The Deloitte money league was published the other week. It usually has some interesting observations, and this year was no different. One particularly grotesque figure was the £64 million that Chelsea have spent on hiring and firing managers during the past four seasons. If rumours are to be believed, and Roman has taken his diamond encrusted axe to the sharpeners once again, then you can probably stick another twenty mill onto that total this time next year. Remember, Peter Kenyon said they’d break even by 2009/10 season. They’ve never ever been close. Anyway, all this talk of money got me thinking about the two biggest names in England, and how their profile isn’t quite matched by their spending power. With that in mind, I wrote something for The FCF.
Liverpool and Manchester United: Owners in love
One day the mighty houses of Old Trafford and Anfield may be forced together to promote their joint agenda. Crazy talk, given recent events, but before you start twirling your finger round your temple, cast your mind back to Autumn last year when Liverpool were embroiled in a media shit storm entirely of their own making. No, this isn’t an article about that, it’s about money – foreign money, to be precise.
It was in October 2011 that Liverpool’s managing director, Ian Ayre, voiced his desire to scrap the Premier League’s collective bargaining agreement on foreign TV rights: if Real Madrid and Barcelona negotiate their own contracts, English clubs should too. His views were immediately condemned as blatant greed that would destroy the competitive framework of the league (fans who’d seen their clubs face financial ruin following brief stints in the Premier League might detect a hint of irony in this stance).
