First of all, congratulations to Manchester City for a remarkable final few minutes to win the Premier League title. Over the course of the season they have played the best football and fully deserve the title and probably should have won by a comfortable margin but no team can sustain their start for the whole season.
May I also congratulate Manchester United for making this a competitive season and keeping the title alive even beyond the final whistle at the Stadium of Light. I am sure it is no consolation as being overtaken by your city rivals is always a bitter pill to swallow, but gaining 89 points this season is still a great achievement and would have won the title in many past seasons.
Commiserations to Bolton, I really don't feel they deserved to go down, they are an honest hard working team and Owen Coyle is a quality manager, I hope and believe they will bounce back up.
Blackburn Rovers and Wolverhampton Wanderers supporters have been very unfortunate this season. Both teams sacked their managers in the last 18 months and in both of their cases, the board have directly contributed to their relegation's.
Steve Kean to me seems an honest down to earth man who has given his all to Blackburn and in the process has suffered an unwarranted amount of abuse from Blackburn supporters. There is no doubt in my mind that the decision to sack Allardyce and replace him with an inexperienced manager was the determining factor that has lead Blackburn to relegation. The ownership of the club with their lack of investment and complete lack of a grasp of football reality proves to me they are better of at sticking to their poultry business. It sums it up to me the sacking of Paul Hunt for sending a private email expressing his concerns over the club. Have they never heard the expression, "don't shoot the messenger". I fear things will get worse before they get better at Blackburn. Jack Walker must be rolling in his grave.
Wolverhampton were never likely to be more than a bottom six side and Steve Morgan's decision to enter the dressing room to berate the team only ever served to undermine Mick McCarthy, who in my view is a very good manager. I am sure had he not been sacked Wolves would have been far more successful and may still have beaten the drop. As loyal a servant as Terry Connor has been to Wolves, he should never have been given the job, much like Blackburn, a relegation battle needs an experienced man at the helm.
So back to Manchester City. An investment of around £1 billion has brought the title to the Etihad. Like Chelsea before them, they have used the money from a foreign owner to pay excessive wages and excessive transfer fees which has resulted in massive losses on the profit and loss account. They have brought a new spark to the Premier League at the cost of distorting the transfer market and making it more difficult for clubs to grow organically to challenge for the title.
The long term of clubs like these are less certain and something which the Financial Fair Play rules should have addressed, will I am afraid, be no more than paper rules that will never be vigorously applied. Much like the situation in Scotland where the league is held to ransom by the Glasgow giants, UEFA will not be looking to upset the big boys and provided Manchester City and Chelsea keeps other clubs onside, they won't be discouraged from continuing to run up debts.
So for the rest of the clubs looking to climb the mountain, all they can do is try to get into the Champions League and stay competitive and wait until the billionaires get bored with their toys.
My club, Tottenham, has gone from being a mid table and sometimes worse team to challenging for a top four place for most of the last 7 years, and without excessive spending on transfer fees and wages. There will be opportunities for the likes of Newcastle, Everton, Liverpool and Aston Villa in coming seasons to do the same. However as long as football authorities allow mega rich people to come in and throw stupid money at the game, it will be difficult for anyone to compete with them.
But I don't want to take anything away from Manchester City, it is a fine achievement to win your league no matter how much money has been spent, because at the end of the day, it is still eleven against eleven.
I look forward once more to August.
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