Premier League Club's Debt

With the summer transfer window now open there is a hive of activity amongst the Premier League clubs. As the top clubs compete against one other to attract the big name players, the transfer fees and huge wage bills puts some of our top clubs more and more in debt. Utilising figures collated by Deloitte, we have a look at the ten clubs with the most debt in the English Premier League based on the financial year 2009-2010.

10/. Sunderland - £66 million. Not a massive debt in the grand scheme of things and does not include the £24 million that they received from the sale of Darren Bent to Aston Villa or the reported £20 million that they received from Liverpool for star player Jordan Henderson. Steve Bruce is however expected to spend the majority of this money on replacement players including Wes Brown, John O'Shea and Darron Gibson from Manchester United amongst others.

9/. Wigan - £72.5 million - A staggering fact is that Wigan spend 90% of their turnover on wages in order to compete with their Premier League rivals. Not the most fashionable club by any stretch, they have one of the lowest ticket prices in the league but still have one of the lowest average attendances. With the likes of Bolton, Man United and Man City nearby they are always going to struggle to fill their stadium. The cost of relegation for a club like Wigan would be huge so it is testament to Dave Whelan and Roberto Martinez for keeping them up.

8/. Tottenham - £78.6 million - The biggest problem that Spurs have is that White Hart Lane is simply too small. It's capacity is 36,000 and to getting a ticket for a game is a mission impossible. A friend of mine is on the season ticket waiting list and is 24,000 in the queue. Tottenham can easily fill a 60,000 capacity stadium so a massive revenue opportunity is missing at the moment -this is being addressed at the moment but it can't come soon enough. The Champions League run would have brought in a lot of cash this season and there is also talk of Bale and Modric going for mega money. This will significantly reduce the debt but will be disastrous for the team as a whole.

7./ Bolton - £93 million - A massive jump from the previous season of £29 million leaves Bolton in seventh place in the list. Similar to Wigan, an unfashionable club with an extremely high wage bill they need to ensure Premier League survival each year or they will be in big trouble.

6/. Aston Villa - £110 million - Villa are in a interesting position due to the fact that the debt of 110 million is owed to Chairman Randy Lerner. Of course he can write off this debt but it is highly unlikely. With the sale of key players this summer (Ashley Young and possibly Stuart Downing), the debt will of course be reduced but the team will never get into Europe without the money being reinvested in quality players.

5/. Arsenal - £135 million - The Arsenal strategy of investing heavily in their new stadium for long term gains in the long run whilst at the same time being extremely frugal in the transfer market seems to be working as their debt has more than halved in the space of a year. Your everyday Arsenal fan would rather see the money invested in the team and frustration is abound amongst their supporters at Wenger's reluctance to splash out on some much needed world class players.

4/. Liverpool - £143 million - A vast portion of Liverpool's debts are in the form of bank loans which means that they are paying ridiculous amounts of interest. Although they received £50 million for Fernando Torres this has been spent on Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez. Expect the debt to increase as Kenny Dalglish restructures the entire first team in order to gain a top four spot and entry into the lucrative UEFA Champions League.

3/. Fulham - £190 million - A big surprise in this list is Fulham who for a mid-table team have racked up a huge £190 million debt. There is only a finite amount of times the Mohammed Al-Fayed can bale them out and their position seems precarious as they don't have the funds to get world class players therefore always seemed destined for mid-table obscurity.

2/. Manchester United - £590 - This massive debt is largely due to the Glazer family who have placed their debt onto the club. Manchester United are however still the most valuable and well supported club in the world and their achievements this season will have helped the coffers. Sir Alex Ferguson has seen 3 key players retire this season so he will no doubt be using some of the money from the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer for replacements. The financial pressure to maintain their success is huge as their interest payments on their debt runs into millions.

1/. Chelsea - £733 million - Whilst this debt is huge it is not as bad as Manchester United's as the majority of it is owed to Roman Abramovich. This means that unlike Man Utd, they don't have to pay millions back in interest. Not the best of business models but at the same time not the worst.

