Beyond The Pitch

Here in the summer transfer window we toke a further look at US player values for two key midfielders approaching 30 years old as well as a big move to the Premier League for US National Team striker Jozy Altidore to Sunderland where similar questions to his first stop at Hull City must be questioned given the team sheet and the manager in charge. We spend some time digging into the aspects of this deal, why there is more risk in this move than widely believed and whether Altidore might have been best served with a move on the continent where he at least could have been guaranteed Europa League football in the lead-up to the World Cup in Brazil next year. Then we turn our attention to the Gold Cup with the United States firmly in control of its destiny should form and reputation be the indicators. At the center of this discussion is the ongoing posturing and proving that Landon Donovan has had to endure in a number of Gold Cup matches that ultimately present no serious barometer against the likes of Belize, Cuba and undermanned CONCACAF teams who are all below the standard he would face in Major League Soccer almost weekly. Was the strategy by Jurgen Klinsmann poorly conceived all along and was this Gold Cup a series of hoops that a player with the legacy that Landon Donovan has truly necessary. Was the group stage a compromise that should have been considered and was this attempt by Klinsmann to rehabilitate his wayward star misguided all along.

This is part two of a special series in which Sean Hamil, Director of the Birkbeck Sport Business Centre from the University of London, joins to take the conceptual elements of UEFA Financial Fair Play and help us put its application into gear given the many challenges facing football today which includes, among other challenges, spending that continues to escalate, loss-making escapades by owners chasing the increasing cost of success and a general crisis of confidence in our institutions. At the epicenter of the early discussion is the gauntlet tossed down by Ligue 1 nouveau-riche spenders PSG who appear to have already pushed beyond the break-even boundaries with spending in excess of the 100 million euro for two consecutive summers and have an odd accounting development with the Qatar Travel Authority that may need explaining rather quickly if UEFA wants to ensure its FFP credibility moving forward. We also examine the stadium part of the equation too and that also calls into question FIFA and its President Sepp Blatter because his organization has now reached a tipping point both in terms of its own credibility over the 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids and its near-plutocratic and tone-deaf stance about the cost of staging an international tournament with free stadiums and infrastructure placed on taxpayers as an unfair burden. We examine the underlying ethical and common sense alternatives, how football is really at a crossroads in terms of the manner by which it is administered and why transparency and full proactive disclosure as seen in the financial world through the eyes of the investor class might just be the best way to cut through the layers of suspicion from fans and the corruption that seems to engulf this sport at its highest level, rendering all its good deeds as collateral damage due to an overwhelming catastrophe of unsolved and never-ending controversies.

Professional football is changing in so many ways that it has become almost impossible to chart their implications, but gaining traction recently has been the emerging science of sports psychology as an evolution from basic self-help and visualization strategies which have taken deeper and more intuitive turns both in terms of developing talent and uncovering factors about players as diagnostic tools. Former Tottenham and Norwich City and Northern Ireland international player Paul McVeigh joins Phil and Anto to not only discuss the merits of his recent book - The Stupid Footballer is Dead - but also explore the many facets of how self-help strategies have become more advanced and industrial with respect to targeting player development, strategies to improve performance and how football as an industry is beginning to soften its stance on these concepts and area of expertise. Paul gives us a deeper look into what drove him into this area of specialization and how his company has begun to find a niche within the industry under the ThinkPro brand and how professional community has begun to implement new business strategies based on best practices found both inside the game and in other sporting landscapes. Today, Paul and his associates work with Academy-level players who do appear to be more open to the concepts and new ideas as clubs continue to fight a losing battle with young players who drop out increasingly more early, attempting instead to identify personal development strategies that ensure stakeholder value in terms of scouting and player development, performance and adapting to the pressures and demands of top-flight football.

