by jonnymac1979 » Sat May 14, 2005 9:31 pm
This is an old post of mine on the matter.
Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger are both excellent and proven managers, of that there is no disputing.
I can just smell a New Order arriving with the young continental managers taking over. A new era. Three of the four managers in the finals of the main European competitions in 2004 were Mourinho, Benitez and Deschamps.
Manchester United had their day in the sun in the 90's and although an excellent side they appear to be in decline. When you hear stories emanating from the corridors of Old Trafford that they are complaining about Chelsea "buying the title", I can only laugh until my sides hurt at this remark.
So were they not the club who consistently broke British transfer records and regularly spent £10million plus; signing the likes of Keane, Cole, Yorke, Ferdinand, Rooney, Veron , Van Nistelrooy.
And they're the players they signed!!! How much would the ones they desperately wanted, but missed out on cost them in total combined? Namely Shearer, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho? Another £50 million plus?
I can carry on as well......Robben, Duff and even Steven Gerrard.
So they must learn to live with Chelsea's billions and realise there is now a bigger kid in the playground than them. Although still a very dangerous side on their day, for their own standards, their dominance is over. When they realise this themselves after their Golden generation has long gone and they have bought inadequate replacements (which Fergie's main lieutenant Roy Keane has already hinted that they believe this is the case already) they should self-destruct to a point where they can only sustain a limited challenge on the title much like Roy Evans' Liverpool sides of the mid 90's.
Arsenal can only fail to live up to their 'Invincibles' tag, much as like Real Madrid look anything but Galactic as of late.. It was an historic achievement to go a whole season undefeated and will be remembered for many years to come. It will be very difficult for a team to do that ever again. The great Liverpool sides never managed it. Even " boring, boring but very hard to beat Arsenal " when champions in 1990/91 were defeated once. Even Chelsea for all their qualities this season still lost at Manchester City. Patrick Vieira isn't looking the same player. Robert Pires has been hit and miss after two excellent back to back seasons. Bergkamp is still world class although not a first choice regular anymore. Their youngsters although a high standard, are not firing on all cylinders, barring Flamini, Fabregas and the Ashley Cole-lite Gael Clichy.
Lastly, some of their squad actually want away from Arsenal. There has been well documented interest in Ashley Cole from (who else?) Chelsea and Real Madrid and both Edu and Lauren look like they will be moving to the continent next season.
Chelsea and to a point Liverpool have been serial under-achievers over the last few years. We didn't build on our treble the way we should have, given the money Houllier was trusted with to spend on players; and Chelsea have always been the nearly-men. Counted amongst the big boys but never seriously looking like title winners.
Hopefully they still will always be the nearly men!!!!
But the only direction for Liverpool and Chelsea is upwards, and both teams finally have the managers to make this possible. It's time Liverpool stood up and were counted once again. Manchester United and Arsenal can keep their pathological rivalry to themselves; and while they are baiting each other in the press, they just might fail to see the two younger managers Benitez and Mourinho at Liverpool and Chelsea; and their teams casually run past them and take over at the summit of domestic football.
They, not Wenger and Ferguson, will be the new standard bearers for other managers to aspire to.