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Scottish Managers in the English Premier League

Congratulations to Norwich City who are back in the English Premier League......and with a Scottish manager. This now means that 6 of the 20 English Premier League managers are Scottish. Why is it that Premier League Chairmen are recruiting Scottish managers? Has Sir Alex Ferguson set a precedent within the league and he has created a blueprint for success within the English Premier League

There are many theories as to why Scottish managers have historically done well within the top tier of English football. One school of thought is the fact that due to their working class backgrounds they have a fantastic work ethic. Another theory is that the Scottish don't suffer fools gladly and don't let player's egos take over the dressing room. Sir Alex Ferguson for example has let star players leave the club when they have crossed the line - think David Beckham and Jaap Stam who both got listed after a fall out with him.

More likely is the fact that the current crop of Scottish managers within the Premier League all began their coaching careers whilst still playing. David Moyes for example was taking his coaching qualifications at the age of 22. They also have fine role models to look up to - Sir Alex Ferguson would have looked up to the likes of Jock Stein, Bill Shankly and of course Sir Matt Busby whilst the current crop of Scottish managers in the English Premier League in turn look up to Sir Alex. You only have to look at the statistics to see that Scottish managers are reknowned for their loyalty and longevity within their clubs.

Sir Alex Ferguson for example is the longest serving manager in the league having been in charge of Man Utd for nearly 25 years. David Moyes is in fourth position having managed Everton for 9 years. Paul Lambert, Steve Kean and Owen Coyle have been with their clubs (Norwich, Blackburn and Bolton respectively) for less than 2 years but there is no reason why they won't go on to manage their clubs for a long time. Kenny Dalglish who is in his second spell at Liverpool only left first time round due to ill health and was back at the club before he was appointed manager as a Club Ambassador.

Other Scottish managers have plyed their trade in the Premier League with reasonable success. George Burley had a fantastic run with Ipswich Town in 2000-2001 result culminating in winning the Manager of the Year award and also reaching the UEFA cup. Graeme Souness has also had spells with Liverpool, Blackburn and Newcastle in the English Premier League, Gordon Strachan (Coventry and Southampton) ,George Graham (Arsenal, Tottenham and Leeds) Walter Smith (Everton) and most recently Alex McLeish with Birmingham. We have also seen Joe Jordan, Gary McAllister and Steve Clarke in Assistant Manager roles at Tottenham, Aston Villa and Liverpool. Steve Nicol, John Spencer and Mo Johnston, both former Scottish internationals are also highly respected managers within Major League Soccer in the USA.

Some of the top pundits and commentators within the game are Scottish. Andy Gray at SkySports and now TalkSport, Alan Brazil also at TalkSport, Craig Burley at ESPN and Alan Hansen for the BBC. When they talk, people listen. When these people provide analysis on a match they sometimes sound harsh but authoritative and their views are highly regarded. You don't hear many people from the North West or the West Country on the radio or television!

So in conclusion the question remains "Why are there so many Scottish managers in the Premier League"? I think the simple answer is firstly that they have many successful role models to follow, they are unbelievably passionate, they have a fantastic work rate and desire to succeed and they start to learn the trade whilst they are still playing. With 4 of the current Scottish managers in the English Premier League in their early 40's we may possibly see another Sir Alex in the coming years.

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The Class of Euro 96

June 8th 2011 and it is 15 years ago that the England football team lifted the nation by reaching the semi-finals of the 1996 European Championships. A tournament never to be forgotten by all English football fans it was a rollercoster ride with many highs and the ultimate low - elimination by Germany in a penalty shoot out at the semi-final stage.

The squad of players that manager Terry Venables had assembled for this tournament was a good balance of youth (Robbie Fowler, Sol Campbell, Phil Neville and Gary Neville who were all under 21), experience (David Seaman, Stuart Pearce and Teddy Sheringham) and playmaking (Jamie Redknapp, Paul Gascoigne, Paul Ince).

