Liverpool Football Club: Being re labelled as “the selling club”

I wrote an article for Weekender (Daily Tribune) during last week of December 2014 “Big stars are Liverpool? May take another season of TOP 4 Finish”.

My argument was this: When a player of the quality and record of Cesc Fabregas (36 Million), Diego Costa (40 million), Alexis Sanchez (44 million) look for a football club shift, they look for a pedigree, consistency in management, ownership, football at top flight and trophies.

Liverpool has a huge history and without a shadow of doubt, they are one of the most followed clubs in the world, but they have not won a Premier league title since its inception.

They had a fantastic last season (2013-2014) and reached Champions League again. But, from 2014-2015 onwards, the club needed to show that it was not a one season wonder thing, and they can maintain their TOP 4 status, if not winning the League title or some trophies like FA cup.

But how did this season go?

Liverpool lasted only in the group stages of Champions league this year, winning only one game against Ludogorets. They had a very bad start to the Premier League Season, loosing 7 of the first 16. Then came a turn around and they went ahead with 13 games without losing. But it went downhill again, losing to United and Arsenal, making their position extremely difficult for a top 4 finish. After the league cup semi-final exit at the hands of their recent nemesis Chelsea, the club was left with one big hope – to win the FA cup. This too lasted only till the Semi Finals.

Now what from here?

Press is full of claims that Liverpool has become a “Selling Club”. With one trophy in 9 years, Liverpool will be forced to sell more players this summer. Can you deny that so many big players who left the club in recent past, has already won major honors with their new clubs? I actually respect the way the new Liverpool owners has handled the club, in terms of handling the debt and their player wage policy. But, to compete with the likes of Chelsea and City, to win the Trophies, they need to reconsider the strategy and mission.

Or this, once a great club, will soon become a Southampton. Dream and objective each year will be Top 4 finish, players will be developed at the club, which is a fascinating thing. But they will eventually leave the club “for Trophies”.

Indian Premier League: Another Indian Tamasha or a Real Cricket League

During the Opening Ceremony of IPL season 8, Sourav Ganguly says that “IPL has done wonders for Indian Cricket”. 

Though I agree that an IPL is better than no IPL at all, as it helps so many young cricketers who may or may not make the final 11 or final 15 of the National Team, to enjoy cricket with Indian and International stars and also earn good money, But “IPL working wonders for Indian Cricket”. Am I missing something or people are just paid to say what they are supposed to say?

Let’s compare the performance of Indian Cricket Team in both tests and one day internationals between pre IPL Period and Post IPL. And for the sake of really testing the capabilities of the team with respect to challenging situations, let’s compare their performance outside home, especially in England, Australia and South Africa. Because this has been the week area for Indian Cricket and we all know about it.

IPL was founded in 2008, so as per Sourav’s claims, it must have planted its improvement since 2009? Hypothetically at least. Let’s compare Test Cricket Team’s Performance First:

From 2002 to 2008 (6 seasons), Indian team managed to register “One Test Series Win, 2 Series were drawn and they Lost 2”. This includes a test series win in England and a Series in Australia ending 1 match each. They lost only in England, by one match. Then came IPL and from 2009 till date they “haven’t won a single test series in these countries, drawn 2 and lost 5!” This includes miserable whitewashes in England and Australia. The way they lost in England and Australia during 2011 and 12, it’s hard to understand what Sourav is saying.

May be I should not talk about test cricket? Though that should be the first priority if you are a cricketer, right? But anyhow, maybe he was suggesting one day cricket performance? Let’s see about that. From 2002 and 2008 again, Indian team managed to “Win 3 one day series in Australia and England”. Where as from 2008 until now, they have “Won 2”. More or less same? Or worse?

If we talk about World Cups, during the pre IPL period, India was finalist in One and Lost out in Group Stage in West Indies. During the Post IPL period, they Won a cup and reached one semifinal. The cup they won was obviously in India, as you know. One noticeable achievement was winning champions trophy in England. But that’s about it, that stands out.

I still don’t understand how IPL has done Wonders to Indian Cricket. Do you?

And the Winner takes it all?

Is winning everything in sport? Yes? So what role the remaining 10 teams played in the Cricket World cup? And if you are thinking of only Australia as the winner, what role did other 13 teams play?

Definition of Sport from WikiPedia: Sport (or sports) is all forms of usually competitive physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing entertainment to participants, and in some cases, spectators.

