The English game has changed somewhat since the Premier League came into its own way back in 1992 – just ask your parents, or your grandparents, they will tell you: “football wasn’t like this back in my day.” The modern day game sees a club play more foreign players than home-grown, and owners who are mega-rich, Arabian oil-tycoons who fancied making an extra buck or two. But has the game really changed that much? Has the foreign invasion cost English football its history?
It all sounds very dramatic, I know. But consider this – how much about the game do you really know pre Premier League? I could go a step further. Roman Abramovich started the trend of foreign owners taking over clubs in 2003. How much do we know about the Premier League before it became a rich person’s playground? I know that my memory is certainly blurred. It’s taken me many a visit to the Premier League’s website to find out who the first million pound man was, or how many clubs actually took part in the inaugural Premier League season, for example. Just so you know, it was Trevor Francis in 1979 and 22 clubs. Yes, you could put this down to age, or another reason could be that football is a lot more interesting now teams like Chelsea can go and buy someone for £50 million in the middle of the season, just because they’ve hit a bit of a sticky patch. Thanks to the amount of money being passed around and our savvy British media, you could be forgiven for thinking football before the Premier League was a bit, dare I say it, boring?
I may have just startled you with such a statement and, of course, I’m well aware that football has never been boring – despite what my other half may think. My point is that if it hasn’t happened already, we are in danger of losing the history of the game because we have become so obsessed with who Man City will next spend their £100 million on to ensure Champions League qualification.
We are reminded very rarely of better days when the FA Cup swings around. Each year we are treated to clichés such as ‘the magic of the FA Cup’ or ‘a classic David Vs Goliath cup tie’. But in the modern day, what really happens? The big sides field weaker teams, struggle against a team thriving off spirit, belief and adrenaline, but then eventually avoid any ‘magical FA Cup upsets’ by throwing on their latest multi-million pound recruit and buying their way out of trouble. Please see Southampton v Man United and Notts County v Man City as proof. Whatever happened to the good old days of Ronnie Radford? Actually, scrap that. Who remembers Ronnie Radford?
Foreign owners have identified a business, and a lucrative one at that. They saw an opportunity to plough money into a project and potentially make even more from it, with the chance of a bit of fame thrown in, should their team win trophies along the way. In doing so, they’ve turned football from an entertaining game into a business or a project where the rich get richer and the rest suffer at the hands of it.
Does the transfer window keep us on our toes? Yes, but the likes of Fernando Torres leaving Liverpool for their league rivals half way through the season for £50 million makes a mockery of the old-school and the way football used to be.
The history of the game could be lost amongst foreign owners and their new hobby. Blackburn Rovers now have new owners who want success, so if that comes in 10 years time, will the new group of fans who seem to materialise when clubs become champions, remember just how good their club’s 1995 Premier League champions really were? I wouldn’t put money on it. I’m only 22, and football certainly wasn’t like this in my day.