WHEN BAYER Leverkusen’s Bundesliga is finally confirmed, they will be the first new title winners in Germany since 2009. It will also end the jibe that Leverkusen should be referred to as “never-kusen” due to their lack of honours. A sizeable club, they have been an underachiever, just as teams like Chelsea and Manchester City were before they started to benefit from massive investment from new owners.
In the long history of English football, there have been just 24 league champions. Leicester City’s 2015-16 victory represented the first new winner since 1978 when Nottingham Forest won their only league title. This was the longest stretch – 38 years – without a new champion, but also suggested the big clubs have enjoyed their status for a very long time.
English football has invariably been dominated by “clubs of the moment”. In the late 19th century, Aston Villa and Sunderland were the top dogs, while a little later, Newcastle United were marvellously consistent in league and cup. After the great war, Huddersfield Town and Arsenal prospered from having Herbert Chapman at the helm. Arsenal won five championships and two FA Cups in the 1930s, Huddersfield Town won three in the 1920s. Post-war, Manchester United, Liverpool and Everton, not to mention Leeds United made the north a footballing powerhouse. There were brief interludes when teams like Wolves, Tottenham and Burnley rose to the top. Liverpool’s golden age ran from the mid-1970s to 1990 and then the baton was handed over, reluctantly, to Manchester United. Chelsea and Arsenal at the start of the 2000s before Manchester City bedded in for their current run of success.
But what of the teams that have never won the league? Obviously size brings certain advantages, such as support, money and influence, but are there some large clubs still waiting to feel the euphoria of victory?
Of the current 92 in the Premier and EFL, just under half have never won a major trophy (League, League Cup, FA Cup and European). The “big six” have won 188 top prizes between them. The last surprise winners were Wigan Athletic in the 2013 FA Cup final when they beat favourites Manchester City. Leicester City’s 2016 Premier win may have felt like a huge shock, arguably the biggest since Ipswich Town won the league in 1962, but this was a well constructed team that would earn Leicester a lot of money in the transfer market.
How do you evaluate the size of a club? Obviously money has everything to do with it, but in the eyes of football fans, a club has to earn its place in the hierarchy by constructing a credible history. That history goes towards determining the size and value of a club. Liverpool and Manchester United fans, for example, will always claim that both Chelsea and Manchester City haven’t got a history. They have – it was created every single day of their existence. What they did not have was a very successful history.
Liverpool entered the Football League in 1893 and won the league in 1901, Manchester United, in the guise of Newton Heath, were elected to the league in 1892 and hit the top in 1908. Their neighbours, Manchester City (as Ardwick) had to wait some 44 years before winning their first title. The London trio of Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham took 38, 43 and 50 years respectively. Before City and Chelsea were taken over, they had won three league championships between them (City 1937 and 1968, Chelsea 1955). However, it is worth noting that Liverpool won four trophies in their first 65 years, United won three in the same timeframe. Manchester City won three between 1880 and 1945 and Chelsea won four between 1905 (their formation) and 1971. History can be determined and classified in many ways.
Bill Shankly and Matt Busby were the catalysts for re-establishing their clubs as massive footballing institutions that could stand astride English football. While both clubs had their moments when they slipped from the pedestal, they were big enough to climb back sooner rather than later. Both clubs had long periods without a league title – United from 1967 to 1993, Liverpool 1990 to 2020 – but it was inevitable they would win again. Similarly, Arsenal are currently in their longest spell without a championship success since they started winning leagues in 1931. They have had long barren runs, such as from 1953 to 1971 and then from 1971 to 1989, but 2023-24 will be the 20th anniversary of their 2003-04 “Invincible” season. While Busby, Chapman, Bill Nicholson and Shankly transformed their clubs, the decisive change agents for Chelsea and Manchester City were their owners. More than ever, money talks in the game.
Of the current Premier League, 13 clubs have been crowned champions, winning 96 of the 124 competitions. Manchester, Liverpool and surrounding areas account for over half (64) with the Midlands, North East and Yorkshire contributing another 36. London, which didn’t produce a champion until 1931, has seen the top prize 21 times. It would seem only logical the biggest towns and cities would have the best chance of developing successful football clubs and for a long while, this was an accurate assumption.
Yet half a dozen of the 24 English champions have come from towns, although Derby, Preston and Wolverhampton were all given city status in later years. Needless to say, England’s biggest cities have consumed most trophies, although some have failed to make a sustainable impact.
How can the list of champions be added to? Leicester proved that with the right management, collection of players and astute transfer market activity, the unexpected can happen. But it was pre-Guardiola and the most recent phase of polarisation of the Premier League. There are well-run clubs that could successfully move to the next level, such as Brighton & Hove Albion, while new ownership and a far-sighted plan could take a club like Birmingham City to an unprecedented level.
And then there’s London, which still has room for another successful club. Arsenal and Chelsea have won plenty of prizes in the recent past, but Tottenham are another underperforming club on the field of play.
West Ham, with their big stadium and taste for Europe are no longer a 30,000 club, they have 60,000 people at every game. Their proximity to the heart of London commerce also gives them a certain cachet that could be leveraged to make West Ham a truly successful outfit. If any club could transform itself into an elite force, it might just be the Hammers.
There is also Middlesbrough, a club that has rarely punched its weight among the big time. The North-East has, for decades, proclaimed it is a hotbed of football, but that argument has been severely diluted over the past 50 years. Middlesbrough have won just one trophy and have been in Europe twice, reaching the final of the UEFA Cup in 2006. They have a decent stadium, good support and a certain stability. They have some of the ingredients to become a much bigger club, but can they attract the sort of investment they would need to climb the ladder?
It would be nice to think that another fairytale could light up the football season, but it is getting more and more unlikely. A club with aspirations has to have a mix of sound investment, credible owners, a good stadium with a scalable fanbase, strong business partners and a recruitment regime that earns money on an annual basis. It also has to have regular income from European football. Get all of those things right and you might be in with a chance. At some point, somebody at these clubs will discover the secret of success.
GAME OF THE PEOPLE 