THE COST OF LOSING COMPOSURE

#4
It is more that Dutch football does not have the media money that the Premier League commands or the scale of revenues of the biggest clubs. The great thing about Ajax is that their youth academy still focuses on total football. That is the same system of football that Barcelona adopted which made them great. It is a pity that Ajax cannot hold onto their young stars, but then Belgian players have it even worse - look at the Belgium team. Belgium's focus on soccer development was on development rather than winning, by creating a system from the grassroots and school teams - they spent the last couple of decades nurturing soccer talent. Not for business but for soccer development. When we talk of soccer as a business, that involves scouts offering money and dreams to young people, rather than care about their development. Belgium knew that taking a more holistic approach was the best way to go. When Vincent Kompany, the Manchester City 33 year old captain scored a scorcher of a goal, this is a player born of soccer development. Meanwhile at Manchester United, players who have had money thrown at them are woefully underperforming. It takes a national strategy to end up doing what Belgium did, and remember even with Ajax's famed youth academy, the Dutch national team has floundered and could not even qualify for the World Cup. When you see how Vincent Kompany (who is not known for scoring) took it upon himself to get the goal that keeps Manchester City favourites to retain the Premier League title on Sunday. where did his composure come from? It certainly was not a business deal, but from years of great soccer development, instilling that character into him, and being able to come up with something brilliant when his team absolutely needed it - and that is why Vincent Kompany is also a captain. Reply

Tottenham as a result of two draws for Arsenal and Manchester United are as good as qualified for the Champions League unless next week they lose their composure again and get badly beaten by Everton and at the same time Arsenal thrash Leicester City. While most pundits now are declaring Tottenham in the Champions League due to their 8 goal differential, one must remember what happened in the year when Tottenham were competing with Leicester in a two horse race for the League Championship that Leicester won. In that year Spurs inexplicably managed to finish 3rd in a that "two horse race" courtesy of losing 5-1 at Newcastle United in their final game, coupled with Arsenal winning 4-0 at home against Aston Villa. On that day this was an 8 goal differential - the same one that Arsenal need next week. In that year Spurs finished on 70 points, which is the points total they are on now. Arsenal need the same miracle to occur next week, but it is doubtful that a lack of composure will contribute to their downfall in the Premier League. They take a 3-1 lead in the Europa League semi-final next Thursday, and a loss of composure could end their last remaining hope to qualify for next years Champions League - winning the Europa League is now an imperative for Arsenal, while Spurs fans say thank you to their rival. Reply

#1
What has dissolved here is the line between what is sport and what is business. Soccer as a sport still exists on kids soccer field and at clubs where there is still a community connection with the fans. Bournemouth actually represent such an example because at a mere 14,000 ground capacity, the club can maintain a communal feel. The same is true of FA Cup Finalists Watford FC. Watford continue to be a very community based club, but their opponents in this years FA Cup Final are a business machine, who are also rising to the level of being connected to the brand of a nation state e.g. in this case Qatar. Tottenham had a communal feel when they were in their old White Hart Lane ground, and while 36,000 is nearly triple the crowd size of Bournemouth - the stadium was still relatively small. That all changed by moving into a 62,000 seater stadium. That makes Tottenham one of the new entrants to the small cadre of clubs who are owned by billionaires, nation states or financial institutions. Indeed if Facebook buy a team (which is still a rumour) that is another form of business entity that will assume soccer club ownership at the "business level". https://www.newsweek.com/sport-facebook-tottenham-hotspur-634042 The reality of Facebook buying a Premier League team is conjecture because they are more financially geared at broadcast rights at present than ownership as a brand value https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-27/facebook-is-said-to-make-biggest-push-yet-into-english-soccer but one can see why an ownership like the one at Tottenham will not balk at spending over a billion dollars on stadium build, when there are major business players who have the means to make billion dollar acquisitions of football assets. So when we are discussing a team like Tottenham here, it is more business now than sport. Reply