The Threat of Dynasties

As the English domestic season came to it’s stuttering anti-climax at the weekend, the lack of drama at either end of both EPL and WSL part of me was glad I was working and unable to make any of the matches.

If my weekend had been free I would have spent the Saturday at Old Trafford watching Emma Hayes lead her Chelsea side to their 5th successive WSL title before heading down to London on Sunday to see my beloved Bees torn apart by the Magpies on Tyneside, whilst constantly checking my phone for updates that could give any hope of Arsenal overtaking Guardiola’s juggernaut and saving us all from more City title celebrations.

City became the first team ever to win 4 English Men’s top flight titles in a row and when added to Chelsea’s quintuplet of Women’s titles it leads me to one undeniable truth…

Whilst dynasties are being challenged in Europe and toppled in Germany, new ones are being built in England and that makes me nervous.

One of the huge selling points of English football is it’s unpredictability, whilst Spain, Scotland and Germany are all leagues where one of 2 teams will probably win the title and France has just one title contender, in England any of the top 6/7 teams used to be able to succeed.

Heck, there used to be a time not so long ago when a team in there second season in the league could win the title despite 5,000-1 odds!!! Welcome back Leicester…

However it seems these heady days of underdog stories and a hyper-competitive league with something resting on every game are long gone.

Perhaps that golden age of competitiveness is also a myth, nostalgia lying to me, but I still remember it.

With the introduction and flawed implementation of VAR already sucking much of the joy out of top flight football, Wolves attempt at removing it and returning the game to it’s pure form looking dead on arrival, the rise of these new all conquering dynasties threaten to make certain games just not worth going to anymore.

A large part of the joy and magic of the game is the hope that today might be my team’s day, we could beat that ‘big’ team and make memories that will last forever, that this season could be my team’s Leicester or Leverkusen of the moment and create miracles that bring joy to people far outside the usual reach of us ‘little’ teams.

The English top flights seem worryingly short on that vital hope that keeps fans coming back every week, with it feeling inevitable all season that every new team heading straight back down there is none of that fundamental hope for miracles that makes this beautiful game of our so incredible to be a part of.

The stories of Wrexham and Stockport County, Crawley and Ipswich Town (promotion on their first ever Wembley day and back to back promotions back to the top table respectively), provide glimmers of hope that those miracles we all live for are still possible.

I cross my fingers that those glimmers bloom into beaming rays that light up the game once more.

Sorry this blog turned into such a sombre one, but that’s where my head is at with the game as things stand at the end of a season that has left me drained and empty.

I may take a break from the blog now OR I may be back very soon with a more uplifting blog about the WSL game I was at this time last week, at a stadium I love and with an uninterrupted pitchside view of the action that may have led to me taking 434 pictures across the 90 minutes.