KEVIN KEEGAN, The role of a manager and FOOTBALL in general

[Guest]

KEVIN KEEGAN, The role of a manager and FOOTBALL in general

The September 1st transfer deadline was remarkable in the amount of money paid out on transfers. The amazing takeover of Manchester City by Abu Dhabi United who are apparently worth trillions and then the Keegan debacle.

There are a number of issues here. The rich men of the world have gradually taken over our great game leaving many of the clubs deeply in debt. It also rings the death nell of the England football team as we know it as foreign owned clubs have absolutely no interest in England whatsoever only what fun they can have in playing with our national sport until they become fed up or decide it wasn;t such good busness sense after all.

This takes me to the Keegan affair. Newcastle are past masters at shooting themselves in the foot. Personally poor old Kevin is well past his sell by date. But I do feel sorry for him. Unfortunately the club controlled by its beer swigging chairman decided to employ two Chief Executives to oversee and decide what players they want to transfer in. Keegan had no say in the matter.

Take young Milner, Keegan wanted to build his team around the lad and before he knows it the player is off to Aston Villa, sold from under his feet. Newcastle are being smart, they don’t want to be seen to sack Keegan but it is pretty obvious they don’t want to be vilified by their fans by doing just that. They want Keegan to blow a fuse and resign followed by a big sweetener to keep his mouth shut.

I expect Alex Ferguson can’t wait to get out of the game. He runs Manchester United Football Club just like O’Neill does at Aston Villa. The bosses or owners are there to give every support, assistance and encouragement to the manager, not to tell managers what to do and how to do it. If he fails then they can sack him and that is their right. We have been entering a period where the owners want to pick the team and buy the players because they think they know best. They will I’m afraid learn the hard way.

So what is going on with our great game? Football clubs are now classed as good business deals, or even the plaything of the rich. Managers are not managers anymore especially when they have to manage players they have not picked or transferred in, but if they fail then they and not the owners are discarded with a big pay off.

Alan Curbishley has now left West Ham United. The guy wins two of his first three games but then has to see Anton Ferdinand and George McCartney sold by the club to Sunderland. How can a manager build a team when others decide they know best because of money.

Take transfer fees and salaries. Paying £30 million or so for a player is more than obscene, it is even worse when it comes to wages. Many Premier Division players receive in excess of £5 million a year. This has a knock on effect as you go down the leagues. People criticise Plymouth Argyle for not spending the dosh they clearly have not got for championship reserve team players who are earning half a million pounds or more playing for the stiffs.

The game has gone barmy. There is no loyalty or morality left in the game and neither the Premier League, Football League or indeed the Government are prepared to do anything about it. We are in a recession and likely to be for the next two years. Who is going to pay for the massive entrance fees anymore. You only have to see the mass of empty seats on show when a Sky game is being televised. Why go to a match when you can watch it on TV. I think the Argyle take for their televised match against Swansea was £60,000. That is the equivalent of about 2,500 paying fans. That has to go down as a financial loss to Argyle.

We talk about the obscene wages paid to players, many of whom can retire now if they want to and live a wealthy lifestyle outside the game. But fans as daft as they are can only look at who is going to plough the most money into their clubs. If it fails blame them and wait for new suckers to come in to spend their millions.

What people don’t’ seem to understand is that it is very difficult for a club to have its natural fans at the games. You take any London club and it costs a fortune to watch their matches. The average fan who once supported the club just cannot afford it. They are still fans, but unless they shell out the money they cannot watch their local team play. Again we go back to Argyle. What is it now £26 on the day minimum, that is a lot of money for fans down here and quite rightly they wont pay it unless Argyle are being successful. Bit of a chicken and egg really.

At the end of the day there is only going to be one club who will win the Premier League, another to win the FA Cup and four teams who can reach the European Championship. Unless fans wake up and smell the coffee and realise that the rest are just going to be also rans they are just being asked to shell out more money to watch what will be described ass failures.

[Coopsie]

Good and fair post BUT in all fairness to the Newcastle owners, Milner did put in a transfer request. What were they to do, end up with another Berbatov on their hands?.

[Guest]

I agree, I expect Milner was unhappy because of the problem of who does actually run Newcastle United. The geordies are past masters at putting their foot in their mouths. in fairness Keegan was accident waiting to happen, its no use saying attack, attack there is also a defensive strategy to the giame which he has never addressed.

[Guest]

Keegan has now joined Curbishley by resigning with the exact same reason. Clubs deciding that they know best and they know what players they wany irrespective of what the manager is trying to do. What is hapopening to our ever diminishing list of premier Division English or even British managers. What is happening to the nations home grown young talent who are continually being pushed aside by the influx of foreign players.

Mark Hughes didn't have a clue that Robinho was coming to Eastlands. There are to many foreign owners who think they are football managers and know virtually zilch about the game.

I thought people would like to come on here to offer constructive argument either for or against the opoints raised.

Lets get one thing perfectly clear. The only reason owners are pooring in money is simply because of television. Without television top class football in this country cannot survive.

[Guest]

And Mark Hughes has been told he has total control over football matters at Man City. Yeh right!!!!!!!!!