Jürgen Klopp and the detrimental effect money has had on football

The recent announcement that Jurgen Klopp will depart Borussia Dortmund at the end of the season was a sad day for football for many reasons. Not only is it the end of an era for everyone’s second favourite team, but it’s highlighted many other issues with football. In the 7 years Klopp’s been at the club, he has created one of the most exciting teams to watch in Europe, a reflection of his charismatic and energetic personality. However, despite the loss he will be for the club, Dortmund’s demise this season highlights more poignant problem with football, the influence of money and particularly in the Premier League.

Money has become an increasingly dominant element of football, influencing players, managers and owners alike. The prize money available is extortionate in today’s game for Premier League and Champions League participation and success which is predominantly down to TV money.  

This in turn has spiked ticket prices due to interest in the game coming from further afield than the traditional working classes that the game was once built upon in terms of fan bases. Tickets used to be affordable, even for the poorest demographic whereas now the least you’re likely to pay for a Premier League team is £30 (adult) with prices going up and over £100 at the top end. Having said that, abroad, this isn’t such an issue with some season tickets for Europe’s top clubs being cheaper that a single match day ticket at Arsenal.  

The popularity of football with the middle classes began with the success of England at Italia 90’, which captured the nation with iconic moments such as Gazza crying after a booking in the semi-final, meaning he would miss the final. Prior to the tournament football was losing its popularity with record low viewing figures both in attendances and TV figures due to the 1980’s recession where the working classes simply couldn’t afford tickets or subscription fees.

Post Italia 90’ there were calls for a breakaway of England’s top division which was finalised in 1992 with BSKYB buying the TV rights and forming the Premier League as we know it today. The deal meant that the clubs would share 50% of the money evenly and then 25% depending where they finish in the league. This is what attracted the middles classes, the increase classiness of football, with cleaner stadia and rules being changed to suit them, such as harsher punishments for ‘dirty’ play. In the most recent deal, worth over $5bn, the Premier League is an extremely lucrative attraction for potential investors. In the last 5 years there has been an increase of rich foreign businessmen buying lower league clubs, throwing some money at them in the hope of reaching glitz and glamour of the Premier League and its money.

But this has had major implications.

For a start, managers working under ambitious, money hungry chairman rarely get the time required to build a team equipped for promotion, resulting in multiple of premature sackings. Case in point being Watford and Leeds having had 4 managers each this season alone, although Oscar Garcia left Watford on medical grounds. If managers are getting less and less time, its effectively ruining the game as chopping and changing every month isn’t ethically or financially prudent. Also it leaves perfectly capable managers out of jobs at the expense of a more expensive alternative.

Managers aren’t the only ones either; players are also affected by the large sums of money injected into football. Players have become aware of the rewards for playing at the top level, and are willing to do everything to get there. Traditionally this meant playing well and earning the right to earn top money, now days it’s down to agents and the player power to negotiate every last penny from their contracts. The most recent example is the Raheem Sterling debacle where he’s reportedly rejected £100,000 a week, that I wrote a piece on, which demonstrates the ridiculous amounts of money that players are seeking to earn, having achieved very little. I’m not going to say a move away from Liverpool would harm his career, but there have been so many examples of young English players moving from a club where there playing first team football to a top club and warming the bench, in the pursuit of money.  Players like John Bostock springs to mind, a promising young player touted as a future international plucked at 16 years old from Crystal Palace by Tottenham Hotspur, probably by the money they offered. He now plays for Oud-Heverlee Leuven in the Belgian Second Division.

Examples like this highlight the influence money can have on football which potentially ruins careers if chased over success, which seems to be the case for many young players. It’s a real shame to see as in hindsight every man and his dog says they would play for free, myself included, but we don’t know their circumstances or, ahem, their agents.

The money from The Premier League and the Champions League TV deals has created a huge disparity between football clubs at the top and bottom. Champions League clubs receive huge amounts of TV and prize money which means they can buy better players, and therefore improve further. This makes it even harder for clubs aspiring for the top level, to get there in an ‘acceptable’ footballing way.

This leads me back to my original point where Dortmund have seemingly ran out of steam following there major success between 2010 – 2012 where they won back to back Bundesliga titles and the German Cup. However their lack of comparative wealth to football superpowers such as Barcelona, Real Madrid and domestic rivals Bayern Munich has caught up with them and their fantastic departing manager. The loss of crucial players such as Mario Götze and Robert Lewandowski to their main rivals Bayern has signalled their fall from grace having not been in the financial position to persuade them to stay. Additionally the pressure for a club like Dortmund to get every single transfer right has taken its toll on Klopp which is dissapointing to see. This season he has looked lost at times, not knowing what to do with a squad which is easily in the top 3 in the Bundesliga, such is the pressure to continually succeed. I fear the same will soon happen to Diego Simeone and Atletico Madrid, a club of similar size and stature battling with clubs far more wealthy.

It’s a damning predicament football finds itself in where by clubs like the Dortmund’s and Atletico’s of this world can only sustain success for 1-2 years for financial reasons, rather than footballing. 

5 reasons Brendan Rodgers is still the right man for the Liverpool Job

As we build up to tonight’s FA Cup replay against Blackburn Rovers, there has been more and more naïve Liverpool fans calling for Brendan Rodgers’ head should we lose the game, following our last two results. The same fans that were praising him for our turnaround little more than a month ago, such is the modern fickle fan. This in my opinion is absurd. For me, even if we lose tonight’s match at Ewood Park he is still the right man to take the club forward, and here are 5 reasons why.