Though it also says: In competitive events, participants are graded or classified based on their "result" and often divided into groups of comparable performance, (e.g. gender, weight and age).

Yes, every time a sports man comes out to the field, all that is there in his mind is to give his most competitive, best shot and emerge as a champion. It makes sense; a sports man provides the best sporting skill (which is what we are watching on the TV) only when he gives his most competitive best in the sport. Only the best foot forward is the most entertaining and eventually a “winner”.

But, sometimes, a looser or the second best man/men/team wins your heart, if I am a spectator. The whole world minus the Aussies, wanted New Zealand to win the final. Why? One reason is that they wanted a change in the order. Australia had won it 4 times before this one; New Zealand had never even emerged in the final before this one.

It’s the love for the underdogs, the story of dreams, and the story of revenge. That is always more beautiful than the story of Sporting Mastery to the level of monopoly – the super power.

The story of a team who played like gladiators and laid down tactics to counter punch the superior power, to bring down the almighty power. The story of rebels uprising.

It wasn’t to be the case this time, it happened in 1983 when India won the cup defeating the almighty West Indies, or in 1992, when Pakistan did so to England. But the Gladiators from the kiwiland did win our hearts. 

They might still be under the shadows of the “All Blacks” (their Rugby team who has ruled the sport), but this time though they can hold their heads high, as the they took one major step forward. They made the Rugby obsessed country, talk about this team.  

Cricket World Cup 2015: Too Long, But not too Frivolous

By the time you read this article, Cricket World Cup 2015 might be at its final stage and South Africa or New Zealand would have reached their First World Cup Final Ever. And either of them would be getting ready for either Australia or India.

But from what we witnessed so far in this edition, few things will remain in our memories and few will be quite unique to this World Cup.

For me, among all, the performance of the Associate Nations stood out. I have reflected in my earlier articles on how teams like Ireland and Afghanistan gave top test playing teams a run for their money and a reminder to ICC on what they have not done properly at all – and that is to help these teams grow beyond “the once in 4 years World Cups”.

This World Cup broke batting records I guess. No other world cup saw so many teams scoring 300 plus totals. In fact, we even saw scores of 400 plus. This did not come as a huge surprise to me, as the initial indication was to encourage good batting tracks and the likes of AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell were bound to exploit it, with their fearless batting, which in itself, is a testimonial to modern day “I play my way” cricket.

But a pleasant surprise though, was a reminder to every cricket fan that fast bowling is not dead in shorter format of the game. No matter how big the bats become, how flat the pitches and how audacious the batting, if you can bowl your heart out at 140 KPH plus, you can still put the batsmen on the back foot and in fact turn the game completely. The ‘chin music’ is here to stay!

Wahab Riaz’s scorching spell at the Aussie batsmen, Mitchell Starc’s 150KMH Yorkers at the Kiwis were two of my favorite moments from the cup.

What were your stand-out memories?

Why Cricket is a Better Sport than Football

During a Cricket World Cup game, I came across an advertisement which says “while you wait for the next over to start, you can go to our website and compare various insurance policies and save Rs. 7000”. At first, it sounded like every other Indian Advertisement. But, I gave it a thought and it’s not totally bizarre. That’s the beauty of this game.

Unlike football, I don’t have to dedicate myself to a cricket game completely. I can use washroom while a fast bowler goes back to his long run up, rubs the ball with his pants, spits on it a couple of times, etc. I can take a break after the first hour of the game (15 overs or so) , go to grocery shopping with my wife and come back after an hour, and last hour of the game (the most entertaining one) will be left still. I can then take another break, may be respond to my emails or eat my lunch and come back for the second innings. Can I do all this with Football?

I have the privilege to watch my team play our arch rivals or neighbors again and again. How often England football team play Scotland or Ireland or their rivals Germany? In Cricket, India plays Sri Lanka twice in a year (for a full series). It’s easy; there are hardly 10 regular teams in the cricketing world. Familiar foes, familiar game, all the time. It’s so comforting, the usualness of it.

It gets even better when you move to Indian Premier League: Beautiful cheerleaders, 100s of Sixes, Spicy commentary by the likes of Navjot Singh Sidhu. I will never get this kind of entertainment ever in football. The so called legends and pundits of football are too boring and they focus too much on the game and analysis. I can read a newspaper for that. I am not watching the game to learn anything from it, I just came back from my office, and I need entertainment.