Largely overlooked with the high profile move for US striker Jozy Altidore to Sunderland AFC this summer is a rather quiet summer for American players moving both inside Europe and across the pond and it begs the question as to whether the US player is not perceived as having great value inside the top leagues and whether a market bias exists for the player pool overall. Is it a function of an aging international player pool, growth of Major League Soccer and how domestic players are becoming locked in to their professional clubs, ongoing perceptions about players from the CONCACAF region in general or is it simply that we are not evaluating the US talent base correctly from the start. Also discussed here are the big time decisions now placed at the feet of Clint Dempsey once again this summer, a year removed from his rather loud and unhappy separation from Fulham Football Club when it was thought that Champions League football was his goal and now he seems confronted with new realities at the age of 30 where competition for spots with players who have resale value are of huge concern for top level Premier League clubs. Dempsey is both a fantastic case study for the valuation of US players, given that he and Landon Donovan are at the top of the food chain, when neither player holds huge resale value once factoring in their ages and international appeal. We examine the regional correlations between North America and Asia in the player marketplace, how CONCACAF overall has been historically viewed, and we look at a number of players to determine who in the US player pool has serious resale value and potential to play in the most lucrative fixtures of the UEFA Champions League.

Anto and Phil take to the airwaves to break down a number of the key transfer and market-bearing stories that will have great effect on a summer transfer period with so many moves that appear lined together across a number of the biggest leagues and clubs as huge interests look to exploit a closed season quite like no other in terms of managerial changes all across football. In key focus here is the situation with Wayne Rooney at Manchester United, admissions of a bid launched by Jose Mourinho for his services, a long and arduous season of inaction and mystery for Arsenal football club, a bizarre and provocative bid for the fireball of zaniness that is Liverpool striker Luis Suarez. However, we also examine some of the big and most interesting deals of the day which will certainly by the move for Stevan Jovetic by Manchester City and the Marquinhos by PSG, two deals which test the parameters and limits of what is considered production and what is consider potential in terms of value when factoring in just what constitutes a 30 million valuation for a prospect. We break down the characteristics of both players, analyze the situation facing David Moyes at Manchester United and discuss the mounting questions that are mounting day after day for Arsene Wenger and look at a couple of positive moves in the marketplace not just in terms of acquisition but also because of creating a windfall into a club that can now reward itself in the sales column. This includes the moves by Southampton, Norwich City and Celtic FC, how Real Madrid and Napoli continued to define this past week in the marketplace and why fans should look back at the tenure of Mohamed Al-Fayed with Fulham quite fondly and why he was an example of a tremendous owner in the modern game.

As European football clubs are set to submit their accounts to UEFA to begin the first important checkpoint in Financial Fair Play, Director of the Birkbeck Sport Business Centre at the University of London Sean Hamil joins us for his third appearance to have a deeper philosophical chat on the merits, goals and real objectives of these regulations and what the challenges will be going forward. At the core of this discussion is the ongoing financial concerns from all levels of football, how the goals of FFP have been misplaced or misinterpreted and how UEFA must now be fully prepared to demonstrate a willingness to make hard decisions and enforce compliance. That said, FFP is not the punitive set of rules largely being assumed in the marketplace and was never just a UEFA initiative as many different key stakeholders including the ECA and FIFPro were brought into the consensus-building process. We examine the big casualties being leveraged on football today, namely, the rising cost of success with a group of owners accountable to only their own vanity projects, a business environment that continues to attract bad owners with rare good ones, and how the tax liability continues to be dropped on average working people all across Europe. We also tackle the question of a breakaway league and whether those claims can be taken seriously before 2018, and why public investment in stadia can no longer be the panacea as public institutions are completely leveraged. Also discussed here is how lower level football has instituted other forms of Financial Fair Play already to protect football at its base levels and why football must adopt these strategies at even the top levels now before the sport fully destroys itself as public institutions circle the wagon on tactics where payables and taxation are often not addressed. In 2011 Sean Hamil gave evidence to the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee enquiry into the Governance of English football and was quoted extensively in the final report, and therefore is a key academic voice in support of common sense regulation that seeks to address serious financial crisis left constantly at the door of the football industry and its fans left with the overdue receipt.

