Collymore’s column: Chelsea’s civil war, Cristiano Ronaldo’s ironic comments and why fewer long-range shots has turned football boring



In his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, former Aston Villa attacker Stan Collymore discusses some of football’s biggest talking points, including Chelsea’s civil war, Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest dig at Erik Ten Hag and why fewer long-range shots are being taken by top-flight players, plus much more.

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Chelsea’s civil war shows just how far the Blues have fallen

What a farce! Two parts of the ownership structure want to buy the other out after dropping a billion on, to date, subpar players.

Why would Chelsea fans want either of the parties involved in their club?

Surely Chelsea have reached the point now where they could find a dozen fit and proper owners who would run the ship properly? — There has been no forward-thinking, no growth and very little performance progression under the Todd Boehly / Clearlake regime.

Manchester United’s losses tell English football’s sad story

Let’s be honest here, the losses Manchester United have recently posted weren’t a good look.

For arguably England’s biggest club to have any losses after 30 years of Premier League and Champions League money and success is a damning indictment on the post-Sir Alex Ferguson years and lack of investment and vision from the Glazer family.

The Glazers and Sir Jim Ratcliffe watched on as Man United edged their way past Coventry City in last season’s FA Cup semi-final.

It’s also a damning indictment on English football as a whole. If our biggest club can’t be in the black with satisfied owners taking reasonable dividends, a full staff of happy employees treated as you’d expect top class organisation to treat staff, instead of austerity, owners who now won’t budge and take take take, leaving redundancies and staff cuts, then what chance do other clubs have in this waste waste waste that has been the hallmark of the last 25 years in English football?

Manchester United should never have debt. They should always have plenty of money and should always be able to compete. Why? Because they have a master supporter base and huge attendances — it’s a sad and very telling tale of English football, not just Manchester United.

Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t wrong, but he was half the problem

On the subject of the Red Devils, I agree with Cristiano Ronaldo when he says everything needs to be rebuilt at Manchester United.

I hope he’s being ironic though — because his return for a second spell at Old Trafford to many was proof the club had lost it’s marbles.

United, with Ronaldo there for a second time, became a club of headlines, headline makers and galactic nonsense rather than being a serious football club.

Cristiano Ronaldo and Erik Ten Hag’s war of words has continued.

The truth is that a Manchester United in its groove, competing for the biggest honours and having recruitment, management and its finances in order wouldn’t have caved in to the “will he, won’t he go to City?” saga which saw United desperate to not be left behind in Manchester, never mind England.


 

In my opinion, Erik Ten Hag is a dead man walking but Ronaldo’s comments should only serve to remind United fans of the circus that the Dutchman came into rather than any pile-on comments the mercurial Portuguese now makes.

Fewer long-range shots being taken

So the stats say that fewer shots are being taken and scored from in top flight football.

For someone who scored more than my fair share (left and right footed, I’ll have you know!) of outside the box screamers, this stat is both disappointing and frustrating.

Disappointing because the metronomic — a five yard pass maximum, almost hockey-esque nature of the game along with less risk means that fans are being short changed, fans who literally go to football to see players do something that they can’t. It’s frustrating because you see the talent of players on offer. Take Jack Grealish as one example — we see a player with all of the ability to drift, shimmy, glide and wow but he’s had his wings clipped under the discipline of Pep Guardiola.

Guardiola is not to blame of course, he employs a system to win games, not win style points, but his puritan way of playing the game isn’t just halting freedom of expression, it has created teams who walk the ball into the net and therefore are less likely to take on shots 20 or more yards out.

Perfection would be marrying the two arts together….