There was once a time when the transfer window made a daily dose of Sky Sports News an absolute must – a necessary fix of transfer news and gossip. Yet after 14 days of potential action, this window has been a maelstrom of abject disappointment, the biggest news being that an obese Sol Campbell has returned to Arsenal to play a few F.A Cup games and pick up some lunch money. According to pundits the lack of activity hinges on the weakness of the Pound against the Euro, making imports from the continent a no go area. Yet is this reality across the board? Firstly lower league have struggled for years, and regard this transfer window as unfairly skewed to the advantage of the richer clubs, and secondly there is Manchester City, a club of which Brian Horton was once manager.
Needless to say, things have changed a little since his tenure, when he maintained City’s Premier League status on a shoestring budget. Horton tells me,
“Man City fans will not care about how much they have spent. They just want to win something”
Whilst City’s success starved recent history has left them thirsty for trophies, serious questions must be asked about whether their club runs a sustainable business model. Should Man City fans feel as comfortable as Horton suggests? – “Things would only blow up their if the owners walk away, and I don’t see that happening”. Yet the sacking of Mark Hughes raised some serious questions about the owner’s shotgun approach, should instant silverware continue to allude the club, then it is not unforeseeable that they walk away.
Just 15 miles down the road from Eastlands the tale is somewhat different. Stockport County FC find themselves in absolute financial meltdown, owing in excess of a million pounds on top of spiralling administrators bills, and with no prospect of this being paid. Yet just seven years ago the two clubs were in the same division, with Stockport taken 4 points off their more illustrious opponents. Horton has sympathy with Stockport’s plight,
“It is sad to see the whole situation at Stockport. I feel sorry for the manager Gary Abblett”
But in such a short space of time how have the clubs suffered such diverse fortunes? Horton believes it is down to “poor management” that clubs can find themselves in this state. Though in reality there is more to it than that. Perversely it is the structure of The Football League itself that discriminates against those teams outside of the Premier League. The scale of Man City’s spending may be an anomaly, but the criminally high sums paid to Premier League clubs in TV rights mean that they can afford to spend, spend, spend as a tactic for achieving success. This is why for Horton’s current club Hull, where he is assistant manager, staying in the Premier League is paramount,
“We have overspent a little bit, but if we stay in the top flight that all becomes worthwhile. That is massive”
The knock on effect of this leaves other domestic competitions under threat, as poor attendances in the F.A Cup third round exemplify- only 5,000 fans turned up to watch Hulls tie at Wigan, a figure Horton describes as “very disappointing”. It is salient that a competition that once helped to safeguard the future of lower league clubs, is itself under threat by the Premier League financial windfall.
The disparity in funding of English football clubs is leaving many of them susceptible to disaster. Edgeley Park is not the first, nor will it be the last place to be on the brink of being obsolete. There is a common threat to those clubs who do find themselves in this unenviable positions, they have all been heading in the right direction, just prior to their meltdown. For these are the clubs that have attempted to break Football’s rigid hierarchical structure only to find themselves hitting a financial brick wall. If you don’t have the means to splash the cash, then you are going nowhere. Stockport found this out to their cost, when on the verge of two successive promotions and with a supremely talented squad, things blew up in their face. Now with this team dessimated and still in administration, they sit bottom of League one by four points. It is no coincidence that the only team to appear capable of gatecrashing ‘The Big Four’, are coincidentally the biggest spenders, are the team that has been able to spend £300 million to do it. Rest assured, the beautiful game has an ugly side.