The English soccer press has been largely dominated this season by a row between the bosses of the country's two best teams: Chelsea's Jose Mourinho and Arsène Wenger of Arsenal, both London clubs. The dispute between the two top managers in Britain (neither of whom are British) has descended first to the comical and now to the farcical.
Chelsea is far and away the best team in England, and the most disliked. Mourinho's team manages the neat trick of scoring a lot of goals while still being boring. But their mechanical efficiency has worked: In 55 league games since the self-described 'Special One' took over, Chelsea have lost only two. They spend a lot of money. They win almost all their games. They are disciplined and technically flawless. Mourinho gets paid to win trophies, not entertain. No one got excited to watch the old Soviet hockey team and no one gets excited to watch Chelsea.
Before Wenger took over, Arsenal were the archetype for the ugly, boring, thuggish soccer that fits the popular stereotype of the English game. Now, the Gunners play beautiful, attractive soccer that can be breathtaking to watch. I am not an Arsenal fan per se, but I'd rather watch them than any other team in England. Unfortunately, Arsenal can't adapt their game when conditions are bad, the officiating lax or the opponents hackers. That Arsenal can't 'win ugly' is a charge that would've been inconceivable 15 years ago; back then, they were the very definition of winning ugly.
The feud between the two started as nothing more than the little mind games managers often play against each other, but quickly descended into something as juvenile as anything you'd see on an elementary school playground.
To recap:
-Jose said he's kept a dossier of all the bad things mean old Arsène has ever said about him and his club.
-Jose called Arsène a 'voyeur'.
-Arsène responded by threatening legal action.
-After the most recent game between the two, Jose refused to shake Arsène's hand, a traditional post-match gesture.
-Jose claimed he did so out of anger of a Christmas card snub. He said he sent Arsène a Christmas card to apologize for the 'voyeur' comment and apparently Arsène didn't acknowledge it. He thought Arsène should've approached him to shake his hand before the game, a non-traditional gesture.
-A member of Arsène's staff reportedly questioned if Jose really wrote that Christmas card.
Yes, they're fighting over a Christmas card.
I'm not sure why Mourinho is so worried about playing mind games with a team that's 20 points behind his own. Maybe despite Arsenal's horrific away form, he still fears them more than more highly placed teams like Liverpool and Manchester United.
But it's still hard to believe that these are two allegedly grown men and highly respected professionals. Maybe they should start acting like it.
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The BBC has a good piece on the 10th anniversary of the Bosman ruling. Prior to the Bosman ruling, a player remained indefinite property of his club, even after the contract was fulfilled. The player was not free to sign a contract with another team without permission for his previous club (who often required the new club to pay a large fee). This system was essentially the same as the reserve clause system that operated in North America's Major League Baseball until the 1970s. The Bosman ruling, by the European Court of Justice, essentially created free agency for European soccer players.
Many predicted that the Bosman ruling would destroy soccer, just as some baseball teams did when the reserve clause was eliminated. But soccer remains Europe's most popular sport by a mile. The sport has certainly changed and it's certainly harder for smaller clubs to compete with bigger clubs. But other changes have made domestic leagues less parochial and more skillful by expanding the talent pool.
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