I want my game’s experts to tell me “it’s gone for four” when it’s “gone for four” and also to let me know that “players are shaking hands” when “players are shaking hands”. I mean I can see what’s happening on TV, but instead of over reading the game, analyzing it etc, I love my TV to let me know exactly what’s happening on TV, right?

Cricket World Cup 2015: Performance of Associate Nations, a reminder of what the game could have been

Continuing and concluding my last week’s article on how ICC is failing in its mission to globalize the game of cricket, let’s look back at this year’s cricket world cup thus far and you will be amazed how the “associate cricket members” like Ireland has performed so far.

Ireland “handsomely” defeated West Indies in their group game, New Zealand lost 7 wickets chasing Scotland’s minor total, Afghanistan nearly triggered an upset at the cost of SriLanka. Now these Associate sides do not face regular cricketing teams other than in World Cups, and yet, they are good enough to compete with them. So imagine how competitive the game can become, if they are allowed to play with these teams more regularly.

Why this doesn’t happen that way then? Reason is simple. Unlike Football bodies like FIFA, International Cricket Council does not put growth of the game as their agenda, at all. That’s it. Simple.

That’s not the priority, that never was. And they decided on it long back, when they decided not to include cricket in Olympics (which will give global exposure to the game, with much larger audience, taking game to new countries and generation). The only agenda for the cricket body is to focus on three main members of the council (India, England and Australia) and make them richer, more richer than they already are.

World of Cricket cannot survive without these 3 – even SriLanka, South Africa , New Zealand and others are dependent on these boards to survive. These 3 countries are the custodians of the game, because they are the ones who are financing the sport. Hosting a tri series between India, Ireland and Afghanistan would not bring even a tiny percentage of what sponsors can bring to the table for an IPL or a series between regular members.

A Cricket World Cup involving 14 nations this year is already quite interesting and you can only imagine how it would be if only ICC don’t tag teams like Ireland as “Associates”.

International Cricket Council: The Guardians of Sport’s Growth (Part 1)

If you go to International Cricket Council’s website, home page highlights their Strategic Direction – “Our long-term success will be judged on growth in participation and public interest and the competitiveness of teams participating in men's and women's international cricket” its mission says “promoting the global game”. 

How about if you really judge their success in terms of this mission?

Since 1989, ICC has added Bangladesh and Zimbabwe to its Full Member List (10 out of a total membership of 106) along with South Africa who was anyways “reelected”. Out of 106, these 10 are Full Members and rest either Associates or Affiliates.

As you know by now that it’s the Full Member nations: Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and Zimbabwe who have the right to play Test Cricket – this also means that they don’t have to qualify for the World Cups. And you know these teams very well; they are the only ones who play cricket for you, right?

Associate members on the other hand are supposed to qualify for the World Cup Tournament, though; they are eligible to play One Day Cricket with Full Members as well. From ICC’s website:

“ICC  One Day International  World Cricket League One Day International status, which allows associate and affiliate teams to be eligible to play the full members and play-official ODI cricket.”

Do you know that Afghanistan (who nearly pulled off a set back against Sri Lanka on 22^nd Feb Game), Ireland (who crushed Full Member West Indies on Feb 16th World Cup Game), and Scotland (who made New Zealand work hard for their game on Feb 17th game) are actually eligible to “grow by playing more one day internationals against full members”?

Now, when was the last time you saw these Associate Members touring or inviting any of the Full Members? And do you know that the next two world cups might be played only between 10 countries and not 14 like in this world cup? So no Ireland and Afghanistan in the next World Cup.

How then ICC will reach its mission of “promoting the global game”? (To be continued…)

Cricket World Cup 2015: Romancing the Quarter Finals

This world cup has to be one of the lengthiest in terms of number of matches and duration – 42 matches over a period of one month. It may sound as if it’s a treat to cricket lovers, but a lot can be asked about the format of the tournament.

There are 14 teams in the tournament: 10 ICC full members and 4 associates. 14 teams are divided into 2 groups of 7 each and they fight out with each other to “qualify for 8 quarterfinal spots” – 14 teams reduced to 8 teams for the quarterfinals, right? Now, if Bangladesh does not manage to perform beyond expectations (which is the expectation), which 8 nations will qualify for quarterfinals? This won’t be a million dollar question, would it be?

