The Imperfect 10: Changes Fans Want to See in the EPL.

Sam Stevens — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 05:37:39 -0500

As the English Premier League rolls into 2008, things predominantly looks good. There is a straight three, possibly four-way chase for the title involving the usual candidates, though much respect must be paid to Everton and Manchester City for making life particularly troublesome for the top four.

There are arguably six clubs at the bottom end all battling against the dreaded drop of which only three can escape. With the Transfer Window in full swing, there appears to be lots of twists and turns to be excited about as we come towards the business end of the season.

However, there are always parts of the game to complain about, and with them reasons to be annoyed. Even though the Premier League is in good shape, there are many things that fans would like to change in the game. Here are 10 EPL issues that annoy fans, in no particular order.

1) Premier League Chairmen/Chairmen in general

Chairmen will always be a pain in the proverbial for fans. Take those clubs struggling currently in the EPL: Middlesbrough, Fulham, Sunderland, Derby, Birmingham, and Wigan. And Newcastle's tricky-looking next few fixtures coupled with an uncertain boardroom and managerial future means that their disgruntled fans may get an uncomfortable dose of 'squeaky bum time' earlier than they should.

Four of those teams have already changed their managers this term and at least one other, Newcastle's Sam Allardyce, is under immense pressure to achieve as soon as possible.

Well done then to Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson for giving Gareth Southgate time during a difficult season after the moderate success of Steve McClaren. When all other boards appear to be discussing managerial futures amid their winter of discontent, Gibson has kept quiet and never for a second questioned or doubted his manager.

It's amazing how a good chairman can positively affect a football club. The key word is stability. Gibson realizes it is no good making knee-jerk reactions when in precarious positions since the long term future is more important. As Sir Alex Ferguson often says, managers need to be given time.

Take note: Dave Whelan, David Gold, Mohammed Al-Fayed, and Adam Pearson.

Credit must also go to Niall Quinn, who has already stated that Roy Keane's job is safe even if the Black Cats get relegated this season. This leaves Keane to purely concentrate his attention on the job at hand—keeping Sunderland in the Premier League—and more immediate matters like the melting pot of the January Transfer Window. Keane is one of the few who has money readily available, but perhaps those chairmen who have hastily sacked their club's boss only a few months into their tenure don't deserve to improve in the short term if they can't look out for the long term.

2) The mentality "You don't know as you haven't played the game"

Well actually, we have. We've all played at school level, local team, or even a kick about in the park. We may not have played the game at a professional but we know when players are being played out of position, not trying their hardest, or missing sitters, so don't tell us we don't know.

Instead, why not offer an explanation of why Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard can't play together for England, and why Andriy Shevchenko, world class at Milan, looks classroom at Chelsea.

3) The FA, and anything they ever seem to do

Unfortunately, they never seem to learn their lesson about anything. The FA's insistence at giving Sven Goran Eriksson more money every time he made a stupid mistake looked bad enough, but then giving Steve McClaren so much money he could afford an England suit so expensive he couldn't bear for it to get wet, hence the England umbrella fiasco, while subsequently giving him a massive payoff for doing, well, nothing much except staying in a job when he should have quit himself, was incredibly irritating.

McClaren did what we all would do if we were average money-grabbing over-rated underachievers, and the FA facilitated his uselessness. But after England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008 and back down to earth with a bang, for the next appointment they insist on a 'root and branch' investigation into the state of both the English game and their processes in appointing the next manager. So, within no time at all, Fabio Capello comes in and we all wish him luck.

But on nearly £7 million a year, what if this goes wrong? The more money the FA gives the managers before they have even started work, the more of a precedent they set for any failure. We hope that Capello doesn't fail, but what is his inspiration to succeed? Pure determination and attitude, we hope so, but an unprecedented pay off if England fail yet again is guaranteed, and that's enough to motivate any foreigner in charge of a country whose language they can't yet speak.

