Like many on this site, I am becoming more and more disillusioned with our chances of competing at the top due to the financial state of the Premier League. Clearly the only route to success is money. Coaching skills, club organization, management, etc have less and less to do with success. You buy the best players; you have the best team. Even I might be a successful Premier League Coach under those circumstances!
Anyway, given I need some hope that Everton will once again be capable of competing at the top, and more importantly, for the sake of the game, I thought you might be interested in the philosophy behind how the National Football League (NFL) is run here in the USA.
The NFL is set up as a parity system to prevent long runs of ineptitude and to make it difficult to sustain a prolonged period of success.
The draft (the order of which is determined by inverting the previous season's league standings), free agency (the period in early March when any team can negotiate with players whose contracts have expired), and the salary cap (which this season capped the amount of money teams can spend on players at about $128 million) are intended to foster fair competition.
"These restraints are all put in place with the buzzword of ?parity? in mind... ie, designed to improve balance among the teams.
However, this framework does not appear to be working as well as expected, with certain teams more successful than others. Whilst this is true, no team or group of teams dominate at the top to the extent we have the Big 4 domination in the Premier League.
The reason for a certain team?s domination (or lack of) is down to more than just financial clout.
To start with, observers put it down to the quality of the coach and coaching setup in particular, along with the paucity of effective team executives or the skill of the few teams' officials who excel at navigating the maze of player acquisition and retention. There's a vast difference between the decision-makers in the NFL who know and those who don't.
The key to winning, therefore, is more about having everyone on the same page and going in the same direction. The better the coaching setup, the more stability you can get, the more you're going to win.
The unsuccessful teams might have talented players, but they often lack the support system around them or the patience to allow one to develop.
"The biggest reason why teams aren't getting better is instability," says former Bills coach and general manager Marv Levy, who coached the team to four consecutive AFC titles from 1990 to 1993. "It's always, 'Let's change, let's change.' This constant 'We have to shake it up' is causing some of this (disparity)."
Bad personnel decisions are major factors in the have-nots' plight. Big free-agent additions and premier draft choices come with expensive contracts and high expectations. If they don't pan out, the fallout can be stiff.
Whilst the NFL is a big-money league, the success of a team is based on more than just money.
I believe Everton have a few of the traits highlighted above to succeed: stability, ability to identify and develop new and young talent etc, and could probably flourish in a framework like the NFL.
Outside of the big four in the EPL, the relatively successful teams have been those that have a more stable setup, have invested in developing youth and not changing things up every season. Remember Newcastle?s crazy period when they had a different manager just about every other week!
Platini in particular is pressing hard to introduce new rules into the game to increase parity and maybe a structure along the NFL lines may provide just that.
Just a different perspective for thought!
Note: the following content is not moderated or vetted by the site owners at the time of submission. Comments are the responsibility of the poster. Disclaimer
In order to post a comment, you need to be logged in as a registered user of the site.
» Log in now
Or Sign up as a ToffeeWeb Member — it's free, takes just a few minutes and will allow you to post your comments on articles and Talking Points submissions across the site.
About these ads
Get rid of these ads and support ToffeeWeb
Bet on Everton and get a deposit bonus with bet365 at TheFreeBetGuide.com
View full table
We use cookies to enhance your experience on ToffeeWeb and to enable certain features. By using the website you are consenting to our use of cookies in accordance with our cookie policy.