Euro Bites: The Profit-Versus-Prestige Ratio
After a disappointing week for all but one of the UK’s teams in Europe, and a mixed domestic weekend, Kate Partridge asks: is it all worth it?
Football is full of clichés: a game of two halves, decisions even themselves out, you can only beat the team you’re playing against, Fergie time…
Fergie: the only manager so far to lead an English team to a domestic and European treble, now way back in 1999. Jose Mourinho could complete a different treble with Chelsea this season. Though last week’s European results indicate the rest of the UK’s elite are focusing on matters domestic – and with varying degrees of success.
Everton are the exceptions. The UK’s only winners are as all-conquering in the Europa League as they have been half-conkered in the Premier League. But out went in-form Liverpool, Tottenham and Celtic, while Manchester City and Arsenal were whooped at home in the Champions League.
City’s result would have been worse but for Lionel Messi concluding a breathtaking personal performance with a pudding of a penalty. Worse, the subsequent defeat at Liverpool severely dented their chances of retaining their domestic crown.
So, why can’t British teams – to complete another cliché – have it all? First, the on-the-night explanations.
With midfield powerhouse Yaya Toure suspended, City looked loath to attack Barcelona and their first-half timidity was ruthlessly punished. In direct contrast, Arsenal underestimated low-scoring Monaco, bombed heedlessly forward, lost all defensive discipline, and were caught on the break more often than truanting teens.
With horrible irony, Liverpool fluffed their chances against Besiktas and lost on spot-kicks at the very ground where they had won on penalties and lifted the Champions League trophy in 2005.
Tottenham dominated but made defensive howlers ahead of their League Cup final against Chelsea less than three days later, which they also lost 2-0. And undercooked Celtic’s lack of a serious rival in Scotland meant they were pipped by a mediocre Inter Milan.
Yet Everton’s continental foray has been a welcome break from their domestic woes, and they played with the same carefree and fluid attacking style against Young Boys that had put them into Europe in the first place.
But, these short-term ups and downs aside, why can’t the UK’s teams achieve multiple trophy hauls in the way that Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich do? Because of the profit-versus-prestige ratio in a tightly fought league.
As is also now a cliché, the English Premier League is the most competitive and physically demanding of all the European top flights. What other league would produce a result like Leicester 5-3 Manchester United? Every other league has a handful of superteams who perennially fight for the silverware and European places, and that’s it. Arguably, two-thirds of league fixtures have two-thirds of the intensity.
Additionally, shrewd marketing and lucrative TV deals in England mean the financial rewards for success are apportioned with relative equality, so are more tangibly alluring to stakeholders than the prestigious but less realistic prospect of a shiny European pot.
Cash conscious chairmen nudge their managers towards a top-four finish, or domestic security, or the added millions of finishing a spot or two higher in the Premier League – rather than trying to secure yet more travelling, inconvenient scheduling, and the ever-present prospect of injury involved in a Thursday night trip to such unheralded places as Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk.
Yet less lucrative domestic leagues may encourage more continental fervour, particularly as the winners of this year’s Europa League final in Warsaw earn a spot in the Champions League, where the serious moolah is. And we are now at the business end of the tournament.
Five Italian teams remain in the Last 16, including a tasty national derby between Tottenham’s conquerors Fiorentina and Roma, neither of whom look set to dislodge three-time champions Juventus off top spot in Serie A.
Similarly, defending champions Sevilla have been paired with La Liga rivals Villarreal, who are respectively fifth and sixth in Spain. Liverpool’s Turkish conquerors Besiktas take on Belgian side Bruges, while Inter – currently ninth in Italy – face in-form German side Wolfsburg.
As has been much mooted, Everton could win the Europa League and earn a Champions League place, but get relegated. A conservative estimate shows winning the second-tier tournament would net a club just over seven million pounds. Staying in the Premier League would be much, much more.
After Sunday’s 2-0 defeat at an improved Arsenal, Toffees manager Roberto Martinez says all his side needs is a victory – then a bit of momentum.
Everton will be hoping they play games of two halves, the decisions even themselves out, they beat the teams they’re playing against, and they get some Fergie time.
Then they could (still) have it all.
Read more from Kate Partridge here!
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