In his fortnightly exclusive column for CaughtOffside, Jon Smith, one of football’s first-ever agents and a man who was an integral figure in the forming of the Premier League, discusses football’s changing landscape, how the Premier League could help the struggling EFL to survive and why Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal are the story of the season, so far.
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Football is changing…
Multi-club ownership is a really interesting concept and it looks like UEFA are going to give the go-ahead to allow them to happen. I think it would be a serious step back to allow multi-club ownership in the same tournament for obvious reasons. You’d see the interplay between the clubs watered down – just like how the City Group do it. They legally move players between their clubs.
We also have the prospect of a much larger World Cup and if there was anything beautiful about last year’s tournament being held in Qatar, it’s that the games were all played pretty much within walking distance of each other. Now we’re going to have games played countries apart.
Big-money football is undoubtedly thriving though and there’s no end in sight. There’s no bubble because there’s nothing that gives people more pleasure, except maybe sex, than their sporting passion.
The EFL need help…
Moving away from elite-level football and dropping down the leagues a bit, it appears the time for the EFL to receive some financial backing in order to survive is nearly upon us. It has to happen otherwise the pyramid is in danger of collapsing and the help doesn’t look like it’ll be coming from the UK Government because they’ve already said they’re not going to get involved so the Premier League will have to.
The Premier League’s next TV deal is going to be hugely significant because there are only so many broadcasting pounds that are available, look at BT Sport for example, they went heavy on the Champions League and scaled back everything else. I do expect the Premier Leagues’ next deal to be even bigger than their current one though.
So by 2025, we’ll probably have an enhanced Champions League, a bigger World Cup, a new Club World Cup and the Premier League. The fixture list is going to be massive. Having said that, the gap between the leagues, which is so sizeable now, is only going to get bigger.
Mikel Arteta is doing an amazing job at Arsenal…
The most amazing story this season is without a doubt Arsenal. Mikel Arteta has done a remarkable job.
He’s massively overachieving and he’s doing it without superstars. Arteta and his coaching team are doing what they’re doing with young, hungry and vibrant players such as Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka, who are being coached exceptionally well.
As a team, they may not enjoy being pressed and they probably don’t have the most solid defence in the league so they’re still a work in progress but take nothing away from how Arteta has improved them. It really is incredible.