Possession Is 9/10 Of The Law

I'm not going to ask if you're tired of the obscene hype surrounding the January transfer "window". (If it's a window, it ain't exactly crystal clear. Lots of mud there. You get my drift.) I know you wish it would either a) actually produce something worthwhile (Heskey and Defoe are helping.) or b) take a backseat to the awesome matches that have been occurring lately.

I just really hate it, because this is one of the most important periods in the season, and most of the people who care are too busy looking over their shoulders for "bigger" clubs trying to hawk their players or looking for meat market bargains of their own. There. I'll wipe the processed squash from my mouth and get down from my high chair.

But there is something interesting going on. If you're into the character of the clubs and the managers of whose teams you watch (and I am), then you're witnessing some truly fascinating stuff.

Let's start with one who's just won Pop Idol and trying to forge it's first teenybopper hit: Manchester City. Here is a "massive" mid-table club suddenly infused with more power than it knows what to do this (see Wolverine), and they got a nice trophy in Robinho to show for it. The beasts from the middle east(lands) are promising more big names with a taste for silver, but survey says! Twelfth? Huh. I was thinking ninth or something. And hey, they've said that they don't want to be like Chelsea and sign a bunch of upper so-so guys, so you know who they picked up? Craig "Hot Potato" Bellamy.

So what am I hitting at here. Here's the bottom line: Ownership isn't everything. A GOOD MANAGER IS MOST IMPORTANT, and they're not easy to find.

"Suits, are you daft? Of course you need a good manager. And Mark Hughes is one. After all, he's proved himself already at...Blackburn."

See? I told you.

Mark Hughes is ok. He's two scoops vanilla, hold the sprinkles. I'm saying if City do reach the upper echelons, it won't be with him at the helm. He just doesn't have the "stuff". What would happen if Maicon left Inter and shot to Brazil without warning? WWJ(ose)D? I can guarantee it wouldn't be a "talk" and penance money. It would be, "How many days have you been working here, not counting today?" Yes, if Mark did the same thing, he'd probably be shown the door, but hey it's his team, right?

A good manager is many things, but lenient is not one of them. The problem today is that ownerships aren't allowing fledgling managers to make a team of their own, get their hands dirty, and see what it's like to forge a team out of nothing.

Now let's look at the greatest manager in the world for the past fifteen years, Sir Alex Ferguson.

"Unfair, Suits. How can you compare the two?"

Sparing ALL possible jokes to that question, here's the common denominator: United and City are both serious about winning things. But who's actually doing it? What has made Sir Alex so successful has been his ability to build 1) players up from more than they were before and 2) a team out of those players. City (and Chelsea before them) have bought players already overpriced and at the waning peak of their years. SAF has picked them before they're ripe and nurtured them into a very delicious fruit basket. (Must. Not. Make. Ronaldo. Joke.)

Sure, Sir Alex has been on the hot seat at times like the early Nineties. But the club stuck with him. IMAGINE THAT! Kevin Keegan can't. Neither can Graeme Souness. (Man, I just realized they bother were at Newcastle. Although I don't think that's a coincidence.) I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see City being so patient with Mr. Hughes either. Darn instant gratification society.

I could go on and on, but I want to leave you thinking about this: What makes Van Gaal better than Juande? Jose better than Avram? And Sir Alex better than Big Phil?

My vote is trust. And a little bit of something my friend Jay-Z would say you can't buy: Class.

Another Auld Lang Syne

2009. One hundred forty-six years since the founding of the Football Association. We've got indoor plumbing, color television, and cheap Columbian coffee. But we still can't engineer a cleat that prevents slipping.

Pot shot? Maybe. But it exemplifies the past year in football: unpredictable, unscriptable, and unmissable (ooh, that's a bad one).

But the past is history, and the future's a mystery, so what lies ahead? "Well it's a mystery, Suits. You just said that. Surely you're not going to predict anything." You're right.

But a New Year's Resolution couldn't hurt anybody, right? True. And talk is cheap. Unless you're the exec who worked for the Atlanta Hawks a few years ago promising to refund all season tickets if they didn't make the playoffs. Bummer. That was expensive.

So here's three resolutions I propose to Sepp in Zurich. I know it's about as useful as asking Abe Lincoln to cut the cake at my wedding, but there's just something about this blogging thing that makes things look good in type.

1) Stop the goal line debates
It's going to take a major league with the tools in hand to do it (name one that doesn't), but someone is going to have to stand up to FIFA and use video replays to determine goal decisions. What's Mr. Blatter going to do? Ban the Champions League winner from participating in the Club World Cup? I hear the yawns from here. And I doubt CONMEBOL would refuse entry for Argentinian teams into the Libertadores next season. 'Cause South America needs another violent incident like Nelson Mandela needs 2010 World Cup tickets. The impetus is there, the technology is there, there just seems to be one pooper at this party. And it isn't Watford.

2) Open the floodgates
This is a minor one, but its premise is simple: Let them all play. Whether they're from Yorkshire or Madagascar, let players play for the clubs willing to sign them. Enough talk about limits on foreign players. If Arsene Wenger doesn't want to field a single Englishman in his side and give up an injury time equalizer against Villa in a match that really means something in that country, that's up to him. Let's just drop this whole topic altogether.

3) Salary Caps/Continental Leagues
"Heresy! Anytime we talk to you, Suits, it's always about how much you love how the good teams in soccer are rewarded and the bad ones are punished." I've been reading a great book entitled National Pastime, and it has finally convinced me that our sport would benefit from a little bit of competive balance. Maybe it's the weird heat we've been having in the South lately. Maybe it's the NFL playoffs and that league's ability to produce games of utmost quality week in and week out that's got me talkin' crazy, but I think those guys might be on to something. Either cap it off so we don't get stuck in a rut and start looking to OPEC for saviors or create a continental-wide league that allows the superpowers to take their local dominance to a grander stage. This feels awkward just writing this, so I'm going to stop, but it's definitely food for thought.

I hope you all had a fantastic end to your 2008. And whatever your doomed resolution may be, make sure to get your year's ration of football.

As an aside, here's a shout out to my man John Williams over at The Biased Scouser. Yes, he's Scouse, and yes we're friends. I'll leave it at that.