds earlier this week, previously shattering Chelsea’s 141 million pounds in 2005. But of course to City owner Sheikh Mansour this is pocket money, and to all those noisy neighbours its pocket money well spent.

For all this money spent the City fans were always curious to question if it would take them that extra mile into being a force to be reckoned with in English football.

That question was emphatically answered when the final whistle was blown on Sunday 23 October, when the final score displayed Manchester City 6-1 Manchester United. Happiness bought in a millisecond!

This is not the first time a British club’s takeover has resulted in millions invested in transfer fees, contracts, youth facilities etc. and proved decisive in moving them up the English league table in a gradual shift of power in the English game.

Queens Park Rangers and Chelsea are prime examples of this with Roman Abramovich taking over Chelsea in June 2003, success wasn’t seen straight away but there is no doubt Chelsea’s dominance in the English game is majorly down to the Russians takeover of the London club.

Although there are many times this has happened there is no doubt Manchester City’s reliance on ownership input in a financial sense, way out weighs Chelsea’s. In the last 10 to 15 years Chelsea have always been in the running for most English silverware, with their league positions showing this. In City’s case they hardly looked past mid-table let alone silverware, with their raise to prominence being a much more immediate one.

The question hovering over most football enthusiasts though, is when to draw the line. There is no doubt the wealth City posses is an unfair advantage over such clubs as Everton and Bolton who have based their clubs development around sustainability.

This question leads into an even greater sense of alarm, with footballing fans starting to question where the very future of football lies. To many times have I heard “money is destroying the game” to disregard it as an empty accusation.

Many feel passion, pride and love for our beautiful game is being replaced by thirst for more money and pure greed. We seldom see players who are classically branded as  “one club men”, the days of Gary Neville, “Mr Man United” as known to some are long gone.

We see more frequently that modern day footballers are willing to sit on the bench and in turn take a huge wage raise, in a almost trade where the sheer playing of football is being swapped for a better overall weekly wage.

Who knows the actual destination for the future of football and if this destination will be heavily effected by the large influx of money but one thing is for sure the Noisy Neighbours aren’t complaining.

All with just one hand shake?

As we look back on last weeks happenings, there is no doubt Glen Johnson’s late winner for Liverpool against Chelsea or Newcastle’s abrupt end to their surprising unbeaten start to the season, at the hands of the seemingly unstoppable Manchester City, will all be talked about as key events of the week, but still the topic of racism and Blatter’s bewilderment towards a solution to racism in world football will be the major talking point as another week passes by.

Early last week Blatter saw it appropriate to come out and state that racism was not a pressing concern on the field and if an incident did occur it could all be solved by just one hand shake, yes just one hand shake to solve a problem which has haunted so many countries histories for so many years. Which comment is more absurd, who knows but one thing is for sure that Blatter’s views on racism in football are as mistaken as an American watching Monty Python.

Surely after such a comment his place at the head of Fifa must be questioned? Not only is this an outrage in terms of the bad publicity it brings football, but more importantly how can football move forward when a leader of Blatter’s importance downgrades not only a problem that is mammoth in terms of football but in all aspects of life.

This is not the first time Blatter has slipped up and in turn his ability to govern such an important organisation that is Fifa, has been put into question, there is little surprise that major European clubs are warning FIFA that if changes don’t occur soon an exodus could occur, such ludicrous moments as this by Blatter will not help Fifa’s case against such ideas.

If things are to change Fifa needs to take a long look at itself and have a massive shake up, maybe axing the main man at the top wouldn’t be such a bad starting point.