Joining Anto and Phil to take a special look at the summer transfer window for the Premier League is Robbie Earle who will soon take the reigns at NBC as coverage of the English top flight is on the move after new television deals have put new resources into that league and has already delivered some interesting and unintended consequences after the first salvo. In part one, Anto digs into the numbers and net transfer spend totals thus far for some rather surprising midtable and lower table performances among the Premier League sides, looks at how PSV may have reset itself a bit after some high profile sales with Kevin Strootman certainly in line next and then always back to the mystery warchest at Arsenal and the lack of high profile activity at Manchester United that has been accented by the perceived loss of Thiago Alcantara to European and Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich. Section two, however, is where the questions get more direct about the marketplace, the early winners at Norwich City, Swansea City, Southamption and even Aston Villa who look to receive a windfall from a Benteke sale and the arrival of fresh continental recruits. Also discussed is that lack of action at Arsenal at the top end of the market, whether the lack of Manchester United is typical of more recent moves in the marketplace and if the backroom changes reflect something yet unseen in terms of the Wayne Rooney saga. Also discussed is the direction this summer for Arsenal, the danger of reaching for Benteke too soon and whether all the riches at Manchester City overlook the fact that Manuel Pelligrini for Roberto Mancini might just have a bigger net effect even though the lack of firepower at striker suddenly needs attention.

International commentator Tim Caple joins in for an edition of Prime Time Football with Anto as we take our first deep dive into the Pep Guardiola era at Bayern Munich and begin with the very big question which for many Bayern supporters centers on whether change is being made for changes sake and what is the plan going forward in the wake of an historic treble season with Thiago at the nexus of concerns. We examine the loss of Mario Gomez and whether that signals more of the striker-less combinations once seen at Barcelona, but even more importantly we examine whether Guardiola will alter too much of what worked best for Bayern Munich specifically in that gearbox where players such as Schweinsteiger, Gustavo, Martinez and others clearly had consistent roles most weeks barring injury and how the arrival of Goetze and perhaps Thiago further isolates Kroos and Shaqiri in the bigger picture. Then we turn to the transfer moves for Bayer Levekusen, Schalke 04 and Borussia Dortmund including some very important arrivals to the Bundesliga who may not necessarily challenge Bayern for the league title but could alter the order of how the top four could shape this upcoming season. We also examine the early moves for Real Madrid, what could be still on the way, the matching set of leading men at Barcelona with Lionel Messi and Neymar and how the Ligue 1 glamour battle is now joined by an AS Monaco team sheet glistening with as many stars and big retail player buys as cash rich PSG. This is an episode quite like no other as Tim Caple and Anto will weave in and out football, boxing and classic music with a huge focus on Haye-Fury and a nostalgic look back at the great days of Sugar Ray Leonard and Marvin Hagler, but this is primarily a Bundesliga episode with loads of entertaining extras.

Back again with the first of several scheduled Prime Time Football shows dedicated to nothing but the summer transfer window that is already being shaped by some key moves and deals by a number of football clubs that get loads of media attention and those that do not for the most part and helping Anto dissect this business in ESPN FC pundit Janusz Michallik with his invaluable insight. This episode is divided into two distinct parts, the first where many of the key deals are broken down in the early stage of the window including some winners and losers not just for the name recognition or the size of the fee, but for the very fact that they represent intelligence or evidence of a plan by the clubs themselves. Part two is where our special guest comes in to help us evaluate some of the major deals with implications coming out of the Confederations Cup, what they could mean in the bigger picture and this is where we set the stage to further interpret the series of chess pieces that will begin to fall now that several key deals have been set into motion. This is not an episode about splashy media savvy deals in the transfer window, this is about climbing under the hood to understand some of the forces being marshaled already, the clubs with clear plans and what some of the value for money deals clearly look like even at this early stage of the transfer window.

