Money Talks

Breaking the Status Quo

It is this time of the year when hope springs eternal for all football fans with their own wish-list of players they feel will improve their clubs. But given the recent economic climate, how many of those clubs will actually fulfil their entire needs? 2? 3? It is likely Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City will be able to fulfil their needs and wants given the financial resources of the three. But with growing pressure on Premiership managers to ensure their status and the financial implications of relegation, spending looks likely to grow in today’s culture of instant quick fix and gratification despite the dwindling economic climate. Will this summer’s transfer activity change the status quo? Are the likes of Everton and Aston Villa one star signing away from the Champions League? What can the next tier of clubs below the big 4 do to break the status quo? With the continued lucrative carrot of the Champions League, the big 4 will only move to strengthen their own positions.

Given the recent news of Manchester United’s plans to expand their

The "Theatre of Dreams" Old Trafford

stadium to a capacity of 95,000, those plans if true, only serve to widen the gap between the rich and the poor. But reports in the Guardian after the 2008 Champions League triumph when journalist David Conn reported that Manchester United owed £56m for players they had not completely paid for, the real life economic climate and the origins of global recession only mirrors that of United and many clubs’ situations: reckless lending practices, in other words excessive borrowing against the perceived value of the club to fuel spending money they do not have.

Spending money in an attempt to gain or prolong success is nothing new in sports but United have the added pressure to win on the pitch if they are to continue their marketing phenomenon. The Glazers had borrowed money to acquire the club at its market price (at the time) but has saddle the club with the debts and around £81m per year in interest payments with half of that owed to hedge funds companies. Given the proposed 28% increase in capacity and its current estimated income of £92.5m on their home match days, they obviously project to earn at the least, a further 28% on top of that figure. The worrying trend in football is the increased spending level in the Premiership. But with the current weak pound devaluing many players on the international market and vice versa, the increasing the price of international players abroad, the balance of power only figure to strengthen among the elite clubs whereas the poorer clubs will find themselves priced out of the market for real quality players.

What would happen if Sky and ESPN collapsed in similar fashion to Setanta and ITV digital channel collapse that sparked widespread panic in the SPL, Championship and League One and Two? What would happen if UEFA decides to limit the number of place in the CL to just two or even three? It is likely plenty of clubs would be desperately looking to trim their wage bill and spark a fire sale across the Premiership. Part of football’s debate is the perceived spending of Chelsea and Manchester United against the “poorer” relations of the big four in Arsenal and Liverpool when Rafa Benitez raised the issue. Rafa Benitez’s obsession with transfer spending last season was purportedly “facts” in his own words when he aimed a broadside at the financial clout of Manchester United citing money as the difference between the sides.

"When you talk about United you're talking about a side spending big, big money on every player, every season. For me that is the main difference between the teams," said Benitez.

Benitez was trying to make the point that United had the better SQUAD as they could call upon multi-million pound signing from the bench on any given day.

But critics piled in citing the money Rafa has spent in his time at

Liverpool Manager Rafael Benitez

Liverpool. But whilst both sides have valid points in their arguments, what Benitez did not articulate on is budgetary restraints and the rebuilding of a “farm system” whilst trying to catch up to United who had the advantage of higher revenue and already had a strong spine in their squad. United fans will rightly point out the amount of money spent by Rafa Benitez as a whole and Liverpool fans will point out the “luck” Ferguson had in his “golden generation” of Beckham, Scholes, Butt, Giggs, the Neville brothers at a time when the market was more amenable to all clubs, not just the “elite” clubs and the numerous occasions he has smashed the transfer record with Hughes, Keane, Stam, Cole, Veron and Ferdinand in a bid to stay at the top.

When managers hear about Rafa’s rant, how do THEY feel?? They must find it galling that he is complaining and he is already in the top four!

With the exception of Newcastle’s Shearer signing, most clubs had kept strictly to their budgets or generated cash by selling their players. Could Liverpool afford to blow £29.1m on one player back in the early part of the noughties when they had multiple needs in their squad? In 2004, Houllier had only just shattered Liverpool’s transfer record by paying a reported £13m for Djibril Cisse but that paled into comparison with United who could already flaunt the talents of Ferdinand, Rooney, Van Nistelrooy, Ronaldo and even afford a luxury by paying £28m for Juan Sabastian Veron. Could the likes of Everton and Aston Villa spend £12m on a young Portugese player (Ronaldo) who was largely unproven at just 18 yrs despite good scouting reports if they had been offered the chance? Both Liverpool and Arsenal were in for Ronaldo before the £12m bid inevitably tempted Sporting Lisbon. Did a side like Tottenham have a genuine chance of attracting a player like Arshavin even if they offered more then their derby rivals without the lure of Champions League football?

