There is something intriguing about an anticlimactic start to the Premier League season. Perhaps the subdued atmosphere comes as a relief after the hyperbole of yesteryear. Restraint was all the rage in the summer and it looked at times as if Manchester City were attempting single-handedly to maintain spending levels that used to be reached by all 20 clubs together. There is now a penitential tone, even if the sackcloth and ashes were not delivered to Eastlands, and most owners will be relieved when the Uefa scheme to make clubs balance the books becomes fully effective later in this decade.
A new outlook is already apparent.Whether by preference or necessity, managers are seeking to be judged on their prudence. Sir Alex Ferguson cunningly avoided boastfulness when passing the credit to his scouts for identifying the Mexico forward Javier Hernández so that he could be bought for £7m before his value soared at the World Cup finals.
The concept of a footballer’s value being enhanced by the tournament will, of course, feel peculiar to those who had been following the national team. England failed resoundingly in South Africa and that has contributed to the reflective mood as much as any decline in the economy at large. Fabio Capello was reduced to the excuse-making he must have supposed was the preserve of lesser men.
Within weeks of setting the semi-finals as his target at the World Cup, he was pinning the blame on the lack of a mid-season break when his men were knocked out in the last 16. Capello seemed then to differ from his predecessors only in the fact that he is far better paid.
Now the Italian has to reinvent himself as a nurturer of natural talent. He might have taken Theo Walcott to the World Cup had he not judged that the winger’s form had been impaired by injuries, but there is no spate of young contenders. Manchester City’s Adam Johnson, who is already 23, did not go to South Africa either and in the remainder of the summer he saw a recruitment spree at his club.
City’s summer outlay is expected to pass the £100m by the end of the transfer window. That leaves City with far more than the 25 senior players now allowed to be registered with the Premier League. Even after trimming the numbers, Roberto Mancini will have to keep a clear head if he is not to get lost in the labyrinth of possibilities that will remain.
There is not much scope for excusing any lapses in form on the grounds that this is a work in progress. City’s position in the marketplace is too strong for that explanation to be accepted and their readiness to force through transfers at any cost is currently without parallel. Yaya Touré had been superseded by Sergio Busquets at Barcelona, yet the Premier League club paid a £24m fee for him as well as reported wages of £200,000 a week.
Whatever happens to Touré, City’s readiness to meet any price must ultimately make an impression, particularly when circumstances have weakened other contenders. The widespread uncertainty about the impact of several clubs may, indeed, lead to a gradually rising interest in the outcome of this Premier League contest. With the bombast gone, it would be refreshing to find that weekends were absorbing simply because hitherto mighty teams were more vulnerable than in previous campaigns.
For some, a moment of truth may have arrived. It must, above all, be time for Arsenal to stop being content with their role as a good example and revert instead to the genuine pursuit of silverware. There is work to be done on recasting the defence and a venture to Anfield on the opening weekend is far from ideal. Arsène Wenger is trying to ease Cesc Fábregas and Robin van Persie back into action after the World Cup final played as recently as 11 July, but the club no longer look at so great a disadvantage when City alone operate in an entirely different manner.
The levelling-down progress is already under way and it was no coincidence that the 2010 Champions League final was the first in six years not to feature at least one English club. Fans are well aware that the calibre of football they can expect to see will be at a lower level and the state of the economy at large affects people, too. That was visible in the lack of any rush to snap up season tickets and even Old Trafford was reported to be affected by that syndrome. Nothing much had been done to drum up business at the box office. On the day that United last won the title, in 2009, Cristiano Ronaldo was in the line-up and so, too, was Carlos Tevez during his loan spell. Those two were soon gone and no one of comparable eminence arrived to fill the vacancies during the trophyless campaign that ensued.
Meanwhile, the ageing process has been eroding the team. Gary Neville and Paul Scholes both turn 36 before the end of this campaign and Ryan Giggs will have had to reckon with a 37th birthday, but the impact that each achieves continues to be critical to the side.
Victory in the Carling Cup final could not mean all that much to a club of United’s renown, but we may be witnessing some of Sir Alex Ferguson’s most remarkable work as he keeps the side to the fore while his means are eroded.
Much has gone against him and Rio Ferdinand was only fit enough to start a dozen League matches last season. The centre-half is also unavailable for at least the early weeks of this one as well. The dependence on Wayne Rooney increases, yet a goalless World Cup suggested that the demands being made on him are excessive. Despite assertions that funds are available, a necessary overhaul of the squad is, at best, being postponed.
Questions about the debt being shouldered in the wake of a takeover are even more urgent at Anfield where the ownership of Tom Hicks and George Gillett took Liverpool to a seventh-placed finish in the Premier League. The new manager Roy Hodgson has seemed adroit in the transfer market and the arrival of Joe Cole ought to add deftness to the midfield, yet resources remain limited.
Much will rest with Fernando Torres staying and regaining the sharpness that eluded him during Spain’s triumph at the World Cup. Tottenham Hotspur were one of the clubs to ease above Liverpool and Harry Redknapp’s side came fourth to land a place in the Champions League qualifiers. There has been a gradual reshaping of the Spurs squad in recent years and no dramatic steps were taken this summer. Prospects of improvement lie more with the growing confidence of players accustomed to one another who also made a breakthrough with their highest finish since the formation of the Premier League.
Conservatism is the dominant outlook in boardrooms, no matter how exasperating it feels in the manager’s office. Aston Villa have now finished a creditable sixth for three consecutive seasons, but Martin O’Neill will have to strive for further progress while balancing the books. An environment of financial restriction, however, should suit managers such as Everton’s David Moyes who have never operated in any other context.
The circumstances ahead for other managers are ones with which he is perfectly acquainted. It will be a stiff challenge for him to equal the fourth place of 2005. With the budget as tight as usual at Goodison even the effort to bring back LA Galaxy’s Landon Donovan, following the previous loan spell, seemed tortuous, but there is still a stability to Moyes’s Everton that will be beneficial when many other clubs have to review the way in which they function.
Austerity of a sort is visible even at the Double winners. No one will attack Roman Abramovich when he has an array of outstanding performers on vast wages, but the Chelsea owner and his manager Carlo Ancelotti have to decide what to do next with a squad that has many players in the closing phase of their career. Vital presences such as Frank Lampard and Didier Drogba have both passed their 32nd birthday.
Handicaps of one sort or another may add interest if results become more volatile in a league that has, overall, been diminished. While the return of Newcastle United, despite the financial restrictions, may ensure large crowds it is rejuvenating, too, that little Bloomfield Road is now on the circuit following the astonishing ascent of Ian Holloway’s Blackpool side via the Championship play-offs.
If the Premier League looks a little old-fashioned and careful with its money the game may be regaining a healthier role in the life of the country.