Mails: Stop patronising Premier League clubs

Daniel Storey

You know what to do if you have anything to say on any subject. Mail us at theeditor@football365.com.


The Premier League elite and glass ceilings
Interesting to see the ideas of glass ceiling, expectations, and elitism discussed on F365. One of the wonderful (and awful – think sexism, racism, homophobia) things about football is the way in which it reflects society (which of course it is not distinct from). Like society, we can analyse the effects of both legislative laws/rules and social or soft laws/rules/norms.

On the BBC this weekend there was a poll of who you would like to be your manager. This poll, predictably didn’t give the options of Pochettino or Ranieri (for example), but the managers of Arsenal, Liverpool, United, City, and Chelsea. The compiling of this list is clearly not based on the current league table, and nor is it compiled on the basis of last years. What criteria is it based on then? It is of course based on what Ed, Oxford discusses, as what is considered the elite and its maintenance.

These are the elite teams of English football. Hark back to the era of the ‘Big Four’, when the same four teams always finished in the top four places. The practices (‘Super Saturday/Sunday’) and meaning implicit in the language used to discuss this phenomenon was that these are the best and most important teams in the league who will finish in the top four positions, only the order is to be decided. This very much had an “end of history” (Fukayama) vibe about it, not just in its discursive construction, but in its nexus of interests benefitting from its maintenance.

Think of the massive marketing exercise behind ‘Super Sunday/Saturday’ and why the term “Sky Four” was such a wonderfully succinct and subversive term. The idea of the ‘big/top four’ is of course no longer applicable. However, this is not because of Tottenham who have predominately finished above one or more of these teams in the past decade or Everton who were the first to break in within that era, but moneyed Manchester City.

Manchester City fit in this elite because they have money, money that in football, as in society, not just significantly influences what is practically possible, but also what is imaginatively possible. The idea of ‘glass ceiling’ is about the invisible social forces that prevent ‘lesser’ parties breaking into the ‘elite’, of which ‘expectations’ discussed in the recent Winners and Losers is an example. Can Tottenham or Leicester win the league? “Leicester will not win the league” is the statement in Winners and Losers, while Kevin, Vancouver’s pithy response to Tottenham’s possibility is “no”. Intended brevity and humour notwithstanding, these statements are not only inaccurate, but ones which carries with it the dynamics of the discursive power that elides possibilities and influences social reality.

The accurate response to the question is perhaps is one of likelihood or discussion or argument of the detail and nuance of why. They are in the competition, it is within the ‘legislative rules’ that they can, and at this point in the season it is certainly still mathematically possible. Where it says the Leicester or Tottenham can’t win the league is in the ‘soft/social rules’ of mainstream discourse.

The differing ways in which Tottenham, Leicester, Vardy et al.’s possibilities for the season are discussed compared to Liverpool’s, is perfectly illustrative of both the functioning of a glass ceiling and a glass floor respectively. Get back in your box Leicester, Vardy, Tottenham, don’t get ideas above your station!
alexis wolfe
(MC – This is an excellent Mail, but feel we should defend Winners and Losers, which did (gently) tout Spurs and Liverpool to win the title. The Leicester line was indeed slightly trite, but a reflection of their 150/1 odds)

 

Arsenallers: Lighten up
To unleash rampant snobbery in ordinary blokes wearing Arsenal shirts, simply watch them as his team lose to a highly-unfashionable Premier League club from the West Midlands.

Wade, mate, you lost a game. It was a football match. These things happen. I don’t know if you know it, but the unspoken, yet expected obligation to win a game (or get something out of it points-wise) also resides with the team you’re playing against. There’s no law that says the privilege of winning every bloody game is one you alone possess, or should possess.

Because you lost to West Brom, doesn’t mean you should lament its happening as if civilisation has crumbled to ash. However jammy some elements transpired in the game that went Albion’s way, they got the three points, and it’s no reason to start blubbing about it. It’s the game. It happens. Get over it.

And that goes for any other big-club-shirt-wearing folks who think supporting Chelsea and the like puts you in a position of immense personal privilege. It bleedin’ doesn’t.
Ian James

 

A Leicester fan: Why the f**k should we calm down?
That email from Chris (MUFC) has made me laugh this morning.

You do realise that we were bottom of the league 7 months ago without a hope. We have then lost two games since then and play some of the most entertaining football in the league. This is also our second season in the premier league after 10 years in the wilderness. We also almost went out of business during that time and went through years of dreary football under such managerial failures as Rob Kelly, Craig Levein and Ian Holloway…

Therefore, why should we calm down about this? We aren’t Man United or Arsenal, topping the league is not usual for us. We have only been on tv once this season for goodness sake. We don’t have any glory hunters and all of our fans will come from or have very strong ties with Leicester (or the Outer Hebrides according to some BBC article a while back!). Though this is hopefully changing, we are apparently one of the most watched teams in Asia and America now.

Also, we weren’t hammered by Arsenal. It was the most entertaining game of the season, proper end to end stuff. They deserved the win, but we certainly didn’t disgrace ourselves. Unlike yourselves when you lost 3-0 to them.

But, lets be honest Chris, you are still bitter about the 5-3 thrashing we gave you last September! Remember Vardy’s goal and four assists? Remember Esteban’s goal? Remember Blacketts’ blatant foul? Remember when Wes Morgan managed to fit Falcao, Di Maria, RVP, Mata and Rooney in his back pocket?