Below is a table of the big four spending on their respective squads for the past season. Forget the past transfers, net spending, etc, we look at the here and now. All transfer valuations are ballpark figures as widely reported. Though it is difficult to gauge an accurate figure given conflicting valuations from several media outlets, I have settled on ballpark figures. I have also simplified the lists and listed significant figures on all transactions over £1m..

N.B *I have gauged Tevez’s value at 10m as that is the reported loan fee United paid to MSI. Ashley Cole’s move to Chelsea was a player + cash deal.

Arsenal	(m)	Chelsea	(m)	Liverpool	(m)	Manchester Utd	(m)
Almunia	0	Cech	6	Reina	8	Van Der Sar	2
Sagna	6	Boswinga	16	Arbeloa	2.5	Rafael	0
Clichy	0	Cole, A*	5	Aurelio	0	Evra	5
Gallas	0	Terry	0	Carragher	0	Ferdinand	29.1
Toure	0	Carvalho	19.9	Skrtel	7	Vidic	7
Fabregas	0	Essien	24.4	Mascherano	18.6	Ronaldo	12
Denilson	0	Ballack	0	Alonso	11	Carrick	18
Nasri	12	Lampard	11	Kuyt	9	Anderson	16
Walcott	5	Malouda	13	Riera	8	Berbatov	30
Van Persie	3.5	Drogba	24	Gerrard	0	Rooney	29
Adebayor	6	Anelka	16	Torres	22	Tevez*	10
	32.5		135.3		86.1		158.1
Fabianski	2	Hilario	0	Cavalieri	3	Kuszczak	2
Eboue	1.5	Ferreira	13.2	Agger	6	Foster	1
Gibbs	0	Ivanovic	10	Insua	0	O'Shea	0
Djorou	0	Alex	7	Lucas	7	Neville	0
Song	0	Mikel	16	Babel	12	Fabio	0
Diaby	3	Kalou	3.5	Ngog	1.5	Hargreaves	18
Eduardo	11	Belletti	3.5	Benayoun	5	Giggs	0
Rosicky	6	Cole, J	6.6	Degen	0	Scholes	0
Arshavin	16	DiSanto	0	Dossena	7	Gibson	0
Bendtner	0	Deco	8	El Zhar	0	Fletcher	0
Vela	0	Miniero	0	Plessis	0	Nani	12
Wilshire	0	Quaresma	0	Hyppia	1.5	Welbeck	0
Hoyte	0	Shevchenko	32	Keane	20	Campbell	0
Silvestre	0	Mancienne	0	Voronin	0	Macheda	0
Senderos	0			Pennant	6	Evans	0
						Brown	0
						Possebon	0
						Tosic/Ljajic	16.3
						Park	4
Totals	72		235.1		155.1		211.4

As you can see, Manchester United led the way with the biggest squad of the big four but in terms of costs, Arsenal brings up the rear with just 72m spent on players over £1m whilst Chelsea has the most expensive squad. Manchester United are second having spent 211.4 but that does not include Tevez’s permanent registration which MSI value at 25.6m in which case, they would likely be top in term of squad spending. Liverpool are third with their squad costing 155.1m including the big money flop Robbie Keane who departed midway through the season.

Manchester United led the way despite Ferguson already having a strong spine in Beckham, Butt, Scholes, Giggs and the Neville brothers prior to

Manchester Utd's Manager Alex Ferguson

Roman’s and Rafa’s arrival. Despite winning the title in the 2006-07, they still went out and spent almost £50m on Hargreaves, Anderson and Nani despite their success, which led to the Champions League triumph in 2008. Having lost to Barcelona, the sight of Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal in their rear mirror will likely prompt Ferguson to spend in a bid to stay at the top. With reports of Park, Nani, Tevez all set to depart, it is very likely Ferguson will target a blockbuster signing to bolster an already strong squad. With Ronaldo a confirmed departure, he will be under immense pressure to plug the gap vacated by the Portugese with target likes Benzema, Aguerro and Ribery all mentioned. He has so far been quiet preferring actions to talks and if his modus operandi is anything to go by, he will look to tie up some quick deals before the preseason period rather then a drawn out affair that does club and player no favours.

