Morning.
A little quick Wednesday waffle. None of which has to do with the party list. Well, maybe not much.
Emilio Smith Rowe
I saw a report earlier in the week that suggested he might need surgery. That story has yet to be repeated by anyone with any real credibility, so we’ll just have to wait and see, but his fitness issues are a bit of a concern.
Here’s the thing: Arsenal gave Smith Rowe the number 10 shirt last season, it’s a great number to take on, and perhaps people have forgotten the fact that he scored 11 goals last season (10 in the Premier League). . For a player who is only 21 years old, it’s an impressive performance, so while I fully understand why there are concerns about his fitness, I don’t understand why I see discussions about his ability.
The talent is there and the skill is there. Fitness isn’t, and obviously that’s a big part of a player’s ability to deliver those raw ingredients, but we’ve seen young players emerge before who have had some physical struggles in the early part of their careers, but then they overcome them to establish themselves properly.
The fact that Gabriel Martinelli is off to a great start to the season means we’re not pining for Smith Rowe right now, but this is a long season and we’re going to need him. Hopefully he can get fit and stay fit soon.
An ‘Star Game’.
Chelsea’s new owner, Todd Boehly, said he hoped “the Premier League would learn a bit of a lesson from American sports”, and suggested the idea of ​​an “All-Star Game” between North and South.
“Why don’t we do a tournament with the last four sports teams, why not have an All-Star Game?
“People are talking about more money for the pyramid, in this year’s MLB All-Star Game we won 200 million dollars between a Monday and a Tuesday.
“So we thought we could do a North versus South All-Star game for the Premier League, for whatever the pyramid needed pretty easily.”
I guess the first thing to say is that the Premier League as a concept was borrowed almost entirely from American sports. David Dein, one of the league’s co-founders, has spoken before about how he based much of the idea of ​​breaking away from his experiences in the United States, in the NFL and the like. The bright lights, the razzmatazz, the improved stadium facilities like food and drink, and even in terms of TV coverage. Where do people think ‘Monday Night Football’ comes from?
Back then, given the state of football in England, the culture that surrounded it, dilapidated stadiums and all, this was ‘relatively’ easy to do. The Premier League broke away, signed a deal with Sky and changed the way football was covered. Since then, we’ve seen cheerleading, part-time ‘entertainment’ (even at Arsenal!) and many more ‘innovations’ taken directly from American sports. Not always to ensure that the fan experience was as good as it could be, but to maximize the revenue that could be extracted from them, squeezing every penny out of the fans.
Here we are in 2022, and the genie is truly out of the bottle. Clubs owned by billionaires, some of whom have no idea about the game but see soccer as a business opportunity; clubs owned by oligarchs and nation states for reasons we all know and understand, but continue to be overlooked; and a league that is now head and shoulders above all others financially, in essence creating its own ‘Super League’, at least when it comes to the transfer market.
I love the idea that Boehly pretends to be concerned with the soccer pyramid as justification for an all-star game. These people must think we’re stupid. You can be sure that if something like this were to come to fruition, it would be a publicized pay-per-view event, a marketing tool, and the money it generated would mostly end up in the pockets of those behind the idea with very little trickling down. .
Mainly, however, as a concept, it shows how little he understands about football. The idea that players from Liverpool, Man Utd, Man City, Newcastle, etc. come together to play against a team made up of London clubs, for example, is simply absurd. Players can set rivalries aside for internationals (even that’s not always true), but for something like this? No chance, but then he’s being introduced by a man who rumor has it suggested Thomas Tuchel play a 4-4-3 formation before he fired him.
Not to mention, he’s talking about adding more games to an already mental match list (here we come!). A tournament of the last four to determine relegation (we already have promotion play-offs); an ‘All-Star Game’; where are you going? With pre-season and international tournaments, players essentially do it non-stop. Are they allowed to rest, or do we just play them until they drop? Answers on a postcard.
Here’s the thing: I think we should be open to any good idea that improves the sport and, pardon the phrase, the ‘product’ that is the Premier League, but this is not it. This is another idea that has to do with money and nothing else. On the other hand, I guess you could say it fits completely into what the Premier League is and has become, so who knows?
Right, that’s your batch for this morning. Have a good.
