Sunderland:
I think its best we talk about teams from worst to best in
the league so lets start with my hometown club up on the River Wear, Sunderland. Now we've
had time to come to terms with our demise, its easy to say this was a long time
coming and was a demise only delayed by papering over the cracks every year
with a new manager, so fundamentally different to his predecessors that it was
inevitable a squad assembled by almost a team of managers themselves over the
past 9 years or so, was always going to be fighting to keep its head above
water. So now we wave goodbye to the Premier League, I don’t think an
explanation nor a breakdown how this has happened will be necessary as,
Michael, will be doing plenty of that with The Roker Report in the coming weeks
! But silver linings, David Moyes has toddled off into the sunset which opens
the way for fresh ideas and finally after almost a decade of sub standard
players, a new team, the youth system we have can only flourish from the sudden
drop from the riches of the Premier League, with more play time on offer and
harder opposition than on offer from the u-23 leagues they currently try and
make their name in.
Grade 1/10
Middlesbrough
Just down the coast we
find Middlesbrough, finally back among the elite, after a hard final push the
previous year under a dark cloud of departures and mysterious returns, it was Aitor Karanka who lead the charge, well actually the stand and hold, of Boro
coming back to play top level football, but that’s exactly what they didn’t do,
play. I feel that the whole moment, the season itself, just passed them by. At the beginning of the season
I was astounded at the level of business Middlesbrough were doing, Champions League winners, Premier League winners, young players, all being
signed by this club in the north east. It showed great ambition, but this
ambition in players wasn’t shown by the manager through tactics on the pitch, still
content with holding the fort and hoping for a last minute goal up the other
end is a dangerous task to try and pull off in the world elite leagues. So over
time when goals weren’t being scored but conceded, the castle walls began to
crumble and Boro started to look like a Championship club again. The departure
of Karanka was seen both as good and bad, which sums up Boro; a great defence but
terrible attack. But results are the currency of the modern manager and he just
wasn’t up to the task and left. Still I feel he'd be the best placed man to mount
a push back up into the league from the championship next season so, maybe
getting rid was a tad too hasty for man who’d done so much for club that seemed destined
and stagnate mid-Championship.
1/10
Hull City
Hull City or Hull city Tigers whatever they decide
to call them are becoming a yo-yo club, strong start from a man, regarded for
along time as the countries best no.2 at Manchester United to Sir Alex Ferguson,
Mike Phelan topped the table with Hull for one solitary day and from there they plummeted. From the headache of pre-seasons seeing Steve Bruce
the man who brought them up, as he so often does, run out the door so fast he
lost his baby weight, to not actually having a senior X1 to field for
their first friendly game, it was always going to be a mountain to climb and
stay in the league. Phelan came in with a skeleton squad and managed to
have them look like they knew what they were doing but as so often happens with
newly promoted teams, the better clubs click onto their basics and style of play and are able to combat it within weeks. From there, they
struggle, which was exactly what happened to manager of the month Phelan,
resulting in another sacking, paving the way from a young manage by the name of
Marco Silva. He had pedigree at some half decent European clubs over the past
few years and got a January transfer window to try and piece together a squad
of his liking, bringing in players he could trust, but like Sunderland, there was already too much dead wood there
to shift out. Granted, Hull's home form rocketed, making it look almost possible
they’d stay up, but the season caught up with them, away games caught up with them. Not enough wins condemned them to another relegation, and the prospect of building
a team again as Silva earned himself a move elsewhere in the Premier League, over to Watford, who we’ll talk about in a moment.
3/10
Watford
By far the worst team I've seen play all season, no
plan at all, nothing, the few wins at the start of the season off their record
signing Pereyra from Juventus became their saving grace in the closing moments
of the season. It was obvious from the outset a manager at the helm of the most culturally diverse squad in the league unable to speak the common language of English among the group was almost always going to falter. I'm wasn't a fan
of Mazzari and that hasn't changed after showing very little tactical knowledge and very
little desire to do nothing more than sulk into his scarf on the touchline. Watford were lucky
to stay clear of the championship, and with a new manage being brought in from
Hull the team that finished below them. Marco Silva supposedly turning down the
offer to manage Portuguese power-houses Porto to take over at the Hornets can
only been seen as a good capture from the board. The man has a plan a
philosophy and a great grasp on the language. I think Watford could push top 10
next season with the boards backing and managers desire to win games. It was ultimately a very disappointing season with the prospect of a decent future on the horizon.
2/10
Burnley
Steady going Burnley, never seemed in trouble at
all, a team that breaks the mould of offloading managers and instead decide to
stick with Sean Dyche, a manager capable of working with coppers to make gold,
because every season in The Premier league for The Clarets is a payday bonus. Year on year, the team and manager stock grows, I'd not be surprised in 10
years time, we’ll see Sean Dyche being tipped for the England job just as Big Sam was at the beginning of the season. This is a team that has a strong British
core and know each others strengths and weaknesses. I just hope in the coming
season he's given the money needed to push this team further up the table. It takes a
special approach to turn Turf Moor into
a mighty battle arena where even the most fearsome of giants can struggle to
land a killer blow. That said, Burnley seemed to roll over and show their belly to
teams on the road, admirable as it is to play two up top in the modern game, when
playing away from home it can be seen as a white flag almost. They were a lot more vulnerable. I think Dyche needs
to find his balance between a game plan at home, and away strategy and
game management. Again, a positive season for a team not expected to do much, but
going steady is certainly better than going down.
5/10
This is has been my first little recap on the bottom five of the Premier League and how I felt they’ve done. These bottom three just
weren’t up to what the league had to offer and ultimately paid the price, but I
feel the most farcical thing to come out of the clubs going down is they have received more money for being losers, than Europe's winners did, Sunderland
being the main example. In terms of prize money for being the worst team, they were sent away with £89 million, where as Atletico Madrid got less, Real Madrid got less for winning the Champions League and PSG got less for being second
in France. This is the nature of the beast sadly, with television money, and it will attract the
wrong kind of player, coming to England for a wage rather than an ambition to push on. Going forwards, all teams in the Premier League need to be wary and recruit footballers and not employees out to get a handsome weekly wage for little input, they need people
who are passionate to play; people who’d be playing for £20 a week with their
current ability all because of their love of the game. That will be as difficult a task as they come. Part Two coming soon.
Coxon
