Whatever happened to football glory?

The constantly shifting football landscape has been dramatically restructured since the advent of the Premier League, and with it comes a remarkable adjustment of exactly what it means to be successful.

Despite bringing a first major trophy in six years to Anfield as well as narrowly missing out on another, Liverpool’s abject league form this season has seen Kenny Dalglish dismissed on the back of failure to reach Europe. How can we quantify success in football nowadays? Is a burgeoning bank balance more important than a bustling trophy cabinet?

Trends across English football in recent years tend to suggest that at the farther reaches of the spectrum clubs are increasingly placing greater prominence upon European qualification, whilst for clubs engaged in the relegation quagmire survival is paramount above all else. Cup competitions in the modern era are a mere side-note to the rampaging PR machine that is Premier League, aided to no end by the preposterous hyperbole spouted by Sky Sports. The stakes are so unattainably high in the Premiership that clubs can no longer afford to brace their season upon a lucky cup run or seek glory elsewhere; it is the league or bust.

Witness Birmingham’s capitulation at the end of the 2010/2011 season, in which despite lifting the League Cup they were unable to stave off a drop into the Championship: would Blues fans have taken safety over glory? In a similar fashion, Middlesbrough’s run to both domestic cup finals in 1997 also coincided with relegation. On the flip-side, observe Arsenal’s agonising trophy drought and the ensuing backlash from sections of Gooners this season, in essence implying that patience is wearing thin at the Emirates: would Arsenal fans take a domestic trophy over persistent fourth place finishes?

Intriguingly, Chelsea’s season has been startlingly reinvigorated with the capture of the FA Cup and the potential of greater riches this coming weekend, in spite of a staggeringly average league campaign. Nonetheless, this was more of a salvation mission for the Blues in the wake of a collapsing crusade for league supremacy as opposed to any great desire to prioritise the cup competitions. Upon Andre Villas-Boas’s departure the only form of redemption left for Chelsea was a stab at glory away from the Premiership, which has reaped substantial dividends.

Naivety would suggest that clubs will now begin to recognise the benefits of giving greater precedence to cup campaigns from here on in, yet recent history indicates that the rampant domination of the Premier League upon the agenda of clubs will continue for sometime. After Liverpool’s cup treble of 2001, the prime concern of clubs remained survival and European qualification, whilst the experiences of the likes of Birmingham and Portsmouth in relation to cup runs and adverse league form has deterred many clubs in the middle rung of the Premiership from investing resources in potential cup success.

Stan Collymore recently tweeted that “English clubs (in modern football, like it or not), prioritise: 1. Champions League, 2. Domestic League, 3. Top 4, 4. FA Cup, 5. League Cup, 6. Europa League.” Unfortunately, though not always one to show impeccable awareness, Collymore’s words ring true. The sheer magnitude of funds available to clubs for European qualification or even just the monetary difference between 12th and 13th place far outweigh the prestige and pride on offer with the capture of a domestic trophy.

Before the advent of the Premier League and stretching perhaps to the turn of the Millennium, many fans and observers would have seen Kenny Dalglish’s time at Liverpool as a success. A first trophy in six years, a first FA Cup Final in six years. Yet the failure to attain the lucre necessary to buffer the club’s bank balance has proved fatal.

We now live in a footballing world where being fourth best is the most coveted prize for the majority of Premiership clubs: glory supplanted by greed.

Do you think football is too money driven? Are clubs right to focus on fourth place? Tweet me @acherrie1

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