I grew up on a Rodgers and Hammerstein song being churned out by others and I, few of us who could sing. When I woke up this morning to catch up on yesterday’s Liverpool game, I watched citizens of the same country as those great Songwriters watch on as You’ll never walk alone was again sung by the man who popularised it on “my” side of the Atlantic.

The Carousel

While there was probably a choir in Carousel, I bet it wasn’t as big as Gerry Marsden’s backing singers at Anfield yesterday morning, Australian Time. The representatives of the new American owners must have been delighted at least something they recognised was on display  at their new demesne. Even Chelsea loving Martin Broughton deigned to sing along in parts. Perhaps he is a fan of the Musical, or perhaps he was just inspired by the man who stood next to him and sang along with gusto throughout.

Tom Werner, one of the major partners in NESV, the new owners of Liverpool FC, is probably not well known to many. But his entertainment ‘franchises’ sure are and he sure knows, as they in the US how to “turn a dime”. And isn’t that so important in Football’s new paradigm. While all the talk has been about the man with the hammer who leads the NESV consortium, I’m sure Werner’s business credentials can’t be ignored. He’s been in Sports “Franchise” ownership since 1994 after all.

Flirting with Success

In many ways the result of this game was far from incidental. As a fan I hope, no I expect, it to be a turning point of a, to date, challenging season. But in the overall scheme of things at Anfield it was a very small step on the ladder, bigger steps have to be climbed.

As a Liverpool fan I’ve become inured to the lack of success, much like a Tottenham or Sunderland fan might be. Having grown up watching Liverpool football club be continually successful, the last 20 years have been a challenge of now greater than Collingwood proportions.

False dawns have arrived on the football field, 1996, 2001 and 2005 spring to mind. And while my colleagues in love for the club might sing about History, the quicker that history becomes ancient, the more chance those memories become disdained by the opposition. In the new paradigm of football, teams compete on the level of their spending ability than on their prowess on the pitch and the agility of their managers.

The New Paradigm

No longer the astuteness of Brian Clough or Howard Wilkinson. Little chance League titles for Derby or Aston Villa. Manchester City might finally repeat their last league championship of 1968, but not solely due to the brilliance of someone like Colin Bell, but Chelsea like thanks to the Black Gold of the Emirates.

In football’s new paradigm, Liverpool’s efforts to reclaim what I grew up considering to be rightly ours almost every season will be underwritten again by Americans. In our desire for success we’ll accept funding from any source, at whatever risk. The optimism which has surrounded the club since the outer of Hicks and Gillett has this time around been cautious, as opposed to overarching optimism which greeted the gruesome twosome in the European Cup Final losing season 2007.

And rightly so. Hicks and Gillett didn’t initially load debt onto the club. But once in, nothing stopped them doing so. And just as David Conn points out in his excellent article this week:

Manchester United have paid £487m bank interest, charges and fees – around the cost of building the 2012 Olympic stadium – to service the Glazers’ 2005 takeover. Despite that, the total owed has grown to that eye-watering £769m.

Just as Leeds before them, and almost Chelsea before they first got a rich English fan and finally found a Russian sugar-daddy, one missed target in English Football can see the hastily assembled walls crumble when the foundations under them are built on assumptions rather than reality.

In football’s new, business focused, paradigm leveraged buyouts and excessive valuations by Analysts who don’t understand the differences between a US franchise system and the English Pyramid are the norm. The knife edges some clubs barely survive on are getting narrower.

Winners and Losers

Just like in 20th Century real life which continues into the early years of the 21st, there are a few Big Winners and lots of huge losers. And the numbers of big winners are shrinking. In the old paradigm as I grew up (1976 -1992), there were 6 different winners of the English Football League and 10 further teams finished in the top 3. Since the construction of the money hungry Premier League (18 seasons) there have been four. And in the last 10 seasons, only Liverpool aside from three of those four (Blackburn in 1995 are the others) have finished in the top 3.

Chelsea and Manchester United, and to a lesser extent Arsenal, have proven that being able to spend vast sums of money will win you the league. Those who challenge – Leeds, Newcastle, Blackburn, Nottingham Forest – end up almost dead or at least struggling. Liverpool’s fate is still to be determined. Much will depend on the fighting quality of the rump left behind after Rafa Benitez’s excesses and Roy Hodgson’s hitherto poor choices in the transfer market.

I think I prefer the old paradigm. And not just because it meant You’ll Never Walk Alone was sung to serenade the Champions rather than new investors. It meant the possibility of success for other teams meant Norwich City and Crystal Palace finishing in the top 3 not just surviving in the top flight.