‘Prem mega-deals may soon be over’
THE days of bumper Premier League TV deals could be at an end.
That’s the view of a leading sports business expert, and it comes in a month when the Premier League is expected to announce its next broadcast rights package.
The last time they did that, the elite of the English game were celebrating their slice of a whopping £5.1billion deal.
Although that figure is expected to increase again, the amount paid per game is anticipated to drop beneath the current level of £10.2million.
“We’re going to see an increase of around 20 per cent,” said Rob Wilson, principal lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. “BT Sport and Sky will be in communication with each other to ensure that they don’t overspend as they did last time.
“We’ve seen subscription charges go up and subscription numbers reduce. So, when you put all of that together, you’re looking at a more marginal increase, as opposed to the 70 per cent rise we saw last time.
“I think growth rate will slow, the days of 70 per cent hikes have gone.”
The Kop kings – once England’s most successful club – have lifted just one League Cup in the last 12 years.
And, after being knocked out of the FA Cup by West Brom last week, Klopp has been left with a fight to claim a top-four Premier League finish and in the Champions League, where they face Porto in the last 16.
The Liverpool boss reckons it is time for a reality check – and insists that Anfield’s glorious history counts for nothing.
“Did Bill Shankly say what he did after one day? Did he say it after one year? Or did he say it when he was in the middle of his fantastic success?” were the three questions Klopp responded with, when asked how tough it has been for him to work with the mantra of his club’s most iconic manager.
“I am sure Shankly didn’t say it after one day or one year. “The fantastic success he had was when you had a team that stayed together and got better together.
“That’s a good situation, a fantastic manager, an outstanding club, a football-crazy city – just go. But we cannot compare those times with these times.
“If you could bring Bill Shankly back into the club now and ask him, ‘Are you happy with fourth?’, I think that, because he was a fantastic football manager, he would have seen that this is the only way we can go.
“You need to do what we are doing to be in a position to win something one day.
“To just want it more desperately than other clubs doesn’t make it more likely to happen.
“You need to do all your homework and, when the time comes, you have to catch it.
“Bill would have seen that 100 per cent – unfortunately I never got to know him as a person and that’s really a shame because we are doing the same job.”
When Shankly arrived at Anfield in December 1959, Liverpool were in the old second division.
It took him four-and-ahalf years to transform them into the champions of England. When he retired a decade later, he left behind a club with a Boot Room philosophy that second place was nowhere. Klopp would certainly take second this season after seeing Manchester City turn the race into a procession.
Liverpool entertain Tottenham today in a clash that will shape both club’s ambitions of finishing with a top-four place.
And Klopp warned: “City are good – and unfortunately they can be even better next year.
“What we know is that the quality of all the teams will not drop next season. Everyone will be better. I don’t know where that’ll lead, but the league is about taking another step and we’ll then have to see who can have the same kind of run as City. Would a top-four finish be a success? I have to say I can’t see how that could not be the case. In a league like this, to finish in the top four you need 70-something points.
“That is unbelievable as you have to win everywhere. You can lose only maybe four games.
“In any other league in the world, with just four defeats, you finish either first or second. In England, you could be fifth.”
Bill would have seen that this is the only way we can go