Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The times, they are a-changing

Yesterday, I found one of my all-time favourite lucky finds – an old World Football magazine which proudly boasted to contain full 2006-07 squad lists for every major European league.

As I sat back to enjoy again articles like “Gamble on Govou gets France going” and “Sticky start [at Poland] for Beenhakker”, it struck me at the amount the shape of sport has changed in as little as five years.  That year was a particularly interesting one: Roy Keane earned a reputation as the games’ best young manager as he led Sunderland from bottom of the Championship to runaway winners at his first attempt; Red Star Belgrade sold star striker Nikola Zigic to Racing Santander (who has later moved to Valencia and Birmingham City); while the “Five Young Stars of the Copa Libertadores” were Rafael Sobis, Fabiano Eller, Wason Renteria, Leandro Somoza and Cristian Riveros.

The most striking example of how much the game has progressed is in the amount of player turnover at English clubs.  The table below details the 2006-07 English Premier League squads and how much they have changed over the subsequent five years.

Club
06-07 squad
Players in 11-12 squad
06-07 Players on loan
Total players still in EPL
Relegations
Arsenal
32
7
2
15

Aston Villa
24
2
0
10

Blackburn
29
3
0
6

Bolton
23
3
0
8

Charlton
31
0
0
2
**
Chelsea
20
9
0
13

Everton
26
7
1
13

Fulham
27
0
0
3

Liverpool
27
7
1
14

Man City
26
3
0
8

Man Utd
22
9
0
16

M’Brough
29
4
0
9
*
Newcastle
21
3
0
10
*
Portsmouth
26
2
0
3
*
Reading
26
1
0
5
*
Sheff Utd
32
3
0
2
**
Tottenham
27
6
1
12

Watford
30
3
0
4
*
West Ham
28
3
0
10
*
Wigan
25
2
0
8


Keep in mind this was before set 25-man squads, Financial Fair Play and numerous debt crises and takeovers.  The squads are as listed in “World Soccer” Magazine, October 2006 edition and can include promising youth team players.

With the number of players still in the EPL after five years, it’s not surprising that Watford, Sheffield United and Charlton were relegated that season.

No comments:

Post a Comment