As for Liverpool: For all the critics insisting Rafa has had the money: do you spend your entire budget on one player or spread it across the squad to fill multiple needs? He had mainly opted for multiple signings at a cheaper price before he decided on three blockbuster signings with mixed results. For a young person, do you blow 10K on a brand new car for cost certainty or buy a cheaper car and maybe have enough for a deposit on a small house and a holiday? Bear in mind that car may break down, the holiday becomes a nightmare and the house could be in need of renovations. The margin of error is much greater given a smaller budget with greater needs and holes to fill with the quality and some measure of cost certainty of the player relative to his value. He has already overpaid for Glen Johnson writing off the 7m Portsmouth owed them in the deal which would surely had factored in his decision in targeting the England man at a position not quite considered a premium.

The problem for Benitez is his bosses have followed the Glazers in borrowing excessively to buy the club (though Tom Hicks already had a track record of borrowing to acquire companies and selling them at a big profit) and attempting to catch up with the leaders in Utd who (at the time) had the advantage of a 65000 capacity stadium, thus increased budgets and revenue and Chelsea were bankrolled by their rich owner. But with reports of refinancing deals on the horizon for their loans, Benitez is likely to have some money to spend this summer regardless of whether a new owner is found. There is also recent news of Hicks defaulting repayments on his loans on his American sports team interests thus forcing lenders to renegotiate the terms of his repayments. It is unlikely Hicks can apply similar hardball tactics with the lenders on this side of the pond though his partner’s sale of the Montreal Canadiens and his own dialogue with potential buyers of his own American sports team in the Texas Rangers (who, by the way represents a good deal for owners putting achievements over profit) and the Dallas Stars give fans a glimmer of hope for the future.

Given Benitez is likely to be 2-3 players away from mounting a strong sustained challenge for the title, matching the actual spending on his squad to that of United and Chelsea is his big barrier in today’s market. Looking at Benitez’s achievements, he has practically rebuilt a squad in an inflated market in five years on less then what Chelsea had spent and operated under a budget and a trial and error method of gauging unknown foreign players’ effectiveness in the Premier League. He has also revamped his youth setup with plenty of young players brought in for the future.

Arsenal fans may have been frustrated at the lack of spending by Wenger but given a new stadium, as manager, he also holds a fiscal responsibility to the club owners and in my opinion, he has done the right thing in exercising caution rather then borrowing to spend. His background in Economics makes him cautious and realistic and he has opted to rebuild through youth.

But unfortunately for Wenger, clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool who operate within the same labour market rules but with bigger financial clout then Arsenal have begun to follow Wenger’s modus operandi in acquiring the best youth players in the world with the hope they can develop them into world class stars at a cheaper price (though Ferguson have paid dearly for Ronaldo, Anderson, Tosic/Ljajic and Nani). He is also under increasing pressure to win just to hang on to stars like Fabregas and it will be interesting to see which path Wenger takes this summer. Will he stay true to his fiscally responsible beliefs and keep the faith in youth or spend like there’s no tomorrow with no guarantee of success. As a football fan and management graduate, I hope he stays true to his beliefs and that the owners persevere with him through lean times (trophy wise).

But amazingly there are sections of the Arsenal support who actually want Wenger out. The question those critics of Wenger should be asking

Emirates Stadium

themselves, how much would it take to catch up with Utd and Chelsea in a quick fix situation given the advantage they already possess in attracting the money conscious stars to their clubs and the established stars they already possess? Is it worth the short-term gains at the cost of future stability given Arsenal are only just beginning to repay their mortgage on their stadium? There is no doubt in my mind who I’d want as my manager if I owned a football club and that man is Wenger.

Chelsea has spent in excess of 300m but they were already a top four club before Roman Abramovich arrived and currently has a roster full of stars approaching or on the wrong side of thirty and they haven’t been active in the transfer market in the same spectacular way they stunned the footballing world when Abramovich first arrived. But they still splashed out on Bosingwa, Anelka and Deco within the last year. Given they will appoint a new manager with his own ideas and perceptions of players, they figure to splash the cash once again though it’s worrying for Chelsea fans they continue to be linked with aging established stars which is a worry given Chelsea’s stars are already approaching or are on the wrong side of thirty.

What of the rest? Manchester City would need a similar amount, if not more to catch up instantly. However like Chelsea, they are bankrolled by a rich billionaire and money is not an issue with those clubs. The problem for Manchester City is paying fair market value for players they are interested in. They have already splashed out on Barry and figures to sign Santa Cruz and possibly Tevez. Their summer transfer activity will worry the big four as they look solid in midfield and attack. Defence remains a question mark and it remains to be seen if Hughes opts to bolster the back line with big name signings. Tottenham also figures to be active in the transfer market this summer with Harry Redknapp who already has a track record of wheeling and dealing likely to sell the likes of Bentley, Bent and other fringe

Mark Hughes

players to reduce an already bloated squad and look to focus on quality rather then quantity. But this is the biggest club and budget he has ever operated under and question marks abounds there. Like Manchester City, to acquire players of real quality without the promise of Champions League football, he will likely have to overpay for the players he wants. But in terms of attracting big name players, he doesn’t quite have the “sexiness” of a big name and if he is to break the status quo he must develop and hang on to his world class players.