The camaraderie amongst the players was superb and was further enhanced during a pre tournament tour to Hong Kong where the players (led by Gascoigne) were involved in a drinking game called "The Dentist's Chair". They were unfortunately photographed by the press which led to them making the front pages rather than the back pages. This led to widespread criticism from fans and the media alike who were appalled by the display of "laddish behaviour", and binge drinking in the lead up to the largest sporting event England had hosted since the World Cup win in 1966. Apologies were issued by the players involved but you always had the impression that the whole situation made the bond between the players stronger.   

Many England fans have fantastic recollections of the tournament like Gazza's goal against Scotland, Stuart Pearce's penalty and the 4-1 demolition of Holland but for the neutral it was a tournament of bore draws and penalty shoot outs. On the plus side however, the tournament was the catalyst which led to the foreign invasion of players from abroad who decided that they wished to ply their trade in the still relatively new English Premier League. Players like Karel Poborsky, Patrik Berger, Jordi Cruyff, Mikkel Beck, Frank LeBoeuf, Slaven Bilic, Fabrizio Ravanelli and Gianfranco Zola all joined Premier League clubs for the 1996-1997 season.

At time of writing there are only 3 members of that England squad still currently playing professional football. Sol Campbell who is now 36 and without a club, Robbie Fowler who is 36 and also without a club, Phil Neville who is 34 and is captain of Everton and Nick Barmby who is 37 and plays for Hull City.

A number of that side have also had a go at managing teams with varying success:

Stuart Pearce- Notts Forest, Man City, Current England U21 manager,
David Platt - Sampdoria, Notts Forest, England U21 manager, Current Man City First Team Coach
Paul Ince - Macclesfield, Notts County, MK Dons, Blackburn Rovers
Tony Adams - Wycombe, Portsmouth, Gabala (Azerbaijan)
Alan Shearer - Newcastle
Gareth Southgate - Middlesbrough
Paul Gascoigne - Kettering
Ian Walker - Current Bishops Stortford Manager
Les Ferdinand - Current Tottenham Striker Coach
Steve Stone - Current Newcastle First Team Coach
Tim Flowers - Stafford Rangers

Gary Neville, Alan Shearer, Steve McManaman and Jamie Redknapp have all carved out successful careers within the media and have all admitted that one day they would like to get into a managerial role.

15 years on and it is highly unlikely that you will see an England squad of players as close as the one we saw in 1996. Gone are the days where the players can bond over a few pints after training whilst they are with their international team mates. Instead they are confined to their rooms with their X-Boxes playing as themselves on the latest edition from the FIFA Football series of games. Maybe we should go back to the good old days of 1996 to get that all important team spirit back. Besides we can't get any worse than the performance of the England team in last year's World Cup in South Africa. Something to think about at least!!

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Mark Hughes - What team will he manage next?

Mark Hughes resigned from Fulham on the 2nd June 2011 after only 11 months at the club citing that "As a young, ambitious manager I wish to move on to further my experiences". An eighth place finish in the English Premier League and qualification to the Europa League via the Fair Play League was overall not a bad finish considering they were 15th at Christmas. Does Hughes think Fulham are not a fashionable enough club unable to sign top players from around the world therefore struggling to gain a top 10 position each year? Is he hankering after the Chelsea job following the dismissal of Carlo Ancelotti?

A former player at Chelsea and a fan's favourite, Hughes will certainly be welcomed by the Stamford Bridge faithful but is this role a poisoned chalice? After all Ancelotti was sacked the season after he had won the first League and Cup double in the club's history. A bit harsh in a lot of people's eyes but Chelsea have turned into the Real Madrid of the English Premier League where if you don't win the league every year you end up losing your job. A more viable option is Aston Villa where Gerrard Houllier has just left due to ill health. Villa have a great infrastructure already in place, fantastic academy, top facilities etc but Chairman Randy Lerner is renowned for being very careful with his spending which is why Martin O'Neil left at the start of last season. Hughes has had the luxury of a blank cheque book when he was at Man City - this will not be the case at Aston Villa and besides, are they that much bigger than Fulham? At least Fulham will be playing in Europe this season.

