Jonathan Wilson's Blog, page 108
August 31, 2019
Turning our clubs into global brands means there will be more Burys | Jonathan Wilson
The concentration of wealth and attention on a tiny number of globalised superclubs is leading to moments of remarkable drama and quality – but at a terrible price
A recent Set-Piece Menu podcast eloquently made the case for fandom as a broad church. When the Premier League is marketed so aggressively all over the world, when overseas television rights bring it so much revenue, when players and managers and owners are often foreign, they argued – quite reasonably – who is to deny the travelling supporter from Baltimore or Bangalore their seat in the stadium, the right to call themselves a fan? All of that made sense.
On an intellectual level I agreed with it. It fitted my general liberal, globalised worldview. And yet, I realised, viscerally I disagreed: of course, I paid lip service to all that but actually I regarded my form of fandom as being more authentic and more important.
Related: 'I don't have a team any more': Bury fans on the club's collapse
Related: Salary caps and direct action: lessons to learn from Bury's demise | David Conn
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August 26, 2019
Liverpool lord it, Spurs shocked and Barnes bangers – Football Weekly
Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Tim Stillman discuss defeats for Tottenham and Manchester United, Ashley and Harvey Barnes on target, goals galore on the continent and a new crime novel seeking publishers
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We take a look back at the weekend of football just gone, starting with Newcastle’s 1-0 win at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, in which Harry Kane was denied a penalty by both VAR and Mike Dean’s reluctance to check the footage.
Continue reading...August 25, 2019
Continent’s big four may falter but their striving for super-league is ever stronger | Jonathan Wilson
D id you feel it? The great disturbance in the force, as though millions of voices cried out in hope? Last weekend, something remarkable happened: none of the champions of Europe’s big five leagues won (a statistic that admittedly loses some of its potency when it is acknowledged that Serie A hadn’t started: Juventus kicked off their Serie A campaign on Saturday with a 1-0 win at Parma).
Last season was the first time that each of the big five leagues had been retained, but here was the little man striking back: Barcelona lost, Paris Saint-Germain lost, Manchester City drew, Bayern drew. Do you hear the people sing?
Related: Juventus's star signings mask unease while Inter and Napoli can challenge
What is the point of super-clubs collecting league titles when they are not playing particularly well?
Related: Sylvinho has revived Lyon so will Ligue 1 have a title race after all?
Continue reading...August 24, 2019
Anfield again proves the mirror that reflects Arsenal’s ugliest failings | Jonathan Wilson
Another trip to Anfield, another heavy defeat for Arsenal. The best that can be said for them here is that, emphatic as the scoreline was, this was not as bad a display as many they have produced here in recent years. In their last seven visits Arsenal, unable to cope with Liverpool’s remorselessness, have conceded 25 goals. Anfield has been a brutal mirror and here again it reflected all their shortcomings.
There was at least some stubbornness and resolve, exemplified by Lucas Torreira’s late goal, but the rebuilding of Arsenal has a way to go yet. There were moments in the first half, three of them, when it even seemed possible Arsenal might take the lead. But the problem was a setup so accepting of Liverpool’s superiority as to make it all but inevitable that they would succumb eventually.
Related: Mohamed Salah turns on the style as lethal Liverpool see off Arsenal
Continue reading...August 18, 2019
Pep Guardiola’s quest for control at Manchester City undermined by VAR
Football remains a magnificently capricious sport. You can crush its competitiveness with a self-perpetuating structure that leads to a radically unequal distribution of resources. You can pack the heft of oligarchs and emirates behind clubs. You can record and analyse. You can use technology as far as possible to eliminate human error. You can invest and think and strive to bring it under rein and still, every now and again, it can turn up games like Saturday’s at the Etihad, when one side has 30 shots to the other’s three (or, in modern parlance, depending whose model you prefer an xG of around 3.00 to around 0.2) and it ends in a draw. And not only that, it will add a self-knowing twist at the end. Football will not be tamed.