But the market figure to widen between the haves and have-nots with the presence of Manchester City. When Roman Abramovich arrived, he raised the bar in terms of spending by splashing out on a quick fix solution and even against the wishes of his own manager Mourinho who valued team players over established superstars like Shevchenko and Ballack. Clubs like Porto raised the price of their players when Chelsea came calling and reaped the benefit with the sales of Ferreira and Carvalho. Now 5 years on, we have the “world’s richest club” in Manchester City who has already overpaid for the likes of De Jong and made a world record transfer bid for Kaka. Despite Mark Hughes’s preference for prudence in shrewd signings such as Wright Phillips, Zabaleta and Kompany at reasonable prices, he is still saddled with luxury players such as Robinho and Jo who were signed by ownership. He is also victimised in the market by clubs who are determined to squeeze every last cent from the owners. The agents will be working round the clock to link their players to Manchester City and that will make it much harder for Hughes to acquire the player he wants at his actual market value. But despite the preference of shrewd signings, Hughes looks certain to bolster the squad with more big name signings rather then follow Rafa’s route in buying between the 5-9m band. Following the chairman’s declaration of a more sensible target in a top 6 place, Hughes has effectively placed himself under enormous amounts of pressure if he signs Tevez. Regardless of whether Hughes succeeds, there is definitely a plan in place rather then silly declarations of league titles and Champions League football. Whether the owners allow him time and money to build slowly is the question.

Below is the spending of the next tier of clubs in the Premier League with Champions League aspirations.

Tottenham	(m)	Manchester City	(m)	Everton	(m)	Aston Villa	(m)
Gomes	10	Given	6	Howard	3	Friedel	2.5
Hutton	9	Richards	0	Lescott	5	Young, L	6
Bale	5	Bridge	10	Baines	5	Shorey	3.5
King	0	Dunne	0	Jagielka	4	Laursen	3
Woodgate	7	Onuoha	0	Yobo	5	Davies	10
Jenas	9	Kompany	6	Fellaini	15	Barry	1.2
Huddlestone	1.5	Johnson	0	Arteta	2	Petrov	6.5
Modric	15.8	Petrov	4.7	Cahill	1.5	Sidwell	5
Bentley	15	Wright-Phillips	8.5	Osman	0	Young, A	8
Keane	12	Bellamy	12	Neville	3.5	Carew	0
Defoe	15.7	Robinho	32.5	Yakubu	11.25	Agbonlahor	0
	100		79.7		55.25		45.7
Cudicini	0	Hart	0	Turner	0	Guzan	0
Corluka	8.5	Ben-Haim	5	Hibbert	0	Cuellar	7.8
Assou-Ekotto	3.5	Zabaleta	6.45	Valente	2.2	Bouma	3.5
Dawson	4	Ball	0	Jacobsen	0	Knight	3.5
Zokora	8	Garrido	1.5	Rodwell	0	Milner	12
Giovanni	4.7	DeJong	17	Gosling	0	Harewood	4
Lennon	11	Fernandes	4.2	Pienaar	2	Salifou	0
Bostock	0	Hamaan	0	Van der Meyde	2	Reo-Coker	0
Bent	16.5	Ireland	0	Saha	0	Gardner	0
Pavlyuchenko	13.8	Elano	8	Vaughn	0	Heskey	3.5
Gilberto	3.5	Jo	19	Anichebe	0	Delfouneso	0
Gunter	3.5	Bojinov	5.75	Nash	0
Chimbonda	3	Caicedo	5.2	Castillo	0
Rocha	3.3	Benjani	4
Palacios	12	Evans	0
O'Hara	0	Sturridge	0
		Vassel	2
		Schmeichel	0
Totals	188.3		157.8		61.45		80

The likes of Everton and Aston Villa lag well behind Manchester City and Tottenham who had amazingly spent in excess of 180m on their 08/09 squad. Despite spending more then their North London rivals and Liverpool, they have yet to qualify for the promised lands of the Champions League. Manchester City spent 157.8m on their current squad and loaned out Jo despite spending 19m on his services. Tottenham and Manchester City have the finances to compete but do they have the right management in place? The infrastructure of a burgeoning youth academy? Manchester City’s has already produced several academy graduates whilst Harry Redknapp look set to work on his own academy and his track record at West Ham inspires confidence. However, in the here and now, the problem with those two clubs are getting quality players to sign for their clubs at reasonable prices. Everton’s David Moyes continues to prove a shrewd manager going for a young player from the Championship in Kyle Naughton and talks of a former Arsenal target in Mbia. He has also been previously linked with Moutinho and whether he revisits those talks depend on his own perceived valuation. Martin O’Neill continues to operate an English player policy with Sol Campbell, Jermaine Jenas and David Bentley the names mentioned. Would those signings be enough? Unlikely.

