Football in the Dark Ages
clubs, with the possible exception of Gulf-owned Manchester City, failed miserably in their efforts to strengthen the business. If these had been regular FTSE-quoted companies the chairman and independent directors would have lost patience with the chief executives long ago. A failed transfer bid is the equivalent of poorly executed merger and the boss concerned would be out on their ear.
Instead of strengthening the hands of the big six — Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur — the surging amounts of income has left them befuddled on and off the pitch. More scrupulously managed lesser clubs, such as Leicester, Swansea and Crystal Palace, are demonstrating that frugal, intelligent management works on and off the field of play.
The prize for managerial blundering must go to Manchester United’s chief executive, Ed Woodward. Putting to one side whether or not the club could have done with an extra centre forward, as backup for England captain Wayne Rooney, the confusion surrounding the transfer of goalkeeper David de Gea affair was sheer farce.
It was myopic of Man U not to have agreed a sale price to Real Madrid until the very last transfer deadline day, when the bones of the deal were known weeks earlier. But the genuine disgrace was not to have the legal documents ready, signed and dispatched electronically before the deadline. Even the most laid-back country solicitor knows the importance of having all the documentation together for a house sale on the date set for completion.
At Chelsea, coach José Mourinho, often described by the football writers as a “managerial genius”, has shown he has a grasp of human resources as shallow as Jeremy Corbyn’s knowledge of the Middle Chaos: but Roman Abramovich (pictured with his son Aaron) has used his financial muscle to bring Chelsea stability