“More than anything, what sticks in the mind is the sound of David Moores’ voice faltering. Standing in front of unhappy shareholders in the Bill Shankly Suite at Anfield, the Liverpool chairman sounded beaten, like someone hit by a sudden realisation that things had changed. It was January 2004, the 12th year of the Premier League era but the first of a new economic reality. Six months earlier, Chelsea had been bought by a Russian billionaire named Roman Abramovich, whose £120million-plus transfer outlay that summer was only just short of the combined expenditure of the Premier League’s 19 other clubs. In the famous words of David Dein, then Arsenal’s executive vice-chairman, Abramovich had ‘parked his Russian tanks on the lawn and (was) firing £50 notes at us’. Football had always been split between the haves and the have-nots. Now there was a division between the haves and the have-yachts. …”
NYT/ATH
How the Premier League’s great sell-off changed the fabric of English football
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“Just over two weeks remain until the winner of the 70th edition of the Ballon d’Or is revealed, and the race for the prestigious award seems to have taken an unexpected twist. According to most bookmakers, Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal is now the joint-favourite to be crowned the world’s best player at the ceremony in London later this month, the first of its kind to take place outside of France. He has joined Harry Kane — born just under 10 miles from the London Palladium venue — at the top of the running, with Kane hoping to become just the fifth English winner after Blackpool’s Stanley Matthews won the first in 1956. …”
“Anthony Gordon scored his first goal for Barcelona as the Spanish champions extended their perfect start in La Liga with a 3-0 home win over Getafe. The England international opened the scoring in the second minute and Gabriel Jesus added another after half an hour for the league leaders, who have won every match they have played this season. Jules Koundé tucked home the third from Lamine Yamal’s cross to cap Barça’s solid win at the Camp Nou. Barça moved five points clear of second-placed Atlético Madrid, who won 2-1 at Alavés earlier, and lead Real Madrid, fourth, by nine points before Los Blancos host Villarreal later on. …”
