Big Six blow away hopes of level Premier League playing field
TOP clubs are back in charge of Premier League after responding in decisive fashion to the shock to the system provided by Leicester’s triumph last season.
In August 2015, Jose Mourinho spoke at the launch of the new season at Southfields Academy in south-west London and put forward his theory that the Premier League had changed forever.
“Every club has very good players, so I think it’s difficult for the top teams in England because of the competitive natu Mourinho told reporters hanging on his every word.
“It’s also difficult because they [the other clubs] have players who could play in our teams – [Yohan] Cabaye could play for Chelsea; what’s the doubt? [Georginio] Wijnaldum [then at Newcastle United] could play for Chelsea, what’s the doubt? [Max] Gradel could play for Chelsea, what’s the doubt?” A few months later, and no one doubted. Mourinho had begun the season as the manager of Chelsea, the champions, but was out before Christmas as, gloriously, Leicester City took the title by 10 points and we all did start to believe that there was something happening. That, in fact, the Premier League had changed forever as Mourinho had claimed.
Other managers, and clubs, also believed. Or said they did. Slaven Bilic, Mark Hughes, Roberto Martínez. They all said it. The league had changed.
The latest, stupendous television deals had created a more level playing field — everyone had spending power and there were only so many good players the big clubs could buy, while the real superstars, the likes of Lionel Messi, could not be lured to England to make that extra difference.
“You can’t buy Messis, there are not plenty of them,” Bilic said. “They [the big clubs] already have 15 good ones; they can’t buy 30 [players]. There is no space. Clubs like us [West Ham], you had some positions that were not so good, they were OK, let’s say, but the gap was big. Now with this money, the gap is closer.”
Of course the big clubs were still better, Bilic added, but the gap was not so daunting. Midway through this season, however, that gap appears to be a gulf; almost wider than ever, in fact.
The top six are away and so much better than the rest. There is no sense that they can be caught or even competed against and the likelihood is that the mini-league will only pull further and further out on its own, out of sight, as the season progresses.
So what happened? Well, for a start the “big six” did the obvious. They spent a lot of money. The biggest spenders last summer? From one to six it was City then United followed by Chelsea, Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool.
But no one signed Messi. What they did, instead, was sign, or back, the men who were good enough to manage Messi: in came Antonio Conte and Pep Guardiola with Mourinho returning to add to a stellar touchline cast-list of Jürgen Klopp, Mauricio Pochettino and Arsene Wenger; the Messis of management, if you like.
Leicester’s triumph looks like what we all feared but hoped was not true: a one-off. It is even harder than ever to see it happening again, and not least because those big clubs have had their shock and are now forewarned. — The Daily Telegraph