The Mixer: The Story of Premier League Tactics, from Route One to False Nines
Page 45
But this would simply be the next step in a process that has been the Premier League’s defining feature – its internationalism – and the Premier League’s role in promoting Britain itself should not be underestimated. A 2015 Populus poll of citizens from seven countries and one territory across the world – Nigeria, Qatar, India, China, Thailand, Indonesia, the USA and Hong Kong – revealed that the Premier League was Britain’s most popular ‘brand’, ahead of such things as the BBC, British universities, the monarchy and British music. ‘Eighty-four per cent of those polled across all the markets say that the Premier League makes them feel more positive towards the UK,’ it read. ‘Furthermore, you don’t have to like the UK to like the Premier League: the Premier League’s high Index score is not dependent on people’s general views about the UK as a country … our research shows that of the many effective advertisements the UK has for what it wants to say about itself – modern, successful, exciting, open, inclusive – the Premier League is the strongest.’
That’s significant in light of the proposal from Burnham – who campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU – that English football should consider reintroducing foreign quotas. Consider the fact that Britain is set to become more isolated and that the Premier League is effectively Britain’s best advertisement for itself. The reintroduction of foreign quotas would be an extremely significant decision that would have ramifications far beyond football.
The English product of the Premier League is barely English at all – it simply takes place in England. In much the same way English high streets feature restaurants serving food from various world cuisines – meaning bland English fare is now largely the preserve of the traditional pub – old-school English football has been relegated to the lower leagues.
The English top flight takes exotic ingredients from various foreign countries, and serves the most diverse, exciting and unpredictable footballing feast in the world. The Premier League is, of course, the mixer.
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Acknowledgements
Huge thanks to my agent Chris Wellbelove, who approached me about writing a book in 2012. Four years later I decided it was time to get started. His patience is much appreciated, and his input throughout has been invaluable. I am grateful to my editor Jack Fogg for his initial interest, for extremely helpful pointers throughout the process and for indulging me by publishing a book 50 per cent longer than planned. Our most important meeting took place in a pub on a Friday night, which sums up how pleasant the process has been.
Thanks also to Orlando Mowbray for his enthusiasm from an early stage. Mark Bolland made crucial revisions at the copyediting stage, and Simeon Greenaway designed a fantastic cover. Thanks to everyone else at HarperCollins for vital behind-the-scenes work.
Thanks to Carlo Ancelotti for taking time to explain his Chelsea system to me. I am indebted to Duncan Alexander for regularly digging into Opta’s archive to help with statistical requests. Merci to Jack Lang for translation assistance. Thanks to Nick Ames, Neil Baker, Rupert Cane, Jamie Cutteridge, Andy Exley, Duncan Hamilton, Mark Holmes, Taimour Lay, Ben Lyttleton, James Maw, Alex Mocchi, Matt Phillips and Owen Whoever for help in some form. Inspiration for the structure came from the BBC’s Seven Ages of Rock series; inspirat
ion for everything else came from Claire Boucher.
Cheers to Amy Rose-McMullen for Bosman-related research and advice, which finally justified her decade of legal study and immediately disproved her promise that she wasn’t going to read any of this book. Thanks to Tom Ross for feedback, especially as we were midway through a three-week trip around Colombia and therefore he was presumably already sick of my views on football. Thanks to the hundreds of people whose writing I have borrowed from, and those who recorded 1990s football footage on VHS and later uploaded the videos onto the internet. Hello to friends who wanted a mention in this acknowledgment section; I won’t embarrass you by mentioning your names.
Cheers to Philippe Auclair and Jonathan Wilson for inviting me out for a drink back in 2010, and thanks to Sean Ingle, James Martin, Gary Parkinson and Oli Przybylski for employing me despite my complete lack of journalism experience or qualifications. I’m still working for the Guardian, ESPN, FourFourTwo and Betfair seven years on, so thanks to their colleagues and successors too.
This all stemmed from people visiting my website, Zonal Marking, so enormous thanks to everyone who has visited ZM over the past seven years, particularly during its formative period. I hugely appreciate the support and am still pleasantly surprised so many people are interested in this kind of football coverage. Massive thanks from the bottom of my heart, the relegation zone, to Stephanie, who watched football matches on the prescient condition that I wrote down the starting XIs in correct formation order and explained what was going on, then was the only person to believe that starting ZM was a good idea. I haven’t forgotten you being employed to sit in a bookshop window and read a book; can you do the same for this one?
Most importantly, eternal thanks to my mum and dad, who initially had absolutely no interest in football whatsoever, yet spent countless cold weekend mornings on the touchline of playing fields across south-west London, put up with me transforming the garden into a muddy goalmouth and arranged holidays to coincide with Serie A games. The fact Mum recently referred to my old bedroom as ‘Dad’s football-watching room’ suggests my mission is complete.
And finally, if you enjoyed reading this book, you might enjoy the accompanying eight-part The Mixer podcast series. It’s available through iTunes, SoundCloud and the other usual channels.