Arsenal, Liverpool and MUFC fans crack me up with their
whining about Chelsea and their money.
They forget that it could be argued that their clubs bought all
their titles over the last 30 years, as no-one else could compete
financially at the time.
My problem is not with Chelsea buying a title or two, they are
certainly not the first to come from no where to be champions, take
Blackburn for example. And as you say you could argue that all
titles, especially these days, are bought on the basis that the
more money you have, as long as you use it wisely, the more likely
you are to be successful.
My problem is with Chelsea's policy of paying above market rates
for players. This has artificially inflated the whole market which
forces all teams to pay more for players (during one of last
seasons CFC v LFC games it was noted that Chelsea's bench cost more
than Liverpools entire team). "So what?" you say. So, the flow on
effect is that the clubs have to make more money to compensate so
that they don't fall too far into debt and implode (see Leeds) so
ticket prices go up and it ends up being the poor fan who pays the
penalty.
I agree that at times Chelsea have paid inflated prices for players
and lets be honest, in order to break the Manchester
Utd/Gooners stranglehold on Premier League titles they had to.
Before Chelsea won the title in 2004/05, in 12 seasons
Manchester United won 8 titles, The Gooners 3 and Blackburn Rovers
1 title.
The Gooners in this case being junior partners in the stranglehold
on titles in the Premier League.
Long gone are the days when a Derby County, Nottingham Forest,
Everton or even Aston Villa/Spurs are going to win a title without
spending ridiculous amounts of money on transfer fees and
wages.
And in my opinion the game in England is poorer for the fact that a
financial elite now sit at the top of the Premiership.
A lot of the romance for me was lost with the formation of the
Premier League and the expansion of the Champions League and the
continued financial domination by Europe's elite clubs. Fueled by
TV $.
I find the A-League an exciting prospect for supporters of all of
the 8 clubs due to the salary cap. The Salary cap does away with
the ability of say a Chelsea/Manchester Utd/Gooners or even
Liverpool to constantly dominate the top four positions and entry
in to the Champions League.
Which lets face it is one hell of $ Festival for any club that
qualifies.
And for these clubs entry to the Champions League is the bottomline
at the start of the season. Winning the Premier League is just
icing on the cake.
Its the money from television that drives the football
equivalent of the arms race, long gone are the days that money from
the gate was a major source of revenue.
In some cases it makes up only @16% of some clubs revenue.
In order to win the A-League clubs will have to use their resources
wisely without going on spending sprees to solve squad depth
problems.
Local talent will have to be nurtured.
I use the National Rugby League as an example of how a salary cap
can open up a competition.
In the last 9 years of the tournament 1998-2006, 7 different teams
have won the Grand Final, with the Broncos leading the way with
three titles.
Anyway I look forward to Chelsea's campaign this season, but to be
frank i would rather swap another Premier League title for seeing
the Phoenix in the Grand Final of the A-League.
League rules are league rules.