TOP 100 SOCCER SITES
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| Hard times force new equality on the Premier League's economic miracle | Premier League Having hit the banks where it hurts, the recession has finally caught up with football's eliteThe question we all dread from foreign visitors to these islands is: "What does Britain actually do?" All we can say is that we surge into cities on overcrowded trains and then disperse mysteriously, pointlessly invade far-off countries and talk an awful lot about the Premier League.England's highest football tier has been one of this country's few authentic economic miracles, even if it is the perfect expression of a debt-fuelled and unequal society. It's Upstairs Downstairs with naming rights. One missing virtue in the 21st century is competitive balance, until the credit boom went pop and recession looked like the best thing to happen to the game since the Taylor Report.At the halfway point this has been the most captivating Premier League season in memory. The aristocracy are losing games like never before, the middle-classes (Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur) are on the march and the proletariat (Burnley) are restoring the lost virtues of thrift and self-reliance. This week I nearly banged my television set to restore the reception when the Burnley chief executive said how much his club hated the thought of going overdrawn.Superficially, not much has changed. On Boxing Day morning the Top Four was the old rich gang minus Liverpool, who are caught in their old private maelstrom. Beyond Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal, you could still get 50-1 on Villa or Spurs winning the title. Yet there is a sense at last that the big powers are no longer rattling their jewellery. The reason, surely, is that, unlike in society, the downturn weakened the rich more than the poor.In a year when the British economy was shown to be a con trick perpetrated by the banks and their gimps in government, the big clubs stopped spending on the scale they had when leveraged loans could be had like Smarties. Manchester United, who paid £263m in interest in the three years to 2008, banked 75% of the £80m they received for Cristiano Ronaldo. Arsenal trousered most of the £30m they took for Kolo Touré and Emmanuel Adebayor as City chased their dream of building "a successful business where the core competency is football". Liverpool groan under borrowings of £313m, and threw away £36.5m in interest charges last year.Best of all, in August, the Uefa president, Michel Platini, received a visit from a Russian man dismayed by Manchester City's trend-defying largesse. "Roman Abramovich is a football person and passionate about the game. He loves football," Platini reported. "He has come to me and said we must do something about this."Abramovich's new religion was that clubs should spend only what they earn. Coincidentally, this Damascene conversion came after City offered John Terry the chance to show people round Carrington rather than Cobham in his new second job as a training ground tour guide. The tom-toms say Chelsea may return to the old extravagance to buy a striker in January, but only to head off the transfer ban their lawyers managed to get suspended.The result of these corrosions of power is that the traditional top four had lost 19 games by Christmas Day. United went down 3-0 at Fulham and have lost at Burnley and at home to Villa. With seven defeats, Liverpool were the Christmas puddings, and Chelsea and Arsenal had lost three and four games each.For there to be a proper shift, the weak needed to get stronger too, and the vulnerability of the heavyweights has encouraged a less pusillanimous tactical approach from the smaller clubs. Wolves took a custard pie for sacrificing the reserves at Old Trafford partly because Mick McCarthy's caution was out of synch with the new iconoclastic mood.Villa, Spurs, Birmingham, Fulham, Sunderland and Stoke are exceptionally well managed, which helps, but a stronger bourgeoisie is not the only encouraging feature of this unpredictable campaign. For the first time in years, the eye is being drawn to B-list players who have outshone some of the old cast of household names.Villa's James Milner scoops the halfway prize for most improved player, and Stephen Warnock is now a better bet than Wayne Bridge at left-back for England. Carlos Cuéllar is another Villa Park stand-out. Across town, unlovable Lee Bowyer is propelling Birmingham's revival. Bolton's Gary Cahill is coveted by bigger clubs searching for new centre-halves; the problem position, increasingly, in a game of ever-increasing pace. Fulham's Bobby Zamora is another refreshing perseverance tale. There seems greater richness and diversity across endeavour's scale.Kleptomania survives in the banking sector, but in the Premier League, recklessness is being punished. Those crazy-wage payers, Portsmouth and West Ham, confront the consequences of their folly. But elsewhere the crash has bred new life out of the dead ground of inequality.Five best sporting achievements of the decade1 BBC Radio Five Live stoked a merry to-and-fro this week in their search for the top-10 accomplishments. Kelly Holmes winning two golds at the Athens Olympics showed how parochialism taints these lists. The No1, assuming he is clean, must be Usain Bolt demolishing the world 100m and 200m records.2 Roger Federer passing Pete Sampras's total of 14 grand slam titles was a statistical starburst along with Steve Redgrave's fifth Olympic rowing gold and the eight Michael Phelps gathered in the Beijing pool. Unaccountably, Phelps was overlooked for the Radio Five Live top 10.3 Tiger Woods taking the 2008 US Open on one leg won the triumph-over-adversity prize. Defiance was also honoured in Liverpool's comeback from 3-0 down to win the Champions League final against Milan in Istanbul. Manchester United's double hat-trick of Premier League titles also made the top 10. No objections there.4 England's victory in the greatest ever Ashes series (2005) was the closest the old duel has come to acquiring Shakespearean scale. An insular choice, but you had to be there.5 Only when 2003-2004 was replayed did the majesty of Arsenal's unbeaten Premier League campaign fly back from memory. The Invincibles were unimprovable.Freelances turning countries into clubsIt took the last score flash from the first Test between South Africa and South Africa Exiles to really bring home how dependent England are on people born in Pietermaritzburg or Cape Town. The bulletin read: "Match drawn. Pietersen 81, Trott 69." England had been saved from losing to South Africa by two South Africans.The Second Test is in Pietersen's home province of KwaZulu-Natal. England's captain, coach, wicketkeeper, best batsman and middle-order rock were all born on African soil. Andrew Strauss is otherwise about as English as they come. But the wider discrepancy is harder to ignore when players who have switched allegiance return to their native turf and look their home crowd in the eye.Jonathan Trott's vital contribution on his debut against Australia at The Oval has already helped to swing a series England's way and it would be no shock to see him and Pietersen top this winter's averages. Across sport – in cricket and rugby union especially – we are drifting to the moment when players are all freelances in a post-nationality world. The country will become a club, the flag a bag for bundling up talent.Cause of the weekIt wasn't a new life Michael Schumacher wanted. He just needed a rest. The most Machiavellian of champions appears to have no secret financial or political agenda for returning to the cockpit three years after he retired, which prompts us to wonder how many other elite athletes could use a sabbatical. "I was tired of Formula One by the end of 2006. I just lacked motivation and didn't have any energy," Schumacher says. Should Bill Shankly have had a gap year? The trouble is, to admit fatigue is taken as proof of weakness. A time-out could prolong many a distinguished career.Premier LeaguePaul Haywardguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Togo attack a nightmare vision of sport's future The machine-gun attack on Togo's team bus has left the whole world of sport with a nightmarish vision yet of its future telegraph.co.uk |
Lord Triesman attempts to ensure Franco Baldini's safety at Africa Cup of Nations Lord Triesman has consulted his Foreign Office contacts to ensure England assistant Franco Baldini will be safe in Angola. telegraph.co.uk |
Robben's late winner propels Bayern Munich Bayern Munich returned to the top of the Bundesliga on Saturday after Arjen Robben's late winner gave it a 3-2 win at Werder Bremen, while Schalke was held to a 2-2 draw by Bochum. cbc.ca |
Michael Dawson earns new Tottenham contract Harry Redknapp allows Giovani dos Santos to join Galatasaray on loan and agrees new five-year contract with Michael Dawson. telegraph.co.uk |