Re: **Official Other Games Thread, Season 2012/13**
I have criticized the strategy of our scouting system (and in particular the lack of a DOF/head of scouting), but I have to point out that in terms of financial firepower we are substantially closer to Saudi Sportswashing Machine than to Man Utd, Emirates Marketing Project, Chelsea, Arsenal (now that they are nearly out of their "sensitive" period), and Liverpool. That's five clubs that can spend far more on wages than we can, and wages present by the far the greatest correlation to league position in the long term (ref: Soccernomics iirc). You could argue that super management and good scouting (see: Everton) can make up much of this gap, but there is a substantial difference between just being a little behind (eg. Swansea vs Everton), and being so far behind that you can spend only a fifth of what they can. We are lightyears behind the Manc clubs and Chelsea in terms of spending power, while Arse and Liverpool can spend twice as much as us on wages. It is somewhat miraculous that we have even been competing with them for the last three years.
Look at what is happening to Dortmund, in a fairer (well, less ridiculous) league. Most of us acknowledge that they have an incredible set-up and a good manager who has been given time and a conveyer belt of talented young players. They represent the ideal model for success in my eyes. Yet even they are being dismantled by the ONE behemoth in their league, while we have at least three in ours. In the long term, as proven in every single league, the only thing players care about is money. And when the financial gaps are big enough, when the system is unequal enough, the order of things becomes very predictable. It's like modern warfare in the post-atomic age - without ethical restraints, the nation that wins is the one with the most wealth, the best technology, and the greatest productive power. There is no room for the romantic notions we have of a swordsman's talent, or a tactician's genius, or a people's character. There is no room in modern football for the things we associate with human values like loyalty or cleverness or integrity. These must be preserved by the fans.
I'm not saying we should lay down and give up - hell, I think the "purpose of humanity", cliche as it is, is to refuse to give up in a fundamentally unjust world - but I think everything needs to be placed in context. Levy's ability can only go so far against an entire culture driven by money. Hans-Joachim Watzke, Dortmund's chairman, can only do so much against the reality of football as a business. Otherwise, there would be far more clubs with our stories - holding our own against clubs with vastly more pull and more resources for year upon year - because quite frankly there are a lot of smart people out there studying what the successful people are doing. (Southampton's chairman, Nicola Cortese, might be called the more Mafia-sounding version of Levy.)
I think there is plenty of criticism that is justified, but we have to keep in mind the valid criticism of every other chairman and set-up in this league. Every single club's fans are dissatisfied with their own in some way (oftentimes in ways that sound ridiculously harsh to the outsider). I am still grateful to be in this position, while acknowledging there are ways we could improve.
