There is another Martin Samuel Times piece this morning which I have copied and pasted below…
League needs more Jürgen Klopps to break City’s stranglehold
Departing Liverpool boss never gave up, refused to be cowed and found a way to win. Unless more managers take up his slingshot, Goliath will never be felled.
Everyone will have their own idea of where the 2023-24 season was won and lost. The moment Son Heung-min went clear and missed. Arsenal’s six points surrendered to West Ham United and Fulham in December. Mikel Arteta settling for a stalemate at the Etihad Stadium on March 31, when Manchester City were vulnerable.
All important, all factors. Yet after beating Luton Town on the penultimate weekend of the season, it was put to David Moyes that stopping City on the final day was in the hands of his West Ham United team. Their chances? “It would be difficult to stop their under-14s winning the title,” he said. It was tongue-in-cheek. A little joke, and his audience laughed along. But it spoke of surrender, of a depressing inevitability. “Professional is the word I would use,” Moyes continued. “We will try and do the best we can.” Did West Ham do the best they could? They were a goal down after 79 seconds, so you be the judge.
And City are great. Not just good, but great. Truly great. Arguably the best there has been. When the Abu Dhabi takeover propelled the club into the elite, much was made of their failure to retain their early titles. Just as failing to win the Champions League would become the stick with which to beat them until last season, in those initial years it was argued the truly great sides keep the trophy and City could not.
In fact, they had never done it until Pep Guardiola arrived and now they won’t let it go. Retained, and retained, and retained. A historic four straight. And the manager is not going anywhere, either. So jokes about tanking it against the under-14s are not, right now, appreciated. A general air of resignation is not reflected in the numbers. City are not winning these titles at a canter. Two of the four have gone to the final day of the season. Their margins of victory in the past three have been two points, five points and one point. Yet there seems an air of defeatism around their rivals now. An excuse. Moyes has not beaten Guardiola in 16 attempts — his sole victory came in a penalty shoot-out, so counts as a draw — and never looked like changing that on Sunday. And that’s fine, apparently. What can anyone do? It’s as if English football is waiting for the
Premier League’s legal department to put Guardiola, and City, in check; as if David’s slingshot never felled Goliath.
One of Jürgen Klopp’s most admirable qualities was that he never gave up. Never settled. Never made the excuse. He’s been a manager for 24 seasons and not once has he had the best-fancied team in the league. Even in 2003-04, when he won promotion with Mainz, he came third, behind Nürnberg and Arminia Bielefeld. Then he was up against Bayern Munich, and here City. The formbook wouldn’t have had him as favourite to win a single domestic title. Yet he won three. The same number of championships as Andy Murray won grand-slam titles. Yet Murray wasn’t as good as Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. So he should have won none. Yet he found a way. And, somehow, so did Klopp. Found a way to win the Champions League too. And that’s why there was such an outpouring of emotion when he said goodbye at Anfield on Sunday. Not because he won so much compared with Liverpool managers past, but because he probably shouldn’t have won anything of grand significance at all. And he never let that fact, or that fear, faze him. He refused to be cowed.
And one could say the same about Arteta. If anything, this season must hurt more than the last because there were times when it could be argued Arsenal were the best team. A year ago it always felt as if they would be hunted down, the way there was a depressing inevitability that a group of chasing east Africans would pass the gutsy frontrunner Paula Radcliffe late in the race. This was different. At the time when Arsenal got a determined, defensive draw away to City — they took four points from six in their meetings this season, as opposed to none last season — Arsenal were amidst a run of ten straight wins. They did their bit. They just needed others to believe they could do their bit too.
Here’s something that shouldn’t be forgotten the next time we view City’s supremacy as unchallengeable. Tottenham Hotspur (four times), Manchester United (twice), Brentford (twice), Leicester City, Leeds United, Chelsea, Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace, Liverpool, Newcastle United, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Arsenal and Aston Villa.
That’s all the clubs who have beaten City in the league across the four seasons when, in the popular imagination, they have been untouchable.
There are 13 of them, not including the multiples.
And considering they have won three of those titles by five points or less, these are the clubs that have earned draws. Liverpool (five times), West Ham (twice), Southampton (twice), Crystal Palace (twice), Chelsea (twice), Leeds, Manchester United, West Bromwich Albion, Newcastle, Aston Villa, Everton, Nottingham Forest, Brighton, Tottenham and Arsenal. Some right old rubbish in there, by the way. City have lost or dropped points to four clubs that spent this season in the Sky Bet Championship. So it can be done.
Yet now, as we approach the end of the season, we are increasingly convinced that City’s triumph is inevitable. It is why words like boring, predictable and dull are bandied about, when these recent campaigns have been anything but. Manchester United won their first hat-trick of titles under Sir Alex Ferguson by 29 points combined, an average of 9.66. Yet City’s quartet were won by a total of 20 points and the most recent three by eight, at an average of 2.66. It’s tight. And this is not to take anything from City’s history-makers.
This is a truly exceptional group.Phil Foden,the rightful Football Writers’ Association footballer of the year, cannot be resisted by Gareth Southgate at the European Championship and has as much right to positional consideration as Jude Bellingham. Rodri is no longer a hero of the unsung kind and receives rightful credit as the best in his position.
There are a great many strikers who would like to be as lousy as Erling Haaland, while scoring 38 goals in 44 matches. As for Kevin De Bruyne, injury and age may be catching up with him, but when on form, every game is a masterclass in intelligent midfield play. He would walk into any team in the world.
Then there is Guardiola. If it were just about the money this would have happened long before he walked through the door. But it didn’t. It has happened on his watch, because he is an exceptional coach and strategist and, like Ferguson, has a way of making sated players hungry. So what to do? Wait for him to leave? Resign ourselves to the same sky-blue celebrations every year. Wait for him to follow Klopp, or Moyes, or Roberto De Zerbi at Brighton out the door?
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way, as Pink Floyd sang, and there is a presumption that, once City’s 115 Premier League charges are heard, they will be found guilty, busted down the league and the empire will crumble. Maybe. City, mind, are contesting them all. What happens if they win? Then no one rids English football of its turbulent priest. They’ll have to do it themselves. No more hiding behind inevitability. Arteta has been brilliant for our game these past two seasons, but we also need more Klopps.
