Midlands early season gloom continues

THE bottom end of the Premier League is currently dominated by the Midlands, that area of England often overlooked when it comes to the battle for major honours. Leicester City have provided the most glorious moments in recent years, winning the Premier in 2016 and FA Cup in 2021, as well as enjoying a decent Champions League run in 2016-17. But this season, Leicester are struggling and sit one place off the foot of the table. Moreover, their manager, Brendan Rodgers, has been under pressure after some disappointing performances.

Leicester’s 2016 title win was a remarkable achievement, but such is the nature of the Premier League, it was always going to be difficult to live up to, especially as they lost some key players from that team in the immediate aftermath. Leicester had to wait for five years for their next taste of glory, winning the FA Cup for the first time after a history of near-misses in the competition. Leicester’s Premier triumph was a one-off, a moment in time when a team of journeymen produced a series of outstanding results, combining a strong team ethic with the element of surprise. It had happened before in football, notably in 1955 and 1962 with Chelsea and Ipswich Town respectively. To some extent, Nottingham Forest in 1978 was another case of unexpected over-achievement.

It was widely believed that Leicester would fill the place vacated by Arsenal and Tottenham in the race for Champions League qualification. For two seasons, they finished fifth, but they tailed-off in 2021-22, finishing eighth. While they lost ground, the two north London sides regrouped and are stronger than they were in 2020. Leicester have effectively lost the initiative.

The Foxes went into the 2022-23 season with a degree of uncertainty hanging over them. Their owner, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, was badly affected by the pandemic owing to the near collapse of all tourism, and Rodgers was unable to trigger a squad rebuilding programme. The sale of Wesley Fofana for

£ 70 million to Chelsea looked like some form of desperate measure. The pandemic was tough on Leicester and they lost over £ 100 million across the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. At the same time, the club’s wage bill reached a record £ 192 million, 85% of income. In 2019-20, with revenues down to £ 150 million, the wage-to-income ratio was actually over 100%.

Leicester began the season dreadfully and have still only won one game. They still have plenty of talent in their squad and it is difficult to see them staying in the relegation zone. But there may be sacrifices before they begin to seriously recover.

Leicester’s only win in the Premier so far was against fellow midlanders Nottingham Forest, an emphatic 4-0 victory at home. Forest are bottom of the league and have struggled to acclimatise after winning promotion. Away from home, they have scored once in five games. It was always going to be tough for the club after such a long time out of the top flight and even though they spent £ 145 million on new players, some of whom seem a little over-priced.  There was talk of Forest replacing their manager, Steve Cooper, who had been widely praised for getting the club back to the Premier League. However, at the start of October, Cooper signed a new contract that keeps him at the City Ground until 2025. Such a move underlines the long-term view being taken by Forest’s owner Evangelos Marinakis but football can be a fickle game. Clearly, the blame for Forest’s start to the season is being directed elsewhere and there were reports that Marinakis was looking to dispose of the people behind the club’s summer recruitment programme.

If Cooper appears to have been given time to get things right, there are growing fears for the immediate future of Aston Villa coach Steven Gerrard. Villa under Gerrard have failed to impress, his 37 games have yielded a win rate of 32% and they have scored an average of 0.55 goals per game. This is the record of a manager sitting in a very precarious seat. Many Villa fans have turned against Gerrard, which must be a big blow to a manager that probably has his eyes on the job at Liverpool in the not-too-distant future.

Villa remain a big club and their average gate of 41,500 this season highlights their huge potential. In fact, the city of Birmingham is grossly under-represented in English football’s upper echelons. It is hard for them to compete with the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool, but Villa should be better off than they are at the moment. Their revenues for 2020-21 totalled £ 183.6 million, which represents a mid-table position among their Premier League peers. One area that needs looking at is the club’s relatively poor record of generating profits from player sales. In 2020-21, for example, they made just £ 1.4 million. They made an overall pre-tax loss of £ 37.3 million and they have consistently lost money on a seasonal basis. But they have a low level of debt compared to many clubs. Although nobody would surely entertain it, creating a super club in England’s second biggest city may only be possible through merging Villa with their rivals Birmingham.

