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Has football completely lost the plot?

By Joe Hewlett

Claudio Ranieri has been sacked by Leicester City following a run of poor results. It comes 298 days after he led Leicester City to the Premier League title.

The last team to win the top division in Yorkshire was Leeds in the 1992/93 season under the leadership of Howard Wilkinson.

After beating Manchester United by a four-point margin in 1992/93 season, the following season was disastrous. Their performance was so appalling the club narrowly avoided relegation.

However, Wilkinson was supported by the club and remained in the hot-seat. Incredibly he lasted a staggering 1,299 days longer than Ranieri’s tenure at Leicester City and would go on to achieve consecutive top-6 finishes with the team.

Has football fallen out of touch with society?

Leicester and Ranieri overcame mammoth odds of 5000/1 and created history by winning the Premier League. This year the Italian coach failed to replicate the same success and was SACKED.

What did the owners expect this season?

Ranieri took over from an average set of players and achieved title glory – something that will never be repeated again in our generation. The sacking of ‘the tinkerman’ has sent shock-waves through the footballing community.

But should we really be surprised anymore?

A record 56 managers were sacked in the 2015/16 season, according to statistics from the League Managers’ Association. It has become obvious that football owners just don’t have the infrastructure to focus on the long-term aspects of the game.

A prime example of loyalty to a manager is Sir Alex Ferguson. Fans had been calling for him to be sacked after two trophyless seasons. But the board kept faith and as they say, the rest is history.

The sport is no longer for the working-class fans, it has turned into a middle-class sport with tickets on the rise season upon season. To add to that, English football from the top-four tiers have received inflated revenue from TV deals in recent years (Sky Sports and BT leading the way).

With so much on the line, the hierarchy from the top of football clubs panic at the thought of relegation as they will miss out on financial rewards. Ultimately, the manager takes the bullet for the clubs overall performance.

Football is slowly but surely losing its identity and traditional morals built within the last century. With so much money being poured into the UK, the future of football looks bleak.

They say history repeats itself and if English Football wants to learn from past mistakes then look no further than the demise of Italian Football from the last decade.

 

What do you think?