So, then, we have 8 traditional test playing nations “trying to qualify for 8 quarter final spots”. I assume that as each of them play 6 matches each in the group stage, they will qualify, even if they go thru one rare/unexpected result with an associate team. So even the out of form, out of sorts West Indies will, in all probability, qualify.  And then they could end up playing one of the better teams – Australia or New Zealand in the quarters. And, one fine day of cricket will take them to semis, or, 2 fine days of cricket will take them to final, or, 3 fine days of cricket will win them the cup.

So, it takes 3 fine days of cricket to win the world cup after all! In Football world cup, you have 32 teams  and even these 32 teams go thru a tough format to even qualify to play for the world cup – such is the competition and hence, 16 teams from 4 groups qualify for the pre quarterfinals. It’s needed, it makes sense. But in cricket, where you can make a guess on quarter finalists even before the opening ceremony, the format is more helpful to a West Indies than an Australia or New Zealand.

On the other side though, If results of 16^th Feb (Ireland upsetting West Indies) are repeated, we might be in for an interesting one.

Cricket World Cup 2015: What to look forward to

The 11^th edition of the Cricket World Cup in Australia and New Zealand is a huge event to look forward to for any cricket fan. The tournament which is merely 3 weeks away will host 49 games to be played among 14 teams. What do we really look forward to?

A Competitive Tournament

I feel that this World Cup could be more competitive than its previous editions and this is simply because of the form and combinations that various key teams carry from last year. India are the defending champions and will always pose a shot under the leadership of MS Dhoni. Australia will always be the favourites, being the host and also because of the team they are posing now under the young leadership of Michael Clarke (should he recover from his injury) or George Bailey. Same goes for the second host New Zealand. I believe the Kiwis enjoyed a great 2014 and they have a team to compete for any situation.

South Africa has always been competitive in these tournaments and will do everything to reach another semi-final and may do better. Pakistan and Sri Lanka have always surprised us in World Cups and England are lining up to get the team combination right (under a new captain Morgan) to try and reach their 4^th final.

More runs down under

Generally, Australia and New Zealand have been providing bowler friendly pitches and that has over the years made the case for low or medium scoring games down under. But this time around, we may see batsmen enjoying much more friendly pitches and hence, much on the lines of Subcontinent, this tournament may also provide some high scoring games

Young Leadership

This tournament may well see a very young leader lifting the trophy. World Cups in the past have generally seen senior leaders like Imran Khan, Arjun Ranatunga, or consistent leaders like Dhoni and Ponting lifting the trophy and their nations. This time around, it might well be a young leader like George Bailey or Brendon McCullum or AB de Villiers.

The Game will never be the same, but more or less the same

The sad and unfortunate incident involving Phillip Hughes left all of us shocked, terrified and bemoaning. The Australians were not alone in the feeling that life can be so unfair.

The game was on course to never be the same again and no other incident can reflect it more than the one when Mitchell Johnson hit Virat Kohli on the helmet during the first test of the Border Gavaskar trophy a while back: unlike the typical Australian response of getting closer to the batsman (who has just got hit with the red hard leather ball coming at a speed of 150 km/ hr ) and yelling at him “you will get a broken arm ”. Mitchel Johnson walked towards Kohli in a rather more concerned manner, as if he wanted to know “if he is ok”.

“The game had changed”- but only for a while. After all, the show must go on. The same leather ball hit many other Indian batsmen over the course of 4 Cricket Test Matches and intention may not be to hurt them bad, but to let them know that it’s capable of reaching their face.

In this game, it’s a bowling side’s way of saying that we are not here to let you place the ball where you want, while you enjoy yourself on your front foot.

And the game was never supposed to change. Right from the time Cricket was invented, a bouncer is a weapon for the bowlers to let the batsmen know who is the boss or in a more sporting sense " i am here too" and above all, it’s one of the key weapons to win the mental games and edge out the opponent. And not to forget, that’s what tests a batsman’s skills too.

In today’s scenario, with the game so much in favour of batsmen, it will be one dull affair if you take that away from a bowler. It’s the Malcolm Marshalls and the Mitchell Johnsons that make the game what it is.

And tell me if there is a sport in the world which guarantees complete safety to the sports men. No one wants to see a human get hurt in a sport, but this world won’t be complete with a chess or a darting game.

