THERE’S a reason why the idea of a European super league has been floated again.
And a reason why England’s wealthiest clubs won’t be running a mile from the plan.
RexManchester United were humiliated against Bournemouth[/caption]
GettyThe Cherries ripped the Red Devils apart 3-0 at Old Trafford[/caption]
PAPep Guardiola has overseen an incredible run at Manchester City[/caption]
GettyThe Cityzens have lost nine of their last 12 games[/caption]
GettyBarcelona and Real Madrid are backing the latest edition of the Super League scheme[/caption]
That reason is: Manchester United 0 Bournemouth 3.
The fact the ‘smallest’ club in the Premier League can crush England’s largest club on their own turf, not just in one fluke result but in two consecutive seasons, is definitive proof anything can happen in the world’s richest domestic competition.
Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest and Fulham were promoted together in 2022 and all sit in the top half of the table because they have enough cash, and competence, to assemble squads with at least two very decent players in every position.
Brighton and Brentford also sit above United, approaching the halfway point of the season.
Which torpedoes the idea of the ‘rich getting rich and the poor getting poorer’. Because, in the Premier League, there is no poor.
Real Madrid and Barcelona — who are backing the latest Super League scheme — are deeply envious of the Premier League because it’s basically bloody brilliant.
United and the rest of the traditional English elite are tempted by a super league because they can no longer guarantee themselves European football — and because it would offer them more money to distance themselves from those well-run upstart clubs.
On Sunday, I landed after a seven-hour flight from the Middle East, during which five Premier League games had been played.
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Two of the results — Tottenham 3 Liverpool 6, as well as Bournemouth’s latest drubbing of United — made me laugh out loud.
And yet it’s not even all that surprising any more.
Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs haven’t had what you’d have once called a single bog-standard, easily predictable result, either positive or negative, in any domestic match since they beat Brentford 3-1 on September 21.
Perhaps the 4-1 win over West Ham in October — but even that was the crushing of a local rival, involving a comeback, a red card and a mass brawl.
And it’s not just Spurs, of course.
A few weeks ago, I predicted, half-jokingly, that there might not be Champions League football in Manchester next season for the first time in 30 years.
Now there is nothing vaguely funny about that statement. In fact, it’s entirely likely.
City’s phenomenal meltdown — one win and nine defeats from 12 games in all competitions — has been analysed until the cows come home.
But if Real, Barca or any other European powerhouse had suffered similar issues to Pep Guardiola’s side — key injuries and a squad which has aged in fast-forward — their results wouldn’t have been nearly as bad because there’d have been a comfy win or two to pick up.
Which would avert the complete confidence collapse City have suffered.
Instead, City lost to Bournemouth and Brighton and was drawn to Crystal Palace. Because they are all decent teams.
Before City’s horror run, their previous three league games were single-goal victories over Fulham, Wolves and Southampton.
Fulham had a superior ‘expected goals’ count to City at the Etihad. It took a controversial 95th-minute winner to defeat Wolves.
Guardiola caused much amusement at the time by praising Russell Martin’s Saints to the hilt after City’s 1-0 home win.
Pep wasn’t being patronising. He was being serious.
He knew that even the bottom team could visit the champions and cause serious problems.
So even City’s 12-game run does not represent such a sudden fall off a cliff edge. It was coming — because the Premier League is too bloody brilliant.
United’s crisis has been dragging on for 11 years but the depths of their fall couldn’t be replicated by the richest clubs in Spain, Germany, Italy, France or anywhere else.
In 55 league games since the start of last season, United have a goal difference of -2.
A decade or so ago, England’s leading clubs were protected against such failures by a Champions League income which gave them a substantial and meaningful wealth gap over the smaller clubs.
That has now been negated. The Premier League is so wealthy, so competitive, that the biggest clubs need a bigger cushion to protect themselves from their own failings.
In Europe’s other major leagues, that buffer still exists. But Real, Barca and other major Continental clubs know that, as the global fascination with the Premier League grows, the more gloriously unpredictable it becomes.
And so, another imaginary super league.
This one, laughably called the Unify League because the ‘Ripping Everything To Shreds League’ would sound too obvious, and it would supposedly be based on merit with promotion and relegation and no automatic membership for the elite.
Which makes it more palatable than the previous imaginary European super league – which England’s erstwhile ‘Big Six’ all signed up to.
The 96-team Unify League would consist of a Star League, a Gold League, a Blue League and a Union League — making it sound as if the whole thing has been concocted by a bored nine-year-old boy in his bedroom.
And yet it is backed by Real chief Florentino Perez, substantially more powerful than a bored nine-year-old boy in his bedroom.
It has been dreamt up out of fear and envy by those who can’t hack the fact that the Premier League is so bloody brilliant.
And at some point, whether in this decade or the next, one of these imaginary European super leagues — perhaps a worldwide super league involving the Saudis and others — will come to fruition.
So, for now, enjoy Tottenham’s lunacy, relish City’s meltdown and savour United’s prolonged crisis. Because the Premier League, in all its current glory, is too good to last.
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