The surest way to enrage fans is to play around with the definition of what constitutes a big club.
A supporter claiming a mega-cash injection has made his team massive or a manager dismissing a rival team as small can inspire a loathing that is never forgotten. Ask Rafael Benitez. The size of rivalries rarely antagonises though, because we all know who hates who the most. Yet Jamie Carragher hit a raw nerve by describing the rivalry between the current Manchester City and Liverpool sides as the most intense in English history.
He was referring to the quality of their football but it drew a mocking reaction from many Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea fans who argued that earlier this century the rivalry between their teams was proper old-school fierce.
Teams who despised each other so much every neutral tuned in to enjoy the blood, guts and bile that were inevitably spilt, especially when Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenge r were coating each other in phlegm. A point they believe was hammered home after Sunday’s game when Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp embraced like swooning sweethearts. As one broadsheet journalist wrote: “It is hard to take the City versus Liverpool rivalry seriously while it stays so polite. Pleasantness on this scale really has no place in games this important.”
But when did era-defining rivalries only become relevant when there was mutual loathing between players and managers? When was it decided that without square-ups in the tunnel and on the pitch (afterwards defined as “handbags”), touchline snarling and post-match pizza hurled around dressing-rooms, a head-to-head between England’s best sides was somehow flawed? That a rivalry can only be elevated to epic status when managers trade personal insults and belittle their achievements, thrust watches into the faces of fourth officials, peddle baseless conspiracies before games and wild accusations afterwards to distract from their own failure?
When Fergie and Wenger, or Jose and Wenger, or Fergie, Jose and Rafa were at each other’s throats seeking marginal advantages it was undoubtedly entertaining. Those soaps certainly pulled in the viewers. Which is precisely what Sky Sports wanted to hype up in return for their billions. But that was never the benchmark for how the top managers interacted with each other before football was viewed as a kind of EastEnders on grass. If anything, the respect Klopp and Guardiola show each other is very much the English Way.
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When City were battling United for English supremacy in the late 60s Matt Busby and Joe Mercer were the best of mates as they were with their great rival down the M62, Bill Shankly. At the core of the great Leeds/Liverpool rivalry was mutual admiration between Shankly and Don Revie. Brian Clough and Revie may have loathed each other but that was purely personal and Leeds/Derby hardly went down as one of football’s greatest rivalries.
At Nottingham Forest, when Clough was fighting tooth-and-nail with Bob Paisley for the biggest titles at home and abroad, their rivalry defined an era of European football. But I can’t recall a bad word between them. Just respect. As Klopp and Guardiola define this era, the story is the same. We have two classy, self-confident men who believe completely in their own players and philosophies. World-class coaches secure in their own ability who don’t feel the need to obsess on opponents or bother with nasty jibes and tedious mind-games. And it shows in the supremely self-assured and liberated teams they send out to play.
Maybe English football should just be grateful that the two finest coaches in the world are here and enjoy what they are producing. Because they will soon be off and we can go back to matches hyped up as the Greatest Grudge Game Ever with all the manufactured square-ups, snarls and handbags thrown by insecure egos. It’ll soon get that tedious again.
Man Utd last in the sack race
One of the biggest indictments on Manchester United is how well other big clubs have fared recently when sacking a manager mid-season. Chelsea got rid of Frank Lampard last January then won the Champions League. Spurs brought in Antonio Conte in November who has lifted them from ninth to fourth. Jesse Marsch came into Leeds last month and is delivering the wins that should keep them safe. Even Lampard is starting to reverse Everton’s alarming slump, winning 38.5% of his games compared to Rafa Benitez’s 31.8%
Yet, Ralf Rangnick, the “supercoach” hired in November to sort out the Old Trafford mess now has a lower win rate than predecessor Ole Gunnar Solskjaer managed in this, the season that got him sacked. It’s boardroom mis-management on an almost incomprehensible scale for a club that until recently had the pick of virtually every available manager in the world. No wonder the fans are revolting.
Meanwhile, amid all the gloom swirling around Goodison a couple of heart-warming stories are emerging. There’s Anthony Gordon, a 21-year-old fanatical Evertonian who is putting in man-of-the-match performances and showing the level of passion that could eventually see his beloved Blues stay up.
And Vitaliy Mykolenko. When he arrived under Rafa Benitez in January at a cost of £17 million, which saw fans’ favourite Lucas Digne shipped out to Aston Villa, the pressure on him was huge. Especially when he struggled badly in a side that was sinking towards the relegation zone. But the Ukrainian has worked hard, adjusted to the Premier League and his quality is showing through. Showing such mental strength when your homeland is being ripped apart in a brutal war bodes well for the 22-year-old and for Everton.
