Are you comfortable with Manchester City’s losses?

By Laurie Fitzgerald

On Friday, Manchester City announced their financial figures for the 2010-11 season – and it did not make for good reading.

The world’s wealthiest football club confirmed they had made a staggering loss of £194.9 million, which is the biggest deficit suffered during a 12-month period in the history of English football.

It follows a year of another massive spending spree by the Eastlands club, with the likes of David Silva, Yaya Toure and Mario Balotelli assembled amongst many big names in what is now a star-studded squad.

On the pitch the investment is paying off. City are top of the table after an excellent start to their Premier League campaign, and are competing in their first season in the Champions League.

But off the pitch it’s astonishing that a business carries on as normal in this current economy when it makes such a significant loss in such a short space of time.

Of course there will be those that point out the loss has come from an unlimited pot of gold belonging to owner Sheikh Mansour, whose billions have completely changed the landscape at the Etihad stadium.

City fans will also state that after years of ups and downs, including a drop into the third tier of English football, the club are due such an upturn in fortunes.

All are valid points, and there’s no doubt that a large amount of money and spending is needed to achieve what is constituted as success in modern-day football.

However, if City continue their imperious march to the Premier League title come May then it will be on the back of obscene spending that simply doesn’t give anybody else a chance.

FIFA are introducing the financial fair play rules over the next couple of years, but by then City will have made efforts to straighten the books, safe in the knowledge they have a squad that can compete on all fronts and dominate domestically.

Other sides won’t be able make up the ground because of these new rules, meaning that the gulf will be there for the foreseeable future.

This may paint a bleak and predominantly negative view of the subject, and when all is said and done if your club has the money to spend then you want to see the owners do exactly that.

But if City do go and dominate over several years, it will be on the back of financial figures that no other club would even be able to survive from let alone benefit – and that is something that won’t sit comfortably with many football fans.

So what do you think? Are you ok with the fact that Manchester City have got into this position on the back of such a financial loss? Leave a comment and let us know your views.

Scrapping relegation would be a disaster for English football

By Laurie Fitzgerald

On Monday the League Managers Association Chief Executive Richard Bevan claimed that there are several foreign-based owners of Premier League sides that want to scrap relegation from the top flight.

With continual growing interest in foreign investment into England‘s biggest clubs, Bevan fears that it will only take a few more new owners from outside the country to make this idea become a reality.

Bevan said, “there are a number of overseas-owned clubs already talking about bringing about the avoidance of promotion and relegation in the Premier League. If we have four or five more owners, that could happen.”

It’s easy to understand why Bevan is eager for a parliamentary inquiry into the way that English football is being run.

There are nine of the current twenty Premier League clubs that are owned by foreign investors, and if they were to have the majority vote then it could spell disaster for the rest of English football.

The logic behind the idea - for those in favour of it - is due to protection of their business; if their club is one of those guaranteed to have regular football in the most marketable league in the world, then more money can be made from it.

Sponsorship deals will soar because interested parties will have their investment assured for the long-term, and clubs will justify soaring ticket prices because of the quality of football on offer year in, year out.

But what these owners seem to forget is that there is no guarantee their club will be one of the twenty assured a place in a franchised Premier League.

There is nothing to suggest that the owners of Blackburn and QPR (both foreign-based) are among the group of owners that are for this plan, but if they were then there is no guarantee that they will be guaranteed a spot.

How would anything like this be decided? Would it be based on which clubs have appeared for the longest in the top-flight over a particular period of time? Or will it be based on the clubs that have the best criteria in terms of stadium and support that will make the grade?

Maybe history will play a big part as well, which means that the likes of Leeds United and Nottingham Forest will have to be seriously considered despite not featuring in the Premier League for a number of seasons.

There are so many permutations to overcome that these foreign owners seemed to have overlooked the potential obstacles in front of them.

The biggest issue of all though is what it will do to those clubs that do not make the final 20; those that will be limited to a certain amount of income, and possibly struggling to survive in the process.

If the Premier League were to authorise such an occurence, then the legal ramifications from the 72 other Football League clubs would be long-drawn and very messy, as these clubs could claim that their futures are being damaged.