Wolverhampton Wanderers have found themselves on the downside of a cycle this season. After two seasons finishing seventh in the Premier, their last two campaigns have been less successful and in 2021-22, they were 10th. They lost their highly-rated and popular manager, Nuno Espirito Santo, to Tottenham and have just sacked his replacement, Bruno Lage. While Wolves said farewell to their coach with compliments aplenty, the decline at Molineux dates back to last season. In their last 14 games of 2021-22, they lost nine and looked quite ragged in the final weeks.

They have yet to replace Lage, but Nuno Espirito Santo has been named among a list of possibles. Like Villa, Wolves have the potential to be European contenders. They made a healthy profit in 2020-21 of £ 144.9 million, but their accounts did include an exceptional item of £ 126.5 million, which represented a waiver of debt owed to the club’s Chinese owners, Fosun International.    

How much of the current malaise afflicting midlands football can be attributed to the financial impact of the pandemic? Arguably very little as over the past decade, only three top six placings have been achieved by the region’s clubs, all by Leicester City. Most of the “big six” clubs in the Premier saw their revenues fall between 2019 and 2021, although Manchester City’s actually experienced an increase of 6%. Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham saw their income drop by around 20%, while Chelsea and Liverpool’s earnings dropped far less. Conversely, Aston Villa’s revenues went up from £ 55 million to £ 184 million, due to promotion, but Wolves and Leicester enjoyed rises of 13% and 26% respectively.

Football has always been a cyclical game, with teams building, peaking and declining in a relatively short space of time. The polarised modern game has created clubs that are almost immune to such cycles. Hence, it is hard, almost impossible, to break into the top bracket. Certainly the gap is daunting – since Leicester won the Premier in 2016, the margin between the league champions and the midlands’ top club has been 38 points, more than 12 wins’ worth of points.

The power in English football can be found in London, Manchester and Liverpool. In terms of population, these are three of the top five cities in England. Birmingham is the only city with more than one million people outside of London and it is the second highest city by gross value added. London may have more clubs, but Birmingham has one eighth of the population. Leicester is in the top 10 of cities by population.

There are clubs outside the Premier who might claim they deserve a crack at Premier League football – Stoke City, Birmingham City, West Bromwich Albion and Derby County are all names that have rubbed shoulders with the very best. At the moment, the Midlands hopes rest with Wolves, Villa and Leicester, but the problem is, they may forever be in the shadow of the “big six”. It would be nice to think that might change, but at the end of the day, it is all about money and the clubs from the heart of the game’s roots are trailing behind the standard bearers of corporate football.

Everton, Leeds, Villa and Sunderland – all went close to winning football’s hallowed double

WHEN Arsenal won the double in 1970-71, it was the first time since Tottenham’s much heralded success of 1960-61. Everyone thought it was an astonishing achievement, yet it was only a decade after their North London rivals had swept up the major prizes. Prior to Bill Nicholson’s side winning

the double, you had to go back to 1896-97 (Aston Villa) and 1888-89 (Preston North End). It was popularly considered to be impossible to win both the premier prizes on offer.

Today we live in an age where the top sides want to win everything. But a leading club’s priorities don’t generally include the FA Cup – the Premier and Champions League qualification are the prizes that will be one and two on the “to do” list at the top clubs. The FA Cup and Football League Cup – wrongly – are consolation prizes. In the days when Tottenham and Arsenal earned their place in football folklore, success in Europe was a little bit of icing on the cake. The Football League and FA Cup, the everyday “bread and butter” competitions, were how managers and players were largely judged.

The creation of a group of “super clubs” has meant that winning a double is no longer out of the question. When you chase one prize, you go after two and when you position yourself nicely for two, you start to think about three or four. But you can aim for whatever you like and end up with nothing, as most clubs have found out.