Maybe Hughes fancies his chances of managing abroad and attempt to emulate the success of previous British managers like Sir Bobby Robson, John Toshack, Terry Venables and to an extent Steve McClaren? During his playing career he turned out for two of Europe's top club sides in Barcelona and Bayern Munich, therefore he may look at opportunities in both Spain and Germany. Having previously managed the Welsh national side for 5 years Hughes gained a wealth of experience on how football is played on the continent - remember he nearly qualified for Euro 2004 only losing out to Russia in the play offs. He has also had experience with dealing with players from all nationalities from his time at Manchester City where most of the dressing room was made up of players from abroad.

I personally think Hughes will bide his time and wait for the right opportunity. He is still relatively young for a manager (47) and can take a year or two sabbatical. Having said that, maybe he is waiting for the Manchester United job when Sir Alex Ferguson goes........you never know!

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Paul Scholes Retires

Paul Scholes has retired from playing

As predicted in an earlier blog of mine, Paul Scholes officially announced his retirement on the 31st May 2011 with immediate effect to take up a coaching role at Manchester United next season.

Scholes will forever be regarded by the Old Trafford faithful as a legend and he is arguably one of the greatest players the Premier League has seen. Thierry Henry has previously said, "Without any doubt the best player in the Premiership has to be Scholes... He knows how to do everything."

In February of this year, one of the current best players in the world, Barcelona midfielder Xavi rated Scholes as the best player in his position in the past two decades. stating "A role model. For me, and I really mean this, he's the best central midfielder I've seen in the last 15, 20 years. He's spectacular, he has it all, the last pass, goals, he's strong, he doesn't lose the ball, vision. If he'd been Spanish he might have been rated more highly. Players love him."

Schole's passing, movement, technique and ability to strike a ball cleanly was second to none but he unfortunately gained a lot of criticism for his tackling. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger was quoted as saying that Scholes had a darker side to him and that he was not a fair player - this I feel is an unfair comment. I don't think he has a dark side to him at all, he is a family man who stayed out of the limelight and gave it 110% on the pitch. Yes he made some bad tackles during his career but the majority of them were mis-timed - remember that Scholes had paid the price for his tackling previously when he missed the 1999 European Champions League final because of suspension. It was just part of his game.

I'm sure that Paul Scholes will be looked upon in years time as a role model to aspiring professionals not only for his playing skills but also for the way he conducted himself off of the pitch. As previously stated he is a family man and is famously quoted as saying that his ideal day is  "Train in the morning, pick up my children from school, play with them, have tea, put them to bed and then watch a bit of TV." A lot of the current crop of Premier League stars could take a leaf out of Scholes' book on this front!

Paul Scholes Playing Statistics

Premier League Appearances for Man Utd: 466

Premier League Appearances: 102

Total Games All Competitions for Man Utd: 676

Total Goals All Competitions for Man Utd: 150

Total Games for England: 66

Total Goals for England: 14

Premier League Winner: 10 times

FA Cup Winner: 3 times

League Cup: 2 times

Community Shield : 5 times

UEFA Champions League - 2 times

Intercontinental Cup - 1 time

FIFA Club World Club - 1 time

Premier League Player of the Month - 3 times

PFA Premier League Team of the Year - 3 times

English Football League Hall of Fame - Inducted 2008

We wish Paul Scholes all of the best for his future coaching career at Manchester United. 

Visit my site http://www.premierleagueheroes.co.uk/ for information, statistics and video on all of your favourite Ex English Premier League players.

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For information and statistics on legends of the Premier League take a look at Premier League Heroes

Ex Premier League players now in the MLS

The summer transfer rumour mill is in full swing now and some big names looking for a final big payday are in the frame for a move to the USA to ply their trade within the MLS (Major League Soccer). Robert Pires, Robbie Fowler, Markus Hahnemann and Mateja Kezman are all ex Premier League players who have been rumoured to make the move.