From striker to super-middleweight, from scoring goals in football to scoring punches in the world of professional boxing - the remarkable and miraculous story of Leon McKenzie is more than a tale about sport and its place in our world and what makes athletes role models or icons or brands to be marketed because this is a tale about redemption, about purpose and about a family who gave one man the strength to come back from the brink, when there were no promises of an answer. Leon McKenzie began his first career, a football career with his local club Crystal Palace, making his debut during the 1995–96 season and ultimately became a Premier League striker alongside Dean Ashton and Darren Huckerby which became quite proficient during the closing stages of the 2004–05 season but were not enough to save Norwich City from relegation. But this only tells one slice of his story as the trappings of a life in football along with some poor choices led him to a very serious and dangerous place, where he left to confront with the savagery of depression in silence and found his way back through a family with a deep and successful past in professional boxing - and that legacy continued last week with a fight at York Hall in London on Saturday June 29 in the super-middleweight division, a fight filled with as much symmetry and symbolism as refocus and redemption. The story of Leon McKenzie has a new chapter as a champion of another kind and his message on dealing the depression, his tough road back and the trappings of professional football and our collective unwillingness to take depression seriously are what matters most in this very important discussion for people who have one dream or more and may need a positive example to share.

It might be the start of a summer transfer window where only Real Madrid and Barcelona complete the biggest share of the media glare and attention, but there are no shortage of talking points as Spanish football commentator Sid Lowe gives us his brilliant insight into what was learned at the 2013 Confederations Cup and so much more. We begin, of course, in the afterglow of yet another final for the Spanish national team at the Maracana where La Furia Roja may have further questions to answer about attacking and squad diversity and maybe some questions about transition at key points in the midfield and at striker, but one look at the youth system coming through and those important factors seem to be on the path toward being addressed already. We then take an overdue and very important turn to an off the pitch matter is Spanish football - and professional athletics, in fact - by opening the book on a recent Operacion Puerto doping trial of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes as both convicted and admitted offender Lance Armstrong raises even more concerns about whether bigger elements inside Spanish football have either turned a blind eye to doping allegations and whether there may be mutually beneficial reasons why the alleged details of footballers never came public and reached sworn testimony. This raises all kinds of ethical questions not just limited to La Liga or Spanish football, in general, as football administration and governance has historically resisted the opportunities to debate this dark topic either. We also examine the new arrival of Carlo Ancelotti at Real Madrid with his very influential and charismatic sporting director in Zinedine Zidane, what that means in the transition from Mourinho and how Ancelotti continues to differentiate himself from The Special One and whether the Thiago Alcantara transfer appears to sustain expectations both in terms of a move to Manchester United and whether he could be talented enough to make big contributions at Barcelona. In closing, Sid Lowe gives us a first look at his new book that details the Real Madrid-Barcelona rivalry, what it entails and the direction he took in describing an historical battle between two of the biggest clubs in world football.

The transfer window is now open and joining us to give us an important first look at the key deals that could shape the summer in the Premier League is Times Football Correspondent Oliver Kay as it seems Real Madrid holds so many key both in terms of who could arrive in England and exactly who could depart as Carlo Ancelotti looks to reassemble with the help of old friend and sporting director Zinedine Zidane. We begin at Arsenal where the transfer saga is already in full bloom over whether Gonzalo Higuain will arrive to lead the line now that Arsene Wenger reportedly has a transfer kitty of note to spend and whether if delays could result in losing the Argentine hitman once the Edinson Cavani chess piece falls either to Real Madrid, PSG or Chelsea who all appear to be queued up for his services. We also examine the odd saga now developing between Luis Suarez and Real Madrid where it seems the troubled Uruguayan seems to want the move than Real Madrid does at the present time and whether it could signal yet another difficult summer at Liverpool for Brendan Rodgers who needs several players to strengthen and mount a top four challenge. Then we examine the situation at Everton Football Club where the challenges have never been higher for a first year manager in Roberto Martinez and we try to gauge what should be the real expectations for a club with the highest degree of difficulty. We also examine the Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines potential moves to Manchester United and some key early decisions on Frank Lampard and John Terry at Chelsea Football Club before discussing the biggest transfer or non-transfer of all in Gareth Bale who seems to have decided to stay at Tottenham at least one more season with revised contract expectations fulfilled. In closing we also look at the risk analysis for Daniel Levy who was proved right in the case of the Luka Modric transfer and how long the Spurs chairman can hold out if he wishes to secure the windfall from a Gareth Bale transfer while ensuring that the Wales international does not end up at a Premier League rival.