Why League Position at Christmas can be so important for English Premier League Clubs

It’s that time of the year again: a lot of festivities, a lot of rain, a lot of happiness and a hell lot of football. Its Christmas time!

Obviously, if you ask the players and managers, it’s not a very merry time for them: they have to play more than 2 games within 8 days at times in England – when you take in to account that some teams have to play Premier League games along with Champions League and Capital One Cup games. But it’s something they cannot avoid and it’s something that has a very important relevance for English Premier League Teams.

Sticking to English Premier League, most of the team roughly plays 6 to 7 league games in the month of December and how they stack up in the league’s table can be very crucial. It goes without saying that their position has a lot to do with how they have been playing since August, but with so many featured games in one month, how they perform in these games can actually change a lot of fortunes for them.

Interestingly, how they end up in the league table at Christmas may just decide their position at the end of the full season. For English Premier League, since 1993, the teams who finished 1^st at Christmas has gone on to win the League 10 times. And only once, they finished below top 4. Since 2010, 4 times,  teams finishing Christmas as league leaders has gone on to win the league eventually.

With one more weekend in the Premier League to go before Christmas, games for Chelsea and Manchester City may hold huge significance, as they are currently separated by 3 points only.

What about the teams down the table then? It’s bad: only once since 1993, a team in bottom 3 survived from the Relegation. Now this makes the matches involving QPR, Hull and Leicester very interesting and actually pivotal.

An Instrumental Leader and a Tactical Genius

"A leader takes people where they would never go on their own." Hans Finzel

In the world of football, above can be said for quite a few football managers, but no one will come closer than Jose Mourinho, currently Football Manager for Chelsea Football Club.

Today at 51, Jose is regarded by many as one of the Greatest Football Managers ever and his record speaks for himself: he has won the domestic leagues with Porto (2002-2003 and 2003-2004), Chelsea (2004-2005 and 2005-2006), Inter Milan (2008-2009 and 2009-2010) and Real Madrid (2011-2012) and Champions League with Porto (2003-2004), and Inter Milan (2009-2010).

7 Domestic League titles with 4 different clubs and 2 Champions League titles with 2 different clubs is a staggering record which no other football manager has achieved so far.

Achieving what he has, coming from a humble background, is something that cannot be done by sheer hard work and leadership qualities, but needs a Genius. Jose Mourinho has in fact done enough to show the characteristics of a man who can come to a mid-table football club, force the changes, influence the minds and characters of the football players and lead them to be Champions – eventually, if not immediately.

Jose has always been considered by all football players he has managed as an immensely influencing leader: one who has always left an ever-lasting mark on their character. This is a sign of a leader who picks you from an average and makes you do things, you never imagined you would or could do.

They say “there is no great genius without a touch of madness”. Jose has never cared to keep his thoughts to himself and have always been confident of what he is saying. He declared his arrival at Chelsea by calling himself as the “The special one” and I will never forget that he gave the promise to make Porto “champions next year” when Porto came third in 2002 – he knew what he was talking about.

Large part of his success at crucial stages has come due to his tactical genius. He has held an impeccable record for Big Games. Below record against the top guns in English Premier League is just an example:

Season	Games	Win	Draw	Loss
2004-2005	6	4	2	0
2005-2006	6	5	0	1
2006-2007	6	1	4	1
2013-2014	6	5	1	0
2014-2015 (so far)	4	2	2	0

 

He is reaching his 400 points as a football manager in English Premier League faster than any other manager in the history and am I surprised?

Will the real diver please stand up!

Football is a beautiful game. It connects continents like no other game does. It catches the imagination of generations, like no other sport does. Football on TV must be the most followed sports. FIFA world cup 2014 final was watched by an estimated 20 Million people, only on BBC.

How it does it?

The game is fascinating. It pauses the nations when a footballer like Messi takes the ball in to 4 defenders, dribbles pass them, then nears the goalkeeper and chips it over him to score. We are often left wondering, how a small man like him does it week in week out. When Ronaldo decides to take over a free kick from 30 yards, it doesn’t matter what you are doing, it can wait for 1 more minute, can’t it? Because in all probability, the ball will somehow hit the back of the net: you just don’t want to miss how it did.

