Wednesday, May 22, 2013

English football has gone mad!

Here's an excellent article by Jim White in today's Yahoo.co.uk, which I totally agree with:

At the time of writing, the plans for the Stoke Sentinel’s Tony Pulis 16-page souvenir supplement were still up in the air.

But doubtless the production will be straight forward, without frill or artifice, getting to the point with minimum fuss, a route one publication.

Arsenal fans may disagree, but we’ll miss Pulis. In his tracksuit and cap he was the manager who most resembled a touchline dad, ranting and shouting his way through a Premier League season. In press conferences he always stood up, perhaps to convey a message of urgency and momentum. Either that, or he suffered from some vicious piles.

And now he has gone, the Premier League managerial landscape has altered irrevocably. With Sir Alex Ferguson and David Moyes also taking their leave from long-held sinecures, Arsene Wenger is now the only manager in the country’s top division who was appointed before 2010. Indeed, all the other 91 clubs in league football have changed their manager since Arsenal last won a trophy, in 2005. What an incredible statistic that is of a business that has lost all faith in stability.

After Wenger, the second longest serving top flight boss is now Alan Pardew, who has been at St James’s Park for 2 years and 157 days. Though if the rumours of his imminent departure swirling around Newcastle turn out to be true, at the start of the season the runner up to Wenger will be Sam Allardyce, who is just about to clock up two seasons at the Boleyn Ground. When the three clubs without managers have found their next man, 12 of our top clubs will be under the control of a boss who has been in situ for less than a year. So much for continuity. So much for longevity. So much for creating a footballing legacy.

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