Joining here for a look back at the Confederations Cup and some of the major points that will come from the tournament is ESPN FC commentator Janusz Michallik who helps us dissect several key issues for the biggest wildcard coming out of the competition in Italy and how much of what Spain and Brazil accomplished this summer simply fuel expectations into next summer. At the center of much of this discussion is how both Cesare Prandelli and his evolving Italy squad have pushed themselves into serious discussion next summer given the performance in 2013, the young talent coming through at the U21 level and what more will be gleaned throughout the qualification process as younger and more explosive players find their way into the final team sheet come 2014. These questions involve whether Daniele De Rossi becomes more of a reference point as Andrea Pirlo ages yet another year, whether the Azzurri manager will finally settle on the three man defence after some experimentation in Brazil and then there is the ongoing saga of Stephan El Shaarawy that continues for both club and country and looks to be the subject of ongoing analysis and examination. We also examine Spain in the part one of our Confederations Cup review to reinforce why La Furio Roja will simply reload with great faith in their system after having reached yet one more final and how Brazil is the biggest winner of all simply because Scolari was the right man to circle the wagons and restore some identity to the Brazilians beyond the magic of young Barcelona-bound sensation Neymar.

A Massive Summer Blow-Out episode that takes a look at AC Milan at a key moment as the summer window opens with questions about its youngest stars and what exactly the SuperMario effect should be with a full off-season in tow and more stability in terms of club preparations while taking into account the already tumultuous period involving Silvio Berlusconi, conflicts with Max Allegri and huge concerns about young starlet Stephan El Shaarawy. We examine the politics behind the scenes, what the actual numbers tell us about where the club is headed, if there are emerging political concerns for Galliani as Fininvest moves closer to the center of the financial decisions involving the club at a root level and we even pay our respects to a fallen hero of Milan seasons past in Stefano Borgonovo who helped craft one of the greatest nights in club history away at Bayern Munich. We also examine some of the decisions ahead for AC Milan in the transfer market, the impact of the early UEFA Champions League season on that market and how this might just become the most divisive and emotional season in recent years for Milanisti as the manager continues to remain at odds with the club president and works under the constant glare of an unextended contract that could undermine him almost immediately should the summer not start on its strongest front foot. We examine a number of transfer potential players, the outlook for AC Milan 2013-14 and whether Keisuke Honda could be the late Berlusconi gift who arrives once decisions are made Kevin Prince Boateng and Robinho.

My party is my country - against this hyper-charged message crystalized for maximum effect both football and politics in Brazil have come under great scrutiny and examination with FIFA at the center of protests and questions about its role persist given the nature of corruption that has engulfed a nation and whether football itself has taken advantage of this weakness. Joining us for this rather perceptive episode is a great friend of the show who currently serves as the Director of the International Relations Department at the State University in Amazonas, Martin Wright, who has contributed to BTP since its inception and offers us a clear perspective in terms of the matches themselves but also the politics that have engulfed the present and look to color the futures for two presidents in Sepp Blatter of FIFA and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil. In many ways this episode is like revisiting old wounds once examined and past bold predictions that have now come true with respect to the triumphant return of Luiz Felipe Scolari to the Selecao, how the first evolutionary steps for Neymar had to occur to deliver Brazil the identity it so desperately lacked under Dunga and how corruption inside Brazilian institutions have finally gotten the spotlight that the Confederations Cup has delivered. We talk football here and celebrate what has emerged for the Brazilian National Team in this greatest of all warm-up acts, but we also separate the spin from the facts on the ground, assess the blame to the people and institutions who are deserving and explore several media generated fallacies and stereotypes about what will happen to areas such as the Amazonas once the lights draw down on Brazil 2014.