Doubles started to become commonplace in the 1990s and early 2000s. The Double has been achieved 12 times, seven since Arsenal’s dramatic 1971 triumph: 1888-89: Preston North End; 1896-97: Aston Villa; 1960-61: Tottenham Hotspur; 1970-71: Arsenal; 1985-86: Liverpool; 1993-94: Manchester United; 1995-96: Manchester United; 1997-98: Arsenal; 1998-99: Manchester United; 2001-02: Arsenal; 2009-10: Chelsea; 2018-19: Manchester City.

Trbles of any kind are even rarer. The only time a domestic treble has been achieved was in 2018-19 when Manchester City were champions, FA Cup winners and Football League Cup winners. Manchester United pulled off the treble of League, Cup and Champions League in 1998-99. Liverpool have won two trebles, in 2000-01 (League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup) and in 1983-84, the League, League Cup and European Cup.

There have been many near-misses, where a club has won one trophy and finished runners-up in another, or even finished runners-up in both.

1903-04: Manchester City – FA Cup Winners and Football League Runners-up
Newly-promoted City beat Bolton Wanderers 1-0 in the cup final thanks to a Billy Meredith goal. They finished three points behind The Wednesday in the league, despite being top in the final week.

1904-05: Newcastle United – Football League Champions and FA Cup Runners-up
Newcastle won the title by a single point, but went into Easter a point behind Everton and finished with a flourish. Two weeks before clinching the title, they lost the cup final 2-0 to Aston Villa, after beating them by the same scoreline in the league a week earlier.

1912-13: Sunderland – Football League Champions and FA Cup Runners-up/1912-13: Aston Villa – FA Cup Winners and Football League Runners-up
Sunderland Villa were neck-and-neck all season and shared the honours in 1913. Sunderland ended with a 10-game unbeaten run, including a 1-1 draw at Villa Park that all but won them the title. A few days earlier, Villa had won a rough house cup final 1-0 at Crystal Palace in front of 121,000 people.

1947-48: Manchester United – FA Cup Winners and Football League Runners-up
United finished seven points behind champions Arsenal in the league, but won the FA Cup, beating Blackpool in the final by 4-2 in an exciting 90 minutes. United beat six first division sides to win the competition, one of the toughest roads to Wembley.

1953-54: West Bromwich Albion – FA Cup Winners and Football League Runners-up
A goal three minutes from time from Frank Griffin gave Albion a 3-2 victory in the FA Cup final against Preston. In the league, they finished just three points behind Black Country rivals Wolves. Albion’s team, which included the likes of Ronnie Allen, started the season well and were unbeaten in nine games, but ended the campaign indifferently.

1956-57: Manchester United – Football League Champions and FA Cup Runners-up
The “Busby Babes”, who won the league title by eight points, scoring 103 goals, were denied the double by an Aston Villa side who finished mid-table. In the FA Cup final, United goalkeeper Ray Wood was injured and Jackie Blanchflower took over in goal. Villa went two-up through Peter McParland and United’s only response came late on from Tommy Taylor, one of the Babes who perished in Munich.

1959-60: Wolverhampton Wanderers – FA Cup Winners and Football League Runners-up
Wolves lost the league title they had won in the two previous seasons to Burnley by just a single point, scoring 106 goals. In the Cup Final y, Wolves crushed Blackburn Rovers 3-0 in a bad tempered game remembered for the loutish behaviour of the crowd, who showered Wolves in rubbish as they went off the field.

1971-72: Leeds United – FA Cup Winners and Football League Runners-up
These were the days when Leeds were challenging for everything. They won the FA Cup by beating old rivals Arsenal 1-0, Allan Clarke scoring the goal. Two days later, they travelled to Wolves in the final game of the campaign needing a point to clinch the double. They lost 2-1 and Derby won the title. “I’m as sick as a pig,” said centre-half Jackie Charlton.

