Football is not broken; look beyond the Premier League and 22/23 was full of joy
I have really loved this season; it will stand out in my memory as one of the best. For all the serious issues we have relentlessly highlighted and debated, as ever, the good stuff outweighed the bad and there was much to enjoy, especially if the Premier League isn’t the only football planet you orbit.
Spartans, a small amateur Edinburgh club, won the Lowland League, then beat the Highland League winners over two legs, then beat Albion Rovers, the bottom club in the Scottish fourth tier, over two legs, to gain promotion. They normally play in front of 300-400 people but 2120 turned up for the play-off final first leg at Ainslie Park. Such togetherness and against-the-odds achievements are one of football’s eternal pleasures. And all this at a ground where you can drink whiskey and eat magnificent pies while watching the game. It means Edinburgh now has four teams in the top four divisions.
It was a gruelling but exciting Championship play-off final which Luton won by virtue of scoring six perfect penalties. Luton were in the Conference nine years ago and haven’t been in the Premier League for 31 years. The first club to go from the top flight, to non-league and return to the top once again. No-one has done that before and they did it with a manager who started the season at Watford.
While they will be odds-on for relegation next season, that doesn’t matter. Even a brief moment in the sun will, if they’re financially prudent, keep them afloat for some time. This success has been achieved by the old school principle of good teamwork and good management by Rob Edwards. Luton plays the sort of quick, direct, physical football I bloody love. And you know what, it might just work in the Premier League, where a sophisticated version has certainly worked for Brentford.
It will certainly be interesting to see how Edwards works in the top flight, but there have been many superb managerial performances all season long.
Steven Schumacher won League One with Plymouth in just his second season as manager, notching over 100 points, a huge reward for the fans who made all those long away game journeys. Burnley played fantastic football under Vincent Company, the sort of football Sean Dyche could never have played. He transformed a club that had grown stale and won the title.
Richie Wellens took Orient from 20th when he took over in March 2022 to the League Two title. Michael Carrick grew a lovely beard and transformed Middlesbrough into a winning machine which, if the season had started on his appointment in October, would’ve seen the club promoted. He transformed Chuba Akpom into a 28-goal machine by simply playing him in a more withdrawn striking role.
Tony Mowbray made Sunderland promotion contenders by promoting youth and Neil Warnock managed Huddersfield out of relegation. Angry Steve Evans got Stevenage promoted after taking over last season in 22nd. And Hartlepool finishing 23rd in the fourth tier was a bit of nostalgia for those of us who remember the concept of ‘applying for re-election’, of which Pools were the 14-time masters. Carlisle, one of the great provincial clubs with one of the best grounds right in the heart of the town, won the League Two play-off final.
In the top division, Brighton played the best football, developed Evan Ferguson, one of the hottest young strikers in the country, and recruited brilliantly from South America without spending a relative fortune. Roberto De Zerbi, who showed great promise at Sassuolo, has really come into his own. Even Pep says his team has played the best football. He’s right.
The F365 Expectations Table ranks 20 Premier League clubs from Brighton to Chelsea
The WSL had a proper four-way title challenge for 95% of the season and went down to the wire, with Chelsea triumphing. Its compelling football has grown attendances exponentially following the epoch-making England win in the summer, a win which delighted 17 million people watching on TV. The top players are now household names, are politically engaged and an absolute credit to themselves and to the game. Sarina Wiegman is widely thought to be one of the best coaches in the game, and, like Emma Hayes, has shown that being emotionally literate as well as tactically astute is crucial to modern football. Both are inspirational people.
The international games are now appointment-to-view television, England can sell out every game and it is fantastically uplifting to watch a sport grow, develop and become popular in real time. It’s also a very positive societal, uplifting trend at a time when it feels like the Overton window has shifted markedly to the right. Attendances are up 173% and TV viewership up 36%. The Women’s Football Show and Sky’s Women’s Super League show fronted by the always excellent and amusing Caroline Barker have been great programmes and have done the game justice. With the World Cup to come this summer, even though England have been struck down with terrible injuries to major players, the upward curve will continue.
While we’re talking international football, it was an enjoyable World Cup, despite the sickly Messi narrative, and great to see Gareth Southgate be very Gareth-ish, put on some good performances and sign up for another tournament. He remains an exemplar of modern international football management. Scotland also had a good international season with Steve Clarke delivering some great results and Scotland are top of their Euro 2024 Group, as are England who won brilliantly in Italy. Wales are also competitive. International football has rarely been so engaging.
