/ 15 August 2008

Scramble for the Premiership

As if they were not busy enough striving for trophies, the top four in the English Premier League have to deliver major stories as well. At least Chelsea put their heart and soul into the mission and never shy away from melodrama.

Luiz Felipe Scolari is the third person in under a year to be Stamford Bridge manager, so it is just as well that he is the master of acclimatisation, having been in charge of clubs in Brazil, Saudi Arabia and Japan.

He has done well enough to enjoy a permanent place among the elite. Nobody pulls rank on someone who has won the World Cup.

His standing was unharmed as manager of Portugal when there was a curious tolerance of the team’s defeats, as hosts, to Greece in the Euro 2004 games.

For all the rhetoric about the ravishing football supposedly insisted upon by Chelsea’s owner, Roman Abramovich, there has always been beauty enough for Scolari in winning ugly.

Scolari is not dissimilar to Jose Mourinho and Chelsea fans will be cheered if he is better at tending the relationship with the owner.

His problem lies in the fact that Chelsea are a less composed side after being runners-up to Manchester United in successive campaigns.

Losing the Champions League final to them was a further dose of misery.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s hurtful musings about Chelsea’s prospects led to some totting up of the ages of the respective squads at Old Trafford and Stamford Bridge, but his real insinuation was that Scolari’s group had slender scope for development.

At trophyless Chelsea, the Brazilian will have to work hard to convince his players that they are capable of regaining domination.

Ferguson’s assignment is the converse of that. He is the only manager to have won the Premier League title in three consecutive seasons and now has to remember how he preserved the freshness.

The difficulty is exacerbated because surgery has ruled Cristiano Ronaldo out.

Longevity of achievement comes when there are additional figures ready to dominate. It would have been folly to assume that Ronaldo would offer as much for a second year in a row. Eyes were bound to settle on Wayne Rooney.

Some, surely including Ferguson, still wish for echoes of the explosive self-confidence he had as a youth.
Premier League rivals would prefer the low-profile Rooney since life is already hard enough without him on the rampage.

The strain is felt almost everywhere. Even if the top four are viewed as a league apart, its bottom two clubs, Arsenal and Liverpool, might wince at the notion of being relegated from it.

Arsène Wenger has had a lot to reckon with and while he is not the type to rail against his employers, the need to pay off the Emirates Stadium has its impact on the wages or transfer fees that can be agreed.

Morale, for all that, may be improved by an opening stretch of amenable fixtures. The club’s usual low-key build-up to the season could also be an advantage since they have avoided the debilitating travels of United and Chelsea, who seemed to be on a global treasure hunt in July, looking for marketing income.

Liverpool met a high price when agreeing to pay Tottenham £20,3-million for Robbie Keane, but the extra power in attack, and the option of switching from 4-2-3-1 to a gung-ho 4-4-2 against the weaker sides, with the Irishman pushed up from a deeper role to partner Fernando Torres, might save the club from drawing over a third of their matches, as they did last season.

They cannot afford miscalculations. Everton, despite limited means, came fifth last year and several others see themselves surging nearer the top. Portsmouth, with Peter Crouch to partner Jermain Defoe in attack, are on the move.

Aston Villa, too, could rise although expanding the squad has been demanding.

There is the same craving for progress at West Ham and at Fulham, where the outlay has been eye-catching this summer. Roy Keane, with Sunderland, committed himself to a recruitment spree.

Tottenham were also in the mood to galvanise themselves from the moment they concluded that the Croatian midfielder Luka Modric’s energy and skill would compensate for his lack of heft.

Exciting as Juande Ramos’s line-up should be, the solidity of the defence is crucial and there will be relief if Ledley King’s troublesome knee allows him to appear regularly.

The potential of Manchester City under the management of Mark Hughes, so long as he is in harmony with Thaksin Shinawatra, was made manifest in the £18-million purchase of the Brazilian striker Jo.

Hughes may have put himself on the side of the wealthy at just the right moment, leaving Blackburn as some important players there approached the end of their contracts.

There are severe tests elsewhere and Kevin Keegan’s circumstances at Newcastle are intriguing now that owner Mike Ashley is being financially circumspect. With an imbalanced squad, the club may be prone to lurches.

Middlesbrough, with a youngish group and an emphasis on speed, may be better placed to upgrade their status.

Newcomers West Bromwich Albion, Stoke City and Hull City must study the shrewdness in the market place that, over recent years, has bolstered Wigan and Bolton.

Then again, everyone in the Premier League other than Manchester United is in the scrambling quest for transformation. ­-