Now stop trying to take the joy and fun out of one of the feelgood stories of the year. You’ll probably beat us on Saturday, I mean you definitely should given the cost of your team compared to ours. But, admit it, you are a little bit nervous…
Toby (I bloody love football) Michell

Chris MUFC, my word! Leicester are actually sh!t because they haven’t played anyone good? So f@$&!ng what?!?!

Firstly there is the cliché of you can only beat what is put in front of you. Secondly, most seasons in the Premier League, the winning teams beat teams that they are supposed to beat, and drop points against the top 10, this is not anything new, why criticise a team for doing it? Thirdly, who the hell bloody cares, why would you want to take the joy out of it. A minnow is sitting above your precious United but wait, they haven’t played anyone good so it doesn’t matter! Of course it matters!

May I remind you of the fact that Leicester beat Newcastle and United could not even put 1 goal past them in 90 minutes. So what does that mean? That United are in fact sh!t as well? Leicester did get blown away by Arsenal but so did United, in the first 20 minutes in fact and could not muster up anything decent in reply.

I hate this kind of mail, it really grates! It gives other fans of big clubs a bad name and make it seem like they all have a sense of entitlement, crying over one of the so called smaller clubs trying to gate crash the monopoly they have on the top 4 spots. Shame on you! As a fan of football you should be enjoying the competitive nature of the premier league instead of trying to degrade the performance of certain clubs. I would like to state that I am a fan of Man Utd, and I am absolutely loving the mental nature of the premier league this season! Since Fergie left I have never experienced the tension and nerve wrecking anxiousness that I go through week in week out, but it is really exciting not knowing the outcome of games, I love it! I love football! Maybe you should switch to supporting La Liga or Bayern Munich so that you can see your team guaranteed of finishing 1 or 2 every season!
The Chetty(Loving the Premier League, willing Vardy on to become the out and out record holder)

…I’m a big Man Utd fan, but even I will be tempted to email in to F365 on Monday to mock Chris MUFC if we lose to a Jamie Vardy goal this weekend…
Bill Handley, Gloucester

 

And the final word
If being sh*t is taking 50 points from the last 22 league games then I love being sh*t and want to be sh*t forever
Jon, LCFC

 

Palace vs Sunderland conclusions
Is it depressingly inevitable or inevitably depressing that I’ve written in after a Palace game?

*Hats off to Sunderland. It wasn’t a pretty game, but they came with a plan and stuck to it. They had a bit of luck with their goal, but you make your own luck, and the way their defence kept Palace at bay earned them a slice of good fortune.

*Barry Glendenning on Guardian Football Weekly often makes the point that when Sunderland play well, Lee Cattermole is their best player. Listening to the radio last night, I thought Cattermole had a good game and his presence in midfield was a main factor in forcing Palace wide, to where their wingers were struggling to get a decent cross in.

*Sam Allardyce managed to keep a clean sheet with a three-man back line of Sebastien Coates, Younes Kaboul and John O’Shea. Imagine how good his defence would be if his name was Allardici and he was at a top (top) club. In all seriousness, last season when Palace won 4-0 thanks to a Yanick Bolasie hat-trick, it was because the Glaziers’ wide men were able to ignore the full-backs and simply run at the two centre-backs. With an extra man in the middle, plus attentive wing-backs, Palace’s main attacking threats were neutralised.

*Another international break, another sluggish return to Premier League life for Crystal Palace. The last one brought an abrupt end to a great run of form, and it took a couple of matches to get their mojo back. It looks like the same might happen this time too, infuriatingly.

*As much as John Nicholson cheered the death of “death by football” brought about by the rise of the counter-attack, someone, somewhere needs to come up with a way for midtable sides to break down those who rely on obduracy in defence. The Glaziers did a lot of huffing and puffing last night, having 67% possession and 7 shots on target (Sunderland had 3), but when forced out of their natural game, they couldn’t find a way to beat a team they should really have seen off comfortably.

*Credit to Sunderland for the support (Jonathan Pearce suggested it may have been 2000 fans) they brought down to Selhurst Park. There is a huge debate to be had about these long away trips, but that’s for another email.
The literary Ed Quoththeraven

 

Because he sells papers, and garners clicks
Seriously, how can someone who has done so little in their career (however short) as Jack Grealish get so much written about them? The lad is rubbish.
Paul

 

Not bad, actually
Having read the gossip page and in particular the weird Rooney to China rumour, I can’t be the only one thinking of the phrase ‘like a bull in a china shop’ can I?

It works on a figurative level as well.
Ash

 

Champagne: Before the meal
Your list of surprisingly good players was a cracking read but it’s a shame you had to ruin it with a second rate metaphor.

Dele Alli ‘has cooked himself a Michelin star meal and poured himself a glass of champagne’. Who on earth drinks champagne with their main course? Everyone knows it’s an aperitif to be had with blinis and the like, BEFORE not after you sit at the table.

Cheers
Dom, London

 

Love you too xx
There are many reasons but even for this alone: ‘(Even the fixture list is laughing at you – Ed)’

I love you F365 – now and always. xo
John (I’ve unnatural feelings towards a website) Walsh, Belfast