Related: Pep Guardiola says VAR decisions could do with ‘a little more consistency’
Related: Kevin De Bruyne’s treasure chest supplies Raheem Sterling with rich pickings | Paul Wilson
Continue reading...August 17, 2019
Shortcomings of Lampard the manager echo those of Lampard the player | Jonathan Wilson
C enturies from now, when the world is a wasteland and football exists only in the ruins of stadiums half-buried in the desert, there will still come a wind through the dusty valley and on its breath will be the question: “But if they were great players, why couldn’t they play together?”
The few surviving humans will huddle in caves, squabbling over the meagre crops that remain, divided implacably into two tribes, the Gerrardites and the Lampardians, deaf to the various efforts of minority groups such as the Barryists and the Hargreavesians to unite them, indifferent now as they were then to the proposal of the deposed warlord Capello that it might conceivably work out if only the Gerrardites could occupy the land to the left.
Related: Frank Lampard’s youth policy at Chelsea should be tempered with realism | Eni Aluko
Continue reading...August 15, 2019
How Hungary’s stars left their football mark with Olympic success | Jonathan Wilson
It would be wrong to assume that Ferenc Puskás, just because he was cheery and relaxed, did not think about the game or was merely a turner of tricks blessed with an extraordinary left foot.
He was exceptionally technically gifted, of course, but what made him quite so important to the Aranycsapat [Hungary’s Golden Squad] was his tactical brain. “If a good player has the ball, he should have the vision to spot three options,” the right-back Jenő Buzánszky said. “Puskás always saw at least five.”
Continue reading...August 11, 2019
Nicolas Pépé cameo gives Arsenal cause for optimism in workaday win| Jonathan Wilson
A substitute appearance lasting 20 minutes plus injury time and 10 largely unremarkable touches may not seem like much, but in them were encapsulated Arsenal’s reasons for optimism. In time, Nicolas Pépé will script his own narrative and will be judged on those terms but, for now, his value is largely symbolic. The £72m record signing is the totem for this new age for Arsenal. His arrival from the bench was greeted with a huge roar from the Arsenal fans gathered high in the Leazes End and his presence was enough to transform an essentially workaday Arsenal win into something of potentially far greater significance.
For 58 minutes at a wet and gently mutinous St James’ Park, Arsenal perhaps wondered whether the optimism of deadline day had been justified.
Related: Aubameyang’s Arsenal winner gives Steve Bruce losing start at Newcastle
Related: Arsenal’s Unai Emery finds hopes of new dawn are clouded by misfortune
Continue reading...August 10, 2019
Steve Bruce sees wish come true but Newcastle’s spirits may wreak havoc | Jonathan Wilson
While the Magpies’ manager is a returning local hero, he is an underwhelming appointment that smacks of appeasement
O nce upon a time, perhaps, many years ago when he was still a teenager living in Walker, east of the centre of Newcastle, Steve Bruce found a mysterious old lamp. It was dusty and so he gave it a polish and, as he rubbed it, there was a flash and a bang and a puff of smoke. A great figure billowed up, looming over the young midfielder – as he then was. “Steve,” the spirit intoned, “you have freed me from the lamp and for this I will grant you whatever you desire.”
“Well,” said the young Bruce, his delivery folksy even then, “what I’d really like is a contract with Newcastle United.”
Related: Steve Bruce excited before Newcastle debut but not expecting honeymoon
Continue reading...August 8, 2019
Premier League preview, Iwobi at Everton and image rights – Football Weekly Extra
Max Rushden, Barry Glendenning, Jonathan Wilson and Lars Sivertsen discuss the Premier League season ahead, Alex Iwobi’s shock move to Everton, Wayne Rooney’s suspicious squad number, image rights and water balloon partners
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We preview the 2019-20 Premier League season, which kicks off on Friday night with last season’s runners-up Liverpool hosting Championship champions Norwich. We take a look at all 20 sides, their transfer window business and their prospects for the season ahead.
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