4) The FA Cup draw

Yes, the odd upset in the first three rounds are fantastic. Credit must once again go to Huddersfield, Oldham, Coventry City, Sheffield United, Bristol Rovers, Luton Town, and Sheffield Wednesday who all held their own against Premier League opposition. However, the competition is being treated with no respect at all. It seems finishing from about fifth to 17th in the Premier League is much more of an achievement than knocking out teams one or two divisions below themselves in the 'world's best cup competition.' Who really wants to win an FA Cup when you can finish 10th?

And what about those teams from the lower leagues that are looking forward to a money spinning tie with an EPL club in the next round? They are either disappointed by drawing a team no more prestigious than themselves, often from the same division, or elated by the thought of going to Anfield, Old Trafford, The Emirates, or Anfield only then to find out that those clubs play a reserve team and scrape through the tie with a less than convincing hotchpotch of a performance, leaving both sets of fans disappointed by the whole experience.

Oh the magic of the FA Cup.

5) The Champions League

A great competition of course, once you get to the final few rounds. Come late February, the second round matches, featuring Europe's best teams and many of Europe's best players. From September to December however, it's more like the millionaire professionals against the bankrupt part timers, as Liverpool proved against Besiktas, or Manchester United proved against Dynamo Kiev, a match which Wayne Rooney described as 'boring' because the opposition didn't come out and play. Thank god, Liverpool's 8-0 win against the Turkish side may have been eclipsed if they had. As it was it was the most comfortable victory since Fieldmarshal Haig ordered troops to fight directly from his armchair during World War 1. As for the aforementioned Reds', they lost their opening three games, yet still comfortably qualified for the last 16, and will probably now go all the way in the tournament just to irritate everybody who identifies the problems with the 'Champions League' format. Instead of allowing teams who have absolutely no chance of winning the competition in it, and erstwhile preventing four English clubs entering every year, why not just make it the 'Champions League' again, thus being like the old European Cup and restoring the prestige of the competition, and also bringing back a bit of credibility to that Carling Cup of Europe, the once important UEFA Cup. This of course also means a fairer spread of money to the UEFA cup winners, i.e. not playing games on Thursday nights the night after Champions League games, and encouraging bigger teams that it's not an embarrassment to be in the tournament. If Bolton are determined to play a reserve team in the UEFA cup, there is definitely no hope for it.

6) Cheating Players

Yes there are more foreign players in the EPL these days, and yes there are more cameras capturing every moment of every game. But, football is suffering from a horribly contagious hypochondria which appears to be spreading to the English players. Players continually dive, wave imaginary cards in the referee's face, feign injury, protest offside decisions, free kick decisions, almost any decision in order to cut corners. Then there are those unwritten rules which players don't abide by. A corner for example should be taken from the corner quadrant amazingly, not just outside of it; shirt pulling is illegal and should not be allowed; free kick's should be taken from where the offence took place, not a yard infield from the incident, or even a foot further forward from it. This all needs to be clamped down on. Footballers at the top level on the money they are on should be good role models and play the game in the right, professional way. Rugby, Tennis and Cricket all put football to shame when it comes to questioning authority of the men in charge. Footballers should not be allowed to bend or break the rules in order to gain unfair advantages, and it comes down to respecting themselves, the fans, the other players and most importantly, the referee.

7) Referees

Known in America as Zebra's either because they wear stripy black and white shirts, or because they have more than a passing resemblance to Donkey's. Perhaps a little cruel, but many fans of the EPL would probably not disagree. Of course they have a tough job, as do their assistant's, and in general this season they seem to have been fairly consistent. The problem doesn't lie with mistakes referee's make, they are only human, though the odd correct decision about whether a ball has crossed a line or not would not go amiss - technology beckons I feel - rather in their lack of any common sense. Too many officials are still keen to show yellow or red cards because of the letter of the law, rather than the socially accepted practice of using common sense to decide whether or not a player deserved to be sent off. Refs are rightly clamping down on two footed tackles, but booking players for taking shirt's off, or celebrating goals in the crowd which could then lead to a second booking, seems ridiculous. It's a ridiculous law at best, but not only are referee's encouraging the games becoming non-contact with their irritating punishment of any mistimed tackle with a yellow card, but also potentially booking people for over-celebrating takes the fun out of the game too. And that would be a total disaster. The best reason to play soccer is because it is great fun. We need to think of the kids. Referees and players need to set better examples to encourage enjoyment and respect in the sport.

