The Story of the Football Club

Article by Cleat Beat

For decades, some teams have always made the headlines in the UEFA Champions League. Others have shown their faces at the biggest stages, but falling by the wayside is simpler for them. The likes of Real Madrid and AC Milan have been the most consistent in Europe.However, there are teams like Olympique Marseille, Borussia Dortmund and, even, Arsenal, who are dormant before rearing their head suddenly. While this occurrence is rare and no more than once a decade, if at all, it is still an occurrence.Despite their poor performance in European competitions, is there a reason why we still consider them strong teams?THE STAGESLike an product, every club has a lifecycle! Since some clubs are quite old, especially the ones worth mentioning, we disregard the “Introduction” stage of the cycle. There comes the “Growth” stage, the “Maturity” stage, the “Saturation” stage and finally, the “Rebuild” stage.Depending on the size of the club, the stages’ tenure varies. Clubs with more funds will reduce the rebuilding timelines. Those with better infrastructure smash the growing phase apart. Similarly, teams with large fund reserves can easily spread the maturity stage over a larger period and postpone the decline. Quick action and the right choices can cut short any decline period.No club can avoid these stages. It is a law that governs every world, including the football kind. To emerge as the biggest in the lot is to show consistency and control over the entire lifecycle. Have Real Madrid and AC Milan truly mastered that art? Or are the likes of FC Barcelona going to change the way things are done?THE GROWING CLUBThere will always be certain clubs that are in the growing phase, at any given time. Today, the likes of Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, Olympique Lyonnais and Benfica are in the growing phase. These are clubs that have squads good enough for the quarter-finals, but not beyond.These clubs have invested in the near future by bringing together a set of players who seem like they can gel well. While all players will not get on, they will be cut and cropped to make the team a better fighting unit. Soon, a time will come when one of these teams reaches that maturity stage.There are many more clubs in the growing phase, in this competition. The likes of Shakhtar Donetsk, FC Schalke, FC Rubin Kazan and almost all other similar clubs, also fall in the growing phase. However, the phase for these teams is almost indefinitely long. The problem for such tier 2 clubs is that the moment they build strong teams or star players, they are instantly robbed by bigger teams with more money.This makes rising out the growing phase extremely difficult.

While teams like Arsenal can still afford a large squad to cope with these issues, they are beneficiaries of large television incomes that clubs like Lyon, Benfica and Atletico Madrid cannot enjoy.MATURE, LIKE WINEThis stage, for any club is the time when they are winning a majority of their games. It doesn’t necessarily mean that they would be winning titles. It just means that the team wins many more games than they end up losing. Always a good thing!Today, FC Barcelona are probably the biggest team to be enjoying their moment in the sun. They have had their problems too! After their UEFA Champions League triumph in 1992, Barcelona were good in Europe, but only just. Before that too, the team was utterly rubbish!However, careful planning and investment has led to the creation of a team that is far above any other, in terms of playing style. However, despite their rise, the team has only managed 2 UEFA Champions League titles in the last 5 seasons. While that isn’t an easy feat, it cannot match up to the likes of AC Milan and Real Madrid, in their peak eras.Consistency still remains a problem with this team. To be really called a great team, Barcelona need to keep this on for just a few years. This is because, frankly, after the 2005-06 UEFA Champions League title, the team went down like a deck of cards. No trophies over the next couple of years meant that the team’s reputation as a top team would fall.Today, teams like Internazionale Milan, Chelsea, Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona are in the maturity phase and this means that they will remain amongst Europe’s elite for a few seasons to come.RAPID DECLINEThe bigger the team, the more rapid the decline! After their 2001-02 triumph in the UEFA European Champions League, Real Madrid fell like a rocket without fuel. As a team of their stature, the league decline is hardly more than 3 or 4 places.The decline is usually quite gentle, for bigger teams, while smaller ones are more rapid. For bigger teams, the main causes are retirement or big transfers out of the club. For smaller ones, it is usually transfers! Today, Liverpool are in decline but that is purely due to tactical reasons and poor buys.The club is in a fix, having picked a few big name players and putting the load of the performance on them. Without Fernando Torres and Steven Gerard, Liverpool is bare! A poor support staff or coaching unit is also a major cause for decline, especially in the bigger clubs.While smaller clubs face a bigger drop, stemming the rot is harder. For bigger clubs, simply spending money in bigger players is a great option. You not only turn the team around, you rapidly shut down the decline and step into the rebuilding phase.For the Complete Article, visit http://www.cleatbeat.com.

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