Is it good for the MLS to bring these players over on megabuck pay deals when they have clearly had their best days? What value can they add to the team other than increasing crowd attendances for a couple of weeks until the novelty wears off? Obviously Beckham and Henry are exceptions as they were both in their early thirties when they joined LA Galaxy and the New York Red Bulls and have so far proved their worth. Robert Pires for example is 37 - is he honestly going to be that much of a draw commercially and more importantly is he going to cut it on the pitch bearing in mind he was mostly sitting on the bench at Aston Villa before they released him.

If the MLS wants to improve the overall playing standard of the league they need to try to get players in their late 20's early 30's and look at some of the current players within the English Championship, many of whom, I'm sure would be a success over there.

Current Players in the MLS with English Premier League experience
Premier League Appearances in brackets

Juan Pablo Angel - LA Galaxy (175)
David Beckham - LA Galaxy (265)
Jay De Merit - Vancouver Whitecaps (32)
Didier Domi - New England Revolution (67)
Landon Donovan - LA Galaxy (10)
Terry Dunfield - Vancouver (1)
Richard Eckersley - Toronto (2)
Caleb Folan - Colorado Rapids (38)
Theirry Henry - New York Red Bulls (254)
Kasey Keller - Seattle Sounders (201)
Carl Robinson - NY Red Bulls (6)
Teemo Tainio - NY Red Bulls (88)
Ousmane Dabo - New England Revolution (25)

Visit my site http://www.premierleagueheroes.co.uk/ for information, statistics and video on all of your favourite Ex English Premier League players.

Visit my Premier League Shop for all your Official Premier League Team Merchandise and Gifts.

For information and statistics on legends of the Premier League take a look at Premier League Heroes

Ex English Premier League Players currently managing in England

With the managerial merry go round in full swing after the end of the season we look at the players who have played in the English Premier League who now manage a English league club.

Exeter City - Paul Tisdale (Southampton)

Rochdale - Keith Hill (Blackburn)

Huddersfield - Lee Clark (Fulham, Newcastle)

Leeds - Simon Grayson (Aston Villa, Leicester)

Derby - Nigel Clough (Man City, Liverpool, Notts Forest, Sheffield Wednesday)

Blackpool - Ian Holloway (QPR)

Sunderland - Steve Bruce (Man Utd)

Chesterfield - John Sheridan (Sheffield Wednesday)

Watford - Malky Mackay (Watford)

Brighton - Gus Poyet (Chelsea, Tottenham)

Man City - Roberto Mancini (Leicester)

Bolton - Owen Coyle (Bolton)

Oldham - Paul Dickov (Arsenal, Man City, Leicester, Blackburn)

Portsmouth - Steve Cotterrill (Wimbledon)

Plymouth - Peter Reid (Man City, Southampton)

Hull - Nigel Pearson (Sheffield Weds, Middlesbrough)

Fulham - Mark Hughes (Chelsea, Man Utd, Southampton, Everton, Blackburn)

Crystal Palace - Dougie Freedman (Crystal Palace, Notts Forest)

Peterborough - Darren Ferguson (Man Utd)

Aldershot - Dean Holdsworth (Wimbledon, Bolton)

Charlton - Chris Powell (Watford, Charlton, Derby)

Sheffield Wednesday - Gary Megson (Norwich)

Rotherham - Andy Scott (Sheffield Utd)

Port Vale - Micky Adams (Southampton)

Barnet - Lawrie Sanchez (Wimbledon, Swindon)

Swindon - Paolo Di Canio (Sheffield Weds, Charlton, West Ham)

Sheffield Utd - Danny Wilson (Sheffield Weds)

All in all 29% of all managers in the league have played Premier League football. Some of the names are obvious (Di Canio, Bruce, Hughes, Holdsworth) some less (Tisdale, Hill and Scott).

Visit my site http://www.premierleagueheroes.co.uk/ for information, statistics and video on all of your favourite Ex English Premier League players.

Visit my Premier League Shop for all your Official Premier League Team Merchandise and Gifts.

For information and statistics on legends of the Premier League take a look at Premier League Heroes