The issue with the Premiership has been one that has been about for a long damn time. It is a league that focuses more on profit and pimping its fans than showing and promoting quality football.
When you look at the new TV deal and the amount of cheddar fans are being charged to pay for a ticket, you have to just shudder. Then you wonder why the money is not being pumped into a development program for homegrown talents. Well, let us just say that they are a lot of people getting rich and they want to keep it that way.
Apart from Mourinho and the juju powers of Van Gaal, how many true tacticians exist in the Premiership? If you asked Wenger to spell tactics in English or French he would draw a camel. That is the sad reality and it is something I don't see changing soon due to the culture that exists in England and what they want to see with regards to football.
Mourinho has earned the right to bore his way to a draw or a 1-0. This is the winning game at the end if the day and My Boy has a record that you can't flip a switch at. But if a coach from the road who has won nothing comes and forces an English team to play a possession game predicated on being defensive and solid, the fans would not stand for it and would call for his brains to be spilled on the floor.
This mentality is what is holding the Premier League back. Because when you play on the continent, you must bring a tactical idea or ideas to the table and try and meet your opponent halfway with what they are doing. The high paced hitting the ball to the wings and crossing won't cut it. You may beat a small team but once you go deeper and are in the quarters or semi, that tactic will NOT work.
I do believe things are cyclical as is life. But things have a way of shocking you. It may be a case that the Premiership goes through a serious decline like what is happening in the Serie A where most teams are knocked out in the groups. City only made it through in the last match, but if Bayern had and should have beaten them....it would have been goodbye sweet prince.
Spare a thought for Mourinho. He has the same funding that City and probably United have but he
maintains a much higher benchmark and rarely ever gets embarrassed by teams and you can be sure, with him at the helm at Chelsea they will always be a threat.
Why?
Tactics and strategy.
HH
