Last summer we did see a great number of players leaving for Saudi Arabia. The talk was about that, even with major British clubs appointing new managers. Spurs went for Ange Postecoglou, Celtic appointed Brendan Rodgers and Chelsea did their approach and hired Mauricio Pochettino.
This all looked logic, Rodgers was a free man on the market, Ange leaving opened that position up, as Spurs had an interim solution at the time with Antonio Conte leaving the club in the season. Chelsea also had an interim boss in Frank Lampard, so no real drama in those appointments.
The drama last season was all the moves down to Saudi Arabia, in real building a space for new English talent to flourish in the game, getting one season to adapt as we did see, all teams losing out in Champions League with the two German clubs, Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich, together with Real Madrid and PSG, being the top four.
The first major and strange happening this season regadring manager talk, was the fact that Jurgen Klopp announced his decision to leave Liverpool just weeks into the new year, having a contract running until 2026. It was like a bomb had fallen on the Anfield turf, and since Liverpool have failed to deliver the goods to be part of the battle to win Europa League, Premier League and FA Cup, ending the EL in the quarter final vs. Atalanta, losing out to Man City and Arsenal for the PL, and defeated by Man Utd in the quarter final of the FA Cup.
The fact that Chelsea decided to sack Mauricio Pochettino was shocking after getting this ship to a steady harbour and really lifting the spirit at Stamford Bridge. This decision, from a sporting point of view, looks far from logical. Leicester manager Enzo Maresca is said to be one of the candidates to take over, believed to have a release clause of £10million in his contract, as it could be the most lucrative transfer out of Leicester this summer, but we believe this is not going to happen. The fact that David Moyes is leaving West Ham, Roberto De Zerbi walks at Brighton, makes no sense what so ever, but they are both without a job at this point. Both have done brilliantly at their current clubs and the decision to get them out, can underline other reasons for all of these moves being done. Manchester United will possibly wait to see what happens in the FA Cup final before they decide on their manager future, with Erik ten Hag far from certain to continue, even if he manage to win the FA Cup. He has taken Man Utd to a 8th and 3rd position in the league in his two seasons in charge, reminding everyone following football, that a certain Jurgen Klopp, ended 5th last season on 67 points, 7 more than Man Utd collected this term.
Something is going on inside the game, and it involves much more than just basic rules of results, league positions and decisions making only on sporting purposes. This of course also have a massive financial aspect written inside, as we do see a type of meltdown, with clubs eager to work on other budgets and on other terms as FFP and PSR comes to mind.
We do believe that this is done to secure business and make further progress in line with FFP and PSR, as we did see last season, when especially Liverpool moved players to Saudi, and this season probably have scaled down their salaries to a new manager by a millions, appointing one in real unknown character from a league in Europe that has in real no good clubs at the highest European level. What we will see going forward is that clubs will be more careful in different parts as they know the consequences of breaking those laws and regulations.
When we see the names of Maresca’s, Kompany’s and McKenna’s lined up as potential new managers at clubs such as Chelsea, Bayern Munich and Man Utd, you start to believe that owners at this point have found a way to keep the hierrachy under control, but on scaledown budgets, by moving for the men that are in control of those one step below, pushing those top managers either over in national team jobs or having them accepting a life at a new financial base.
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