8) Player Reactions after matches

This is more of a gripe than a complaint. If we were playing in European Cup Final's or League Winning matches, no interviewer would be able to contain our enthusiasm, adrenaline or excitement after such an achievement. But EPL players take it all in their stride. It would be unfair to say that all players have no charisma, some probably do, but they don't make themselves very well known. Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney have all seemed incredibly unassuming about winning trophies in recent times, where we all want them to say 'THIS IS THE GREATEST DAY OF MY LIFE, IT'S INCREDIBLE' at the top of their overactive lungs. But all we get is 'Yeah, it's great' in a rather bored, monotone drawl. How can anybody possibly say that players are only in it for the money when you hear reactions like that? Show some passion lads, show us how you're REALLY feeling.

9) Everything that has ever been done in football ever always coming back to over inflated wage packets

Ok, so footballers at the top end of the game earn a fortune. But they only go where they can get the money, that's not their fault. It is far, far too easy to say, 'right, you have to be perfect every week for the season because you earn £50k a week.' It genuinely isn't that simple. Like in all walks of society, you get different types of people playing football, not everyone is the John Terry, the committed, 110% every week man, some take the more lackadaisical approach, like Dimitar Berbatov, but does that make him any less of a player? No. He is arguably more entertaining than players like Terry, he just has times when he doesn't track back or run. No amount of money will change that. It's easy to say, if a movie star makes a bad movie, he is only vindicated for being in a bad movie, not for performing poorly. Players get it the other way round, it's just they earn similar money for it. Of course, the money in football is ridiculous, nobody earns more than a top-end professional soccer player, but nobody takes as much stick for it either. It isn't players' faults that they earn what they do really, people need to take a more realistic approach. It is old-fashioned people who complain about wages in the game, not the modern fan, however what must be understood, is that unless you are a Manchester United or an Arsenal, playing entertaining, winning football, those salaries seem very hard to justify, for what they do. After all it's not brain surgery. But, blame the authorities, not the players for the money they 'earn.'

10) The Money in the game/Corporate boxes ruining football

There is a lot of talk about how football crowds are quiet these days. It is no wonder. Many are often forbidden to stand and chant and cheer their team on because it stops the person behind them seeing. The person behind is probably not so much a fan as a tourist, just there for the experience. Unfortunately, the hardcore fans are paying so much for their tickets in the EPL, it is understandable for them to come to be entertained, and to want to cheer their team on, however because they are unable to stand for long periods, fans decide to stop cheering and just sit and watch, losing any atmosphere at stadiums around the country. The other reason for the lack of atmosphere is the amount of corporate boxes and seats designated around top level football grounds. Companies get legions of workers to come and eat 'Prawn Sandwiches' and have meetings at football grounds because they are sponsors of the clubs and it makes a good venue for conferences. However, these fans are ruining the game. They don't come to support either team, they don't get involved, and often they only actually sit in their seats for 70 minutes of the game. Wembley is suffering with this problem. The corporate seats are directly on view, because they are opposite the camera side of the stadium. These seats are very often not taken up for long periods of the game. This has to stop. The authorities have got to stop thinking about money, and greed, and get back to giving the game to those who deserve it, the fans. Eventually, it will all come to a head because grounds will be so full of corporate sponsor's and so few fans, pin drops will be heard when goals are scored, and that might at last convince people that something needs to be done. It is too expensive for the common fan to go to the ground because the clubs 'need to make money', and when the fans do go they can't enjoy themselves like they used to.

Like the problems with the FA, and the players’ wages, and the chairmen also on this list, this issue is all about money. It needs to be used more productively and effectively, so we can get back to football and stop using it as a scapegoat. When money is not such a big issue, and the fans get their voice back, we'll see how many of the issues on the above list, still exist.

Bleacher Report - Articles by Sam Stevens

The Imperfect 10: Changes Fans Want to See in the EPL.