It’s the skills the game showcases, along with the magic by which it connects nations, continents, and most importantly the Races. That’s why it’s such a great platform to let the generation focus on the game and forget about the evils that otherwise haunts them: poverty, crime, unemployment, racism. In fact it’s a way to win over them.

But is it all beautiful in the game today?

You will wonder, if every game: every instance of this beautiful game is decided on the footballing skills. The game was never 100% clean from controversies: you know Maradona’s hand of God, though no one ever challenged the skills he got in that 1986 world cup or that Argentina eventually were the worthy winners of the cup. But it has gone worst today if I may say this.

It’s not only funny, but equally annoying to see a player of stature of Ronaldo diving without a slightest of the touches from the defender. It’s not only him, you can add many names to the list: Suarez, Robben, it’s not about the names, they all do it today. It’s what the game has become. It’s not just the dive for the penalty, but the “act performed”: many a times to make referee give yellow or red cards to opponent player. You can keep adding to the list of these acts, but one word for all this is “cheating”. And it happens all the time in the game.

What does it do?

It gives a bad example to the kids watching the game. It frustrates the audience. It influences the referees. It influences the results. It influences the nation’s pride. And because so much is at stake, it conveys a message that’s “its ok to do this”, “it’s part of the game”. Most importantly for me, it disgusts me at my footballer.

It should not be. Every game has some grey area: in cricket, a batsman sometimes refuses to walk even if he knows he has nicked the ball. But for a footballer to fall down theatrically and plead for a free kick or a penalty is worst. You should win a game by playing football, Sir. And as the game touches such a huge number of global audiences, it must be as frustrating and annoying for all, as it is for me.

Why does it happen?

A lot at stake: not a justification though, but it is one of the reasons. A football game today brings so much pressure on the footballer, like it never did before. 3 crucial points over the weekend, spot in the Champions League, spot in the World Cup Semi Final. You name it. Winning the game becomes more important than the way it needs to be done.

And then of course, it becomes a habit, it becomes a part of the system. Fans from the other side boo you, but your team mates and fans put a blind fold and give you a high five!

How it can be stopped?

It will never be stopped completely, but at least it should be discouraged. What appals me is the fact that it has become an accepted part for every footballer, every team and every football manager. 

When a footballer of your opponent team does this and gets an unfair result, it is painful right? So why we should not discourage it all levels? Why not tell each and every player of your team not do it? Why not watch the videos of all the finished games and punish the cheater? This is where the footballing bodies come in to picture. And us? We have the biggest responsibility and actually, power to stop this? Why do we worship our footballer who does it? Why can’t we go to his page and say dislike for once: he won’t do it again, will he?

One way or the other, mutually by the players themselves, managers, captains, authorities and most importantly by us, it needs to be made vocal, that this is not accepted. Or, we must be ready to be on the other side some day and we cannot be crying like a hypocrite then.

Steven Gerrard: An Anfield Great, a Legend who inspired Liverpool FC

My Liverpool story is a sad one to some extent. When I started following the club, Liverpool had already lifted the Champions League trophy at Istanbul. Or should I say, Steven Gerrard had already inspired Liverpool to one of the greatest comeback the tournament will ever see. And to probably the greatest moment yet for any Liverpool fan.

But I knew the story of Istanbul (had watched the adrenaline filled video 100 times) and had always looked up to him as a great captain, player, a family man. He was always my hero. I always looked at his family and admired him for the man he is and he has a dream family.

For me it was always an “almost” perfect story. His passion and adrenaline during the big games always rushed thru my blood and I was always hoped that I will see a game that I will never forget in my life. I will never forget the free-kick he scored against United during the 2010 game which we lost 2-3. Stevie puts us back in the game twice: the perfect game was almost there, only to lose it in the end. But that was another hint of a Vintage Steven Gerrard.

Since then though I saw him doing his usual “peach pass” in many games, but best of the memories were in 2013-2014 season when he made so many goals for Suarez and Sturridge. And that game against Manchester City when we grabbed the winner with Coutinho goal. Stevie was all pumped up to tell his team, we won’t let it go this time. I was pumped up too and almost could not sleep many nights in anxiety. That was the one of the best games of my life as a Liverpool fan.

I was waiting for my incomplete footballing story to get its perfect end. It ended in a manner none of us ever anticipated and left me with a grave feeling: something I would never be able to heal myself with. Now imagine what he would be going thru each day of his remaining life.