When you consider that the top-flight is a breakaway league from the other tiers in English league football, the concern only grows.

What inspires fans when they support their team is the ability to dream of the impossible, achieving something that seems a million miles away, only one day for it to become a reality.

If those dreams really were made impossible, then the soul of English football will be ripped out by those inspired not by the love of the game, but for the love of money.

Source: Sky Sports

So what do you think? How damaging will the scrapping of relegation be to English football? Leave a comment and let us know your views.

This Summer on Shouts from the Stands!

First of all, we want to say a big thank you to all those who have followed Shouts from the Stands in its first season!

All the support provided by viewing our articles, as well as providing feedback and debate (whether it has been positive or negative) has always been welcome.

We’ve tried to ensure that we’ve focused on all four main divisions within English football so that all fans across the country can relate to what we’re talking about, as well as reading about the issues that matter to each and every one of you.

This summer, with footballitis set to kick in over the next few weeks and the lack of a major tournament to fill the void, we will be doing a weekly blog on Wednesdays instead of on a daily basis – but this will only be in June and July.

Come August we will back to focussing on the new campaign each and every day, and making sure that we preview all 92 teams in the build-up to the start of each league.

Right, we’re off to have a hard-earned drink or two, but many thanks once again, and we hope you’ve enjoyed this season as much as we did!

Best Regards,

Shouts from the Stands (A.K.A Tony Alvarez & Laurie Fitzgerald)

What next for Paul Ince?

Paul Ince is back out of management after leaving Notts County

By Laurie Fitzgerald

Over the past few years, there’s no doubt that Paul Ince has been one of the leading lights for black managers in football.

After hanging up his boots following a fantastic playing career that involved the likes of Manchester United, Inter Milan and Liverpool, Ince has spent almost five years trying to work his way to the top of English football management.

But after a bright couple of years that saw him go from League Two to the Premier League, Ince now finds himself out of work after leaving Notts County by mutual consent.

The 43 year-old started management life well when he managed to guide Macclesfield to League Two safety against all the odds and ensure survival on the last day of the 2006/07 season.

His efforts had won him many admirers, and when MK Dons manager Martin Allen left to take over at Leicester City that summer, Ince was named as his replacement at the Stadium:mk.

It proved to be a great decision from Chairman Pete Winkleman, as Ince guided the Dons to automatic promotion to League One, as well as winning the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy in the process.

Ince was carving out a reputation as one of the best young managers in the game, gaining real respect in an era where black managers aren’t given many opportunities within the game.

His efforts were richly rewarded in 2008 when Blackburn Rovers appointed them as their new boss, giving him the chance to cement a career in the top-flight.

However, it was at this point when things started to go downhill for Ince. He lasted just six months before being sacked in December that year after Rovers became embroiled in a relegation battle.

Having learnt the harsh realities of management, ‘the guvnor’ returned to Milton Keynes for a second spell in charge of the Dons, but this time in League One.

Having reached the play-offs in their debut season in the third tier of English football, expectations were high.

But Ince was unable to build on the previous campaign, and stayed for just half of the duration of his two-year deal, leaving the club for a second time having guided the side to an twelfth place finish.

Despite this disappointment, the man capped 53 times by England would not have to wait long for a chance to kickstart the latest stage of his footballing career.

After taking charge at Notts County in October, Ince began to guide the side in the right direction, with the Magpies losing just one game in twelve, including a famous FA Cup win at Sunderland and a draw at home to Manchester City.

The resurgence didn’t last long; five defeats in a row, the most recent a 2-0 loss at home to Oldham, meant that Ince was shown the exit door at Meadow Lane.

It’s difficult to see where Ince goes from here; after such a promising start, his jump to the Premier League came too soon, and he acknowledged that by going back to the MK Dons two divisions below.

The problem now is that he has now had two jobs at this level and has failed to take either side forward, leading to people questioning whether he is cut out for management.

He is young and has shown in the past he is capable of being a good manager. But if Ince does get another chance in football management, then he has to make it count.

What do you think? Is Ince’s managerial career in trouble? Has he been unfairly treated with the resources available to him? Would you like him at your club? Let us know your thoughts.