So here we are, another season in the books and another end-of-season wrap up beginning with a well-worn cliche. For a campaign where a single team has occupied first place throughout, there have still been some fascinating moments.
What about Harry Kane? And fancy Leicester’s relegation Houdini act? And where to now for Falcao? (hint: it is not Manchester… well, at least not the red half). As we stare glumly into the 75 upcoming, football-less days, all we can do now to curb our sorrow is slump happily back into the blissful memories of the season just passed. What have we learned? What has Brendan Rodgers learned? (hint: it rhymes with “don’t dine shallow-jelly”).
1. Chelsea light-years ahead in England.
There is a hum-drum sensation lolling around our minds, as we turn our heads and squint into the fading light of the 14/15 Premier League season. A sort of fuzzy numbness, a kind of deflated feeling, something one would not normally hope to associate the thrilling final stages of what has been a fine campaign. Except the final stages have not been thrilling at all, they have been a drawn-out muddy trudge to an inevitable destination. Chelsea have led the league from stem-to-stern and their stroll to the finish has left everyone else feeling a little flat. Manchester City, the team that finished in second place, have looked, appropriately, thoroughly second best. Manuel Pellegrini will be fortunate to hold City’s top position next season.
Then, moving further down the final standings, you do not have to go far to encounter a collection of teams that, in spite of their handsome league positions, were embroiled in some brand of turmoil or another at some point this season. Arsenal still are plagued by their annual inability to perform to a high level for a whole 38 weeks, and Arsene Wenger still seems utterly flummoxed by Jose Mourinho. Manchester United, with a king’s ransom spent (and arguably, in the cases of Angel Di Maria and Falcao, wasted) have improved on David Moyes’s 2013/14 points total by only six points. Tottenham sublimely glide between 5-3 victories over Chelsea and 2-1 losses to Crystal Palace, and are still waiting for their team to gel (assuming they ever will). And as for Liverpool, well, the 6-1 loss to Stoke in their final match says as much as anything else about the lasting taste this season has left on their palates. Where will the challenge come from next season? A contender has to step up, otherwise another Chelsea cakewalk looms.
2. Drawn-out farewells are never advisable, Steven.
Raheem Sterling’s abhorrent contract saga has been, and continues to be, enough to drive Brendan Rodgers to the bottle, or at least the hookah pipe. But for it to come during the same season that the most painful farewell tour also was staged, it is no wonder their season fell horridly flat. Steven Gerrard has left the building and, honestly, it cannot come soon enough. He has become a beloved liability on the pitch, and something of an awkward distraction off it. The longer it went on, the worse it became, and even Gerrard himself seemed sick of it by the end. When he was applauded by the Chelsea fans while leaving the pitch at Stamford Bridge, he met the ovation coldly; “The Chelsea fans showed respect for a couple of seconds for me but slaughtered me all game so I’m not going to get drawn into wishing the Chelsea fans well.” he said afterwards.
Well, when your club has stage-managed (and, one must assume, with at least partial blessing from the captain himself) the most lethargically drawn-out goodbye party for you, then it does look a little strange to irritably shrug off any ovation, no matter who from. Ryan Giggs, the league’s most decorated player, retired with a press release (not that Ryan Giggs should be held up as the bastion of good decision making). Speaking plainly, this whole ordeal has only served to hurt the club Gerrard loves so dearly, and will be remembered only as a guide for others on what not to do.
3. Manchester City squad suddenly in need of refreshment.
All of a sudden, Manchester City have the oldest average age (28.9) in the Premier League. The core of the squad that has won two of the last four titles, Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, David Silva, Yaya Toure and Sergio Aguero, have all looked (with Aguero excepted) a little long in the tooth this year, Kompany and Toure in particular. And more than just these individual players, the team as a whole has looked a little hangdog, a little torpid. Their attempt at a title defence was one devoid of any real, muscular intent.
The players brought in over the last two seasons that might have rejuvenated the squad have – either through ineffectiveness, or being of advanced age themselves – been unable to maintain the club’s vigour. Bacary Sagna and Frank Lampard were both over 30. Fernando and Eliaquim Mangala are yet to nail down first team spots. All of last season’s big money signings, with the exception of Steven Jovetic, were over 27, and Jovetic has too proven somewhat of a flop. Serious revamping needs to be done here (all within FFP rules, of course). Youth may be wasted on the young, but time, entire Premier League seasons even, are wasted on the old.
4. Newcastle, QPR and Hull show poorly run clubs rarely prosper.
This season we say goodbye to two of the leagues least functional clubs. If Hull City are not fighting among themselves on whether the word “Tigers” should or should not form part of their official club name, they are signing Hatem Ben Arfa. Even though QPR went down two seasons ago after welcoming a bevy of over-the-hill mercenaries who did not perform, they still thought that signing Rio Ferdinand in preparation for this season would be advisable. You could inflate a fleet of Zeppelins on the sighs expelled in exasperation at the behaviour of these two clubs. And Newcastle, though they just avoided relegation this year, are no better. They are the club that thought it a good idea to sell Yohan Cabaye, and replace him with, let us see here…no one.
Then this year the Geordies repeated the same ghastly trick with their own manager, allowing Alan Pardew to skip happily away to Crystal Palace, replacing him with John Carver, a very nice chap who was hopelessly out of his depth at the helm. All three clubs have given master-classes in dysfunction, and their perils this season have come directly from this. What they all need is a no-nonsense manager, a man who can ensure stability, even at the cost of aesthetics. Which brings us neatly to our next point…
5. Who is better off now? West Ham or Allardyce?
Every season in the Premier League, there are teams in need of a steady hand. Newly promoted clubs, teams slogging through second-season syndrome, teams named Sunderland, you name it, every year they grasp blindly for something to stop the plunge. Sam Allardyce, if nothing else (and there may be nothing else) is exactly that, a manager who will nearly always keep a club in the top flight, playing largely dour football, but finishing clear of the drop. 10th, 13th and 12th are the final positions he managed with a West Ham team that, over the last three seasons, have been decimated at times by injury. Their marriage ended surprisingly amicably, on the final day of the season, and now we have to ask – who is better off?
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Sam’s reputation, already that of a hoof-merchant, has only been improved by his time in East London, even though the fans are glad to see the back of him. West Ham now have to buck a certain unwanted trend; Bolton, Newcastle and Blackburn all were relegated not long after sacking Big Sam, and West Ham simply cannot follow suit, with the move to the Olympic Stadium in mind. Dick Advocaat is still tossing up whether or not to stay at Sunderland. You get the feeling they would love a bit of Allardyce-style stolidness for themselves on Wearside.
Look out for Part 2 of Evan Morgan Grahame’s 2014/15 EPL wrap-up tomorrow on Outside90.
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