Having said that, no serious fan would ever blame him for us not winning the league. I would say it was yet another example of Steven Gerrard not getting his hand on that elusive trophy thanks to some mediocre team performance during the big games. I felt sad for him. I felt sad for myself.

But as Stevie himself says: he we go again. And how he almost re-created the Olympiakos during the Basel game is unbelievable. Well they say, sometimes it doesn’t happen twice. Golden moments are not repeated. I missed it in 2005, but my admiration for this man never will be reduced. And who says every story has to end perfectly. Some people leave a mark on your life irrespective. It’s never about the trophies in the cabinet, but about the Man on the Field.

If trophies were the criteria, he could have moved to Chelsea or Madrid long back. He chose to remain as a Loyal and Liverpool city’s most favourite son.

The news that Steven Gerrard will leave Liverpool football club at the end of 2014-2015 season might have come as a surprising but yet an inevitable one for many in the football fraternity, but it is still something that millions of Liverpool Faithfull are still recovering from.

This is not because Steven Gerrard is at the peak of his career or was part of Liverpool’s regular line up week in week out, nor because we were not contemplating something similar after he was left on bench for so many matches including on his 16 year anniversary appearance for Liverpool. But it’s because since his debut for Liverpool 16 years ago, he has been a star born for Liverpool football club.

It’s only fair to say that all Liverpool success during these 16 years came with Gerrard’s crucial contributions: he scored when Liverpool beat Alaves in 2001 UEFA cup final, in the league cup final against Manchester United in 2003, in the FA Cup final and who can forget his thriller against Olympiakos in December 2004, which took Liverpool out of group stages of Champions League final and then the first goal against AC Milan in the unforgettable comeback win in the final.

It was heartening to see him almost re doing the act for Liverpool during this year’s Champions League last group stage game against FC Basel with his trademark free-kick. It was “almost” another Gerrard Speared Breakthrough for Liverpool.

He will probably leave Liverpool with one regret: not winning the Premier League with the club. But, what he did with generally a mediocre Liverpool side (especially if you compare it with Dalglish times), for me, puts him as one of the greatest player ever played and lead Liverpool FC.

Liverpool FC supporters and admirers always looked up to Steven Gerrard as a midfielder who comes only second to Frank Lampard with respect to number of goals from a midfielder in Premier League, as a leader who lead the club to all the success they had in last 16 years, as one of the rare loyal footballer who served his club with same passion for more than a decade in spite of all the opportunities from different club.

His shoes will not be filled ever at Liverpool FC.  He gave me some of the best moments to live with.

Thank you Steven Gerrard for the man you are.

4 things we can learn from the Premier League Transfer Market

Premier League Clubs spent a staggering £760 Million in the transfer market and much of it on the very last day. Aakash Munjal writes about some key conclusions from the hectic deadline day of the Premier League transfer market.

It’s done and dusted. Millions are spent. Squads are strengthened. Fans’ demands have been obliged and pressure from them has been offloaded, for some time. Now only time will tell how right the spending was.

But, in any case, we learnt something from the last month’s spending by Premier League clubs and a lot from the last day of it.

1)      Money is everything today in Football and transfer deadline is desperate

Radamel Falcao moved from Atletico Madrid to Monaco for an undisclosed fee, believed to be around 60 Million Euros, with his net annual salary being reported to be around 18.2 Million Euros. His latest move to Manchester United nets him a salary in the region of £265,000 a week.

 Now it’s debatable as to why he was offered by Monaco at all. Some Say about a “third party ownership rights” where in an investment company owns a player and decides his sale/transfer based on the highest bidder.

Football has changed so much over the years. It should not be forgotten that his move to Monaco meant he cannot play Champions League football, something every player in the planet dream about and now it’s the same with United.

In the same category is Angel Di Maria who was earning 5/6 Million Euros annual salary (debatable) and his demotivation due to that is globally known and now he is at United for better economics.

His father was quoted “Real Madrid never offered a €6m a season salary to my son. The last proposal was €5m, which represented only a million and a half more than the salary he was receiving. Now Angel is happy at Manchester United. Economically, he is being treated better than at Real Madrid. Real Madrid has lost a key player”.

The man who made that goal for Bale in the Champions League final against Atletico Madrid won’t be playing Champions League either – at least for a year.