1973-74: Liverpool – FA Cup Winners and Football League Runners-up
Liverpool were always second best to Leeds in the title race in 1973-74 and finished five points off of top spot. But they easily won the FA Cup when they crushed Newcastle 3-0, two goals coming from Kevin Keegan and one from Steve Heighway. It proved to be Bill Shankly’s final triumph with Liverpool.

1976-77: Liverpool – Football League Champions and FA Cup Runners-up
“Pack up your trebles” said the banner at Wembley as Liverpool tried to add the FA Cup to their league title win. Champions by a point from Manchester City, the Reds lost 2-1 to Manchester United, but a few days later, won the European Cup. No treble, but not a bad season!

1984-85: Everton – Football League Champions and FA Cup Runners-up
Howard Kendall’s young team emphatically won the title by a 13-point margin over Mersey rivals Liverpool. They were unlucky in the FA Cup, losing to 10-man Manchester United by an extra-time goal. Everton also won the European Cup Winners-Cup.

1987-88: Liverpool – Football League Champions and FA Cup Runners-up
This was the Liverpool team of Barnes-Aldridge-Beardsley, playing some of the best football of modern times. They lost just twice in the league and won the title by a nine point margin over Manchester United. The Cup Final produced one of the greatest shocks of all time, Wimbledon’s “Crazy Gang” winning 1-0 with goalkeeper Dave Beasant saving a penalty from Aldridge.

1988-89: Liverpool – FA Cup Winners and Football League Runners-up
Another great story unfolded at the end of the 1988-89 season. Liverpool won the FA Cup in an emotional Merseyside final, beating Everton 3-2. They were seconds away from winning the double when Arsenal scored right at the death through Michael Thomas to win 2-0 at Anfield and take the title back to London. It was one of those nights when you cheered, regardless of your allegiance (Tottenham fans excluded).

2002-03: Arsenal – FA Cup Winners and Premier Runners-up
Arsenal were five points off retaining their title, coming in second to Manchester United. In the FA Cup, they beat Southampton 1-0 in Cardiff, goalscorer Robert Pires.

2004-05: Arsenal – FA Cup Winners and Premier Runners-up
Arsenal won a dire FA Cup final on penalties against Manchester United. They were left trailing behind by 12 points in the Premier, Chelsea taking over from the “Invincibles”.

2006-07: Manchester United – Premier Champions and FA Cup Runners-up/2006-07: Chelsea – FA Cup Winners and Premier Runners-up
Chelsea lost the crown they had worn for the past two seasons to United, who finished six points ahead of Jose Mourinho’s team. But Chelsea won the first FA Cup final at the new Wembley in a lack lustre contest, Didier Drogba scoring the only goal in extra time to beat United.

2016-17: Chelsea – Premier Champions and FA Cup Runners-up
Chelsea were denied the double by Arsenal in the FA Cup final, Wenger winning his last trophy as manager of the Gunners. In the League, Antonio Conte won the title in his first season as manager of Chelsea.

Runners-up in both competitions
1927-28: Huddersfield Town – Runners-up in both Football League and FA Cup
1931-32: Arsenal – Runners-up in both Football League and FA Cup
1938-39: Wolverhampton Wanderers – Runners-up in both Football League and FA Cup
1961-62: Burnley – Runners-up in both Football League and FA Cup
1964-65: Leeds United – Runners-up in both Football League and FA Cup
1969-70: Leeds United – Runners-up in both Football League and FA Cup
1985-86: Everton – Runners-up in both Football League and FA Cup
1994-95: Manchester United – Runners-up in both Premier and FA Cup
2000-01: Arsenal – Runners-up in both Premier and FA Cup
2012-13: Manchester City – Runners-up in both Football League and FA Cup
2017-18: Manchester United – Runners-up in both Football League and FA Cup.

Photo: PA