We’ve seen plenty of striking talent in the lower leagues, from the likes of Paul Mullin, Chuba Akpom, Conor Chaplin, Jonson Clarke-Harris and Andy Cook, but none more so than this season’s top goal scorer in any league in the world (or at least any league I could access info about), Stockton-on-Tees-born Macauley Langstaff of Notts County scored a record-breaking 42 times in 45 league appearances and will surely be the subject of some hefty bids from Championship clubs this summer.
There were great stories up and down the leagues. The FA Vase was won by Ascot United for the first time. That must have been a grand day for their fans. These are the roots of football, which feeds the family tree of the game. It is football as it pretty much always has been in the modern era and brilliant for that, free from the moral and financial concerns so familiar in the top flight.
The EFL Trophy was won impressively by Bolton Wanderers, managed by Ian Evatt who, unusually, is also a minority owner of the club itself. Sheffield Wednesday finished League One with well over 90 points and miraculously rescued a play-off semi final from 4-0 down in an unbelievable game. It’s been serious thrills for one of Yorkshire’s big old clubs and what better way to finish the season than with a play-off final against local rivals Barnsley?
There was a classic 100+ point battle between Wrexham and Notts County in the Conference which thankfully ended with both getting promoted.
Casemiro: I’ve just loved him. He looks like a big squirrel.
On TV and radio, the rise and rise of the female commentator has been an especially pleasing aspect of 2022/23. Vicki Sparks became the defining voice of England’s Euro win and Robyn Cowen and Pien Mulensteen have put the bigots back in their box for good. The debate is over. More broadly, it’s no longer newsworthy to have women commentating on or punditing about men’s football. And hey, surprise surprise, the sky has not fallen in. No going back now. It’s taken far too long but football on TV and radio has finally become more inclusive.
When it came to pundits, who couldn’t love Emma Hayes on ITV? She can dissect a game in real time like few others can or do. Pat Nevin does likewise on the radio with an agile mind and a professional understanding. Glenn Murray has become ubiquitous on TV and radio this campaign. A likeable fella, his Maryport, Cumbrian burr, which sounds very like a Teesside accent, is always welcome. For a man who was a physical, aggressive player, he’s been an enjoyably beta male as a pundit. Rob Green and Matt Upson have also been articulate, intelligent observers. I’ve enjoyed the flat Yorkshire tones of Paul Robinson too.
Coisty has been consistently Coistyish and had a great World Cup. Clive remained eternally Clive-ish and would be so more often, if he was given the opportunity. He is still one of the best of all time. The eternal charms of Roy, Wrighty, Nev, Carra, Micah and that most unlikely and emotional Channel-swimming vegan, Souey, have remained in play. Izzy Christianson and Karen Carney have been wise voices, Karen Bardsley always entertaining and engaging, Fara Williams the most cock-er-nee of all and still the only England player to be homeless for six years, even while playing for her country.
Friday night Scottish Championship football on BBC Scotland has been the third large whisky on a cold night. It is comforting, proper football. And who can fail to love Leanne Crichton’s big hair and even bigger coats to keep some epic Scottish winter weather at bay. This is football of and by the local community and all the better for it.
I must also mention 5Live’s commentators, Ian Dennis, John Murray, Conor McNamara. Jonno Pearce and Alistair Bruce-Ball, all of whom have delivered my personal football joy on what has felt like almost every single night of the season. Radio remains the most fulfilling way to watch football. It is delivered by these commentators and presenters like Steve Crossman, Kelly Cates, Mark Chapman and others, in such a relaxed, engaging, entertaining and informative way, that you emerge from every broadcast knowing more than you did at the start. Simply the best. Better than all the rest. Better than anyone.
Some absolutely fantastic, exciting, shocking football moments happened at every level in 2022/23 and they happened because football is a fantastic mercurial sport, one that we continue to love, despite its ever more appalling moral and financial aspects at the elite level. If you ever feel despair and feel the sport you love is broken, be assured, it isn’t. The sport it once was is absolutely still there, it is alive and well and it is still taking us by the hand and leading us through our lives, same as it always has. And I’m not for letting go now.