Lastly, it’s worth mentioning what happened with the likes of Fabio Borini of Liverpool. He could not reach an agreement with Queens Park Rangers, who wanted him and Liverpool was happy with an offer of around £10m. This means, instead of getting a fresh challenge and regular football, he will now, wait to get an opportunity behind Sturridge, Mario and Lambert.         

 He says on Twitter ““I protected the MAN and the player that I am today … taking all the responsibility of the situation and for people who didn’t want it … and I m VERY happy with myself to have taken such an important decision.”

Well, you make a call on this.

2)      Whatever did not make sense, does after all make sense

Clubs throwing stupid money during the stupid deadline day and changing the squad upside down. Players leaving one club to another for reasons they know. It doesn’t make much sense at all. But it’s not that stupid either.

The media is full of shock on Manchester United’s spending. It’s really maddening to think they spend in the region of £200 million, after winning the league just 2 years back!

And once Sir Alex was quoted “we invest in young players. This is what we are good at. We invest in those who will be with the club for a long time. We know that Manchester City are going to pay stupid money, pay silly salaries and all that. We can’t do anything about it.” (source: Martin Samuel for Mail Online)

Economics and Accounts can make sense though.

When you do the whole accounts, it’s not as big as it seems. United sold some players to other clubs this year – Rio Ferdinand, Nani, Welbeck, Shinji Kagawa to name a few of them. Now that brought some money.

Manchester United is one of the biggest earners in England. In 2012-2013, the club revenue was £ 363m and a profit of 146m. In 2014-15, they are expected to have total income of £500m or more.

The key reasons of increase in such earnings are match day income, commercial and broadcasting. They have just done huge deals with Chevrolet and Adidas too.

So what it leads to is, when Falcao and Maria makes appearance for Manchester United, shirt sales will roar in the club’s megastores, so as match day money and commercials. So, as long as the club sees success at the season, everything is forgotten and everything makes sense in football. After all, Glory is what the fans want week in week out.

3)      Sports on TV is a Huge deal now

One of the reasons for clubs to able to spend that amount of money, is the fact that this can be recovered to some extent. And one of the key sources of this earning is the broadcasting share.  According to Deloitte, in 2013-2014 season, Manchester United broadcasting revenues were close to £89 million. That is something we discussed above.

But can be highlight here, is the way sports is getting richer on TV, as a whole. Above has happened because the collective broadcast deal for Premier League for 2013-2014 season was close to £5.5 billion. Out of this total paid out to clubs were close to 1.56 Billion. The top earning club this season were Liverpool on £97.5million, followed by champions Manchester City on £96.6 million.  

And it’s not just football, 2011 F1 group revenue from TV Rights amounted close to £ 300 Million

By the way, “Global Box Office made a record GBP 21 Billion in 2013”

4)      Premier league is the most marketed and competitive league in the world

When I started watching club football, it was Chelsea, United, Liverpool each Saturday/Sunday. To a huge surprise, it took me a while to realize that there are two big clubs in Spain with the name of Real Madrid and Barcelona (and I was not even in India, I was in Doha).  But Premier League is what used to come on my TV all the time and that’s what we used to discuss all the time – may be because I did not have too many Arab friends back then.

What also made Premier league more popular, in spite of legends of Real and Barcelona, is the competitive ness of 20 clubs in the league. Champions City needed injury time goal against QPR (then struggling to come out of relegation) to win the league. This is what gets us hooked to the TV, irrespective of the opponent.

Not surprisingly and to highlight what we talked above, below is how the TV revenues are divided among leagues

League	Revenue 2012-13	Wages 2012-13
Premier League, England	2.9bn euros	2.1bn euros (71% of revenue)
Bundesliga, Germany	2bn euros	1bn euros (51% of revenue)
La Liga, Spain	1.9bn euros	1bn euros (56% of revenue)
Serie A, Italy	1.7bn euros	1.2bn euros (71% of revenue)
Ligue 1, France	1.3bn euros	0.9bn euros (66% of revenue)
Source: Deloitte

How you may drive any sense with respect to Transfer Market, is that, though players like Suarez and Bale have moved to Spanish League, Premiere League Clubs still attract huge names to its league. During 2012-2013 season, half of the clubs had foreign owners, compared to with only one 10 years earlier.

In summary, we have seen the drama of the transfers and we are settled with our new squads and new excitement to a lot of extent. It’s time to focus on football now and the transfer saga will be back in January, 2015.