1)      Last season’s success

Granted, we didn’t win a trophy or win the league but had you offered most fans second place at the start of the season, they would’ve bitten your hand off. Even if the end of the season was a bit of an anti-climax, the sumptuous style of play Rodgers had created was fantastic to watch and scoring over 100 league goals was testament to that. Unfortunately we haven’t reached those heights this season, however it took two seasons to mount a serious title challenge and having bought a near whole new team last summer following the departure of Luis Suarez, it was always going to take time for everyone to gel. Next season has the potential to be as spectacular as Brendan’s second year in charge, providing he buys well in the summer and keeps our best players.

2)      Development of players

Rodgers has proved in nearly three years at the club that he is a fantastic coach, having developed the likes of Raheem Sterling, Phillipe Coutinho and Daniel Strurridge. All these players of course had undoubted talent but under the tuition of Rodgers have kicked on to the next level, or in Sterling’s case, many levels. He has also developed a player who was heavily criticised in the early stages of his Liverpool career, Jordan Henderson, into a player who is being talked about as the heir to Gerrard’s Anfield throne. Other players such as Martin Skrtel, John Flanagan and Mamadou Sakho also deserve a mention as they have also developed massively since Rodgers taking charge, or since buying them.  If he can sustain the number of players developing and continue to do so, there is no doubt he is the right man for the job.

3)      Trust in Youth

One of the main things that has impressed me about Rodgers since taking over The Reds is the level of trust he places in youth players. Liverpool are a club well known for their youth academy over the years having produced the likes of Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher and Robbie Fowler. However, since the likes of Gerrard and Owen, there hadn’t been a really successful academy graduate until Sterling (if he counts) and since then, Flanagan and Jordon Ibe. Of course Flanagan and Ibe haven’t achieved anything yet but the potential is there. So it’s nice to see a young manager trusting young players, so much so that youngster Jordan Williams has been on the bench for many games this season. What particularly encourages me for the future is decisions like he made with Ibe, a young player playing well on loan in a position we needed depth in, so instead of buying, Rodgers recalled Ibe which has been fully justified having excelled in most games he’s played since returning.  The rate of academy graduates appearing in the first team has without doubt increased since Rodgers took over and is another reason I think he should stay.

4)      He’s tactically astute

Now, I’m going to be the first to admit that Rodgers has made tactical errors in the past, as I’m sure he would admit himself, but on the whole he’s excelled. Particularly during the tail end of last season where game by game he would create a plan and tweak the system appropriate for our opponents, using a combination of different formations and styles. This season as well, he managed to turn around a frankly disastrous start to the season where the team couldn’t defend into a solid unit and renewed aspirations for Champions League football. Obviously this is looking distant now but the fact he turned it round to go unbeaten for 3 months is testament to his tactical acumen and coaching. I fully believe he will only improve in this area as he’s obviously a fast learner, and his decisions in the big games will become better. He is, in my opinion, one of the best man managers in the country and is extremely bright which is why he should without doubt keep his job.

5)      Still young and learning

On top of all that’s been said, he’s still young for a manager at 42 and is still learning his trade. Every manager makes mistakes, Sir Alex Ferguson didn’t win anything for the first six years of his reign at Man United. Jose Mourinho has often got it wrong and it’s well documented that Arsene Wenger has got it wrong on many occasions. That being said, for a young manager he has done remarkably well in his first big job, no disrespect to Swansea or the other clubs he’s managed. Dealing with the added pressure with calmness and dignity, I believe he will become a world class manager and Liverpool would be foolish to get rid of him, contrary to some of the idiots that think otherwise.

Raheem Sterling and his agent - offer them what they want or cut our losses?

The infamous interview

Raheem Sterling has received a large amount of media attention surrounding contract issues and the will he, won’t he sign debacle has perpetuated, particularly in the last few days having given an interview around the subject for the BBC. I wrote back in March about the importance of keeping Sterling and my opinion hasn't changed – although a different perspective is required.

In the interview he was quoted saying ‘I’m not a money grabbing 20 year old’ which on the face of it is hard to believe if reports are true that he’s turned down a £100,000 contract offer. But if it’s not money, what is it preventing him signing a new deal?

Reports from inside the club have repeatedly stated that he wants to wait until the end of the season before making a decision about his future, so why is there a constant media buzz surrounding the issue? Apart from the interview, it’s his agent.

I’m not afraid to say that agents are completely ruining football. Extortionate fees, inflated prices, constant unsettling of players are just some of the consequences of agents. The term ‘money grabbing’ is much more suited to this group of leechers. They don’t care about football or player’s wellbeing, as long as they get a fat pay check at the end of the day, they’re happy. And it’s sad to see that they have such an influence over football.

Sterling’s agent is deliberately stirring things up in the media in the hope of his client receiving more money from a new contract, resulting in more money for himself. If this fails, other clubs will be monitoring the situation ready to take advantage of Liverpool’s dithering by paying a huge fee, from which his agent will profit from too. It wasn't Sterling’s idea to do the interview; it was a poorly advised decision from his agent hoping to squeeze every single drop of publicity out of the saga, which in turn will increase Sterling’s price.

I still maintain that we should try and do everything we can to keep Sterling, one of the biggest talents in world football, but if we could get £60m for him, that would be a tempting proposition for the club. Considering he will have 2 years left on his contact this summer, his value will probably start to fall if we keep him, even at his rate of development with pressures of losing him for free.

Having said this, Rodgers knows best and we have to trust him that he will make the best decision for the club. I think either way the fans will back the outcome.