Remembering that Kenyon's a big cheese in the G!$ Telegraph Would we miss the English G14 members? By Andrew Baker (Filed: 06/01/2003)
My initial reaction to the news that Arsenal are considering an exit from the Premiership was pure delight: quite instinctive, I'm afraid, and caused by over-exposure to Gooners in childhood. It was hard to take in the plan at first (mainly because I was trying to read it off the back of someone else's newspaper on the Tube) and initially I thought that Arsene Wenger had thrown his toys out of the pram once too often and decided that his team were not going to play with anyone else ever again. The only meaningful matches to take place at Highbury and Ashburton Grove would in future be Arsenal v Arsenal reserves, and not a few of the fans might like it that way. Then I realised that it was the old European Superleague chestnut again, and that Wenger was envisaging taking Manchester United and Liverpool with him to go and play with the other big boys in Europe, an idea which comes up a lot more often than my Lottery numbers. Why don't the big clubs just get on and do it, instead of crying wolf? Wenger pointed out that the self-elected group of the most powerful clubs in Europe, the inaptly titled G14, now comprises 18 clubs and that was a nice round number for a league of their own. Then, he suggested, he would not have to put up with such impudence as international calls on his players. Well, would we miss them? A Premiership shorn of the English G14 members would currently show Chelsea and Newcastle locked together at the top on 38 points, with Everton and Southampton breathing down their necks and every prospect of a title race that would thrill until the end of the season. Can you see the fans of those top four clubs complaining, or indeed many other fans? Sure, Liverpudlians and Mancunians would miss their derby matches, but these could be arranged as end-of-season "friendlies". Fans of the three defectors would presumably be delirious to see their heroes picking on people their own size for a change; how delirious they would be at travelling to Europe every other week for away matches is another matter. The latest spat has been provoked because Wenger is upset that so many of his players will be involved in the Confederations Cup this summer, an (admittedly pretty pointless) FIFA tournament featuring France, Brazil, Colombia, Cameroon, the United States, Japan, New Zealand and Turkey. I don't know if anyone at Highbury has the nerve to do it, but someone should take the manager aside and have a word with him about eggs and baskets. If he hadn't done most of his player shopping in France in the first place, he wouldn't now be having such a hissy fit. As for the Super-Duper-Mega League: bring it on. It is almost certainly coming anyway, and the sooner we get rid of the selfish, bloated behemoths on top of our leagues, the sooner we will realise how much we disliked having them sit there in the first place. One spin-off might be a reinvigoration of the FA Cup since, inevitably, the Super-Duper-Leaguers would be far too grand to stoop to such a very domestic competition. Like the Premiership - in fact, rather more urgently than the Premiership - the FA Cup needs a shot in the arm. I grumbled, when the second round was so discombobulated by television scheduling, that games seemed to be kicking off at random, but I thought at the time that the third round, the annual giant-killing festival of English football, would restore a little of the old lustre to the trophy. No such luck. I will no doubt be proved spectacularly wrong by Farnborough or Dagenham & Redbridge in the near future, but it seems to me that the glory days of English giant-killing are largely behind us. The giants have got so big that they are now immune to the weapons of their would-be killers. I look back fondly on the exploits of, say, Sutton United and Hereford United (you may supply your own favourites) and wonder if we will ever see their heroics emulated. It doesn't seem very likely. Twenty years ago the Cup's minnows were not coming up against teams entirely comprised of internationals: even the finest First Division sides were mostly made up of British players and were therefore more fallible. These days the gulf between the haves and the have-nots is almost unbridgeable. Portsmouth, who have all but dominated Nationwide Division One this season, went to Old Trafford and were brushed aside like insects. What would have happened to Tooting & Mitcham or Folkestone Invicta? It doesn't bear thinking about. The defection of the Super-Duper Three would help a little bit (we know that Manchester United have sometimes lacked passion for the cups in the past) but perhaps the competition would benefit from more radical measures. I don't want to sound any more like Colonel Blimp than usual, but would it be such a bad idea to restrict one domestic cup competition each year to British players? It would certainly restore the chances of giant-killers to something like the level they enjoyed in the Seventies and Eighties, and it should provoke the most magnificent fit of pique from the Arsenal manager. Two better reasons for tinkering with the rules are harder to imagine: I leave it to those in charge at the Football Association (whoever it is this week) to do their patriotic duty. *************************************** Reply to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe to the list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe from the list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