However the likes of Aston Villa and in particular, Everton are at crossroads. Like many clubs with CL aspirations, they face the question majority of homeowners will be familiar with: A nice holiday at the expense of an extra year’s mortgage? A conservatory, loft conversion or a nice car for the added stress of making higher mortgage payments? The wrong answer and voila: a global recession or in football terms, another Leeds United. It is the question that plenty of people (the entire western world!) have failed to answer correctly. Spending when they cannot afford to. Spending against projected future incomes. Or like United and Liverpool, spending against the equity the clubs has. Yes the banks are to blame for recklessly lending money to all and sundry but failing to take responsibilities for your own finances and not knowing your limits is no excuse to mismanaging your own finances.

So what can be done at smaller clubs? They could turn to youth but the big four have already cornered the market in talented youngsters. They could broaden their scouting network but that cost money with no guarantees. Or they could simply copy Real Madrid who allegedly ordered scouts to follow Arsenal’s scouting network around the world!! But realistically, they must think outside the box. As in the real business world, that competitive edge could just be enough to take you to the top of the tree.

As an example, Arsenal turned to youth and the French football scene to resurrect their fortunes in the late 90s and succeeded in matching Utd who were financially advantageous above all clubs. Given the performances of Xavi and Iniesta, two players of diminutive size, Arsene Wenger proved himself correct as he had always advocated technique over other attributes believing those intangible elements such as leadership, personality and fitness can be moulded with time.

Tottenham tried the continental way by restructuring their management and redefining their roles but the Commolli/Ramos/Jol experiment did not work. Despite spending more than Arsenal and Liverpool, they are no closer to securing qualification for the CL and they appointed a manager who is probably less highly regarded on the continent then his predecessors, Martin Jol and Sergio Ramos. Liverpool are combining budget signings with a quietly rebuilt youth scene that has yielded youth cups in his time at Anfield and Rafa has also used his knowledge of the Spanish scene to his advantage. But Liverpool look to move on to bigger signings and that window of opportunity may have passed for the next tier of clubs.

Aston Villa are trying the Wenger way but with the added emphasis of young English players and are still a work-in-progress as opposed to Middlesboro who have paid the price in relying on British talent like Johnson, Wheater, O’Neill and Downing. Everton have done well with Moyes buying well from the Championship and generally buying wisely showing exactly why Ferguson rates the young Scot so highly.

But what Manchester City and Tottenham’s squad highlights are the increasing costs of players who are patently not world class. Overpaying for mediocre players is nothing new in sports. But with the recent influx of Brazilians like Fabio, Rafael, Possebon, Robinho, Jo, Elano, clubs have to be extra cautious in that particular market as Middlesboro found to their cost. Having signed Afonso Alves for 12m, they have since discovered, like Chelsea’s Deco, he does not have the toughness and heart to play in the physical world of the Premier League. Smaller clubs in particular must do their due diligence in researching their targets. As the game becomes global and the presence of the internet, always a huge source of

£4,000,000 Man! Steven Fletcher

information, owners will surely demand some measure of cost certainty before committing money towards signings. Even Steven Fletcher of Hibernian is rated in the 4m bracket! Kyle Naughton of Sheffield United has been mentioned in the 5m bracket. The increasing cost of players despite the poor global economic climate is another barrier clubs must overcome.

Real Madrid has raised the bar already this summer in terms of increasing the world transfer record twice with their amazing spree to sign Ronaldo and Kaka and even added Abiol. They also possess Garay out on loan who Rafa tried to sign a couple of years ago. For clubs like Aston Villa, there is no way they can afford to loan out world class players the way continental sides regularly do. They must also overcome immigration laws over signing non-EU players. We could say Manchester City raised the bar even higher with a ridiculous £100m+ bid for Kaka in January, a 26 yr old with likely less then a third of that value recouped should he had signed and left in 2-3 years time. Their willingness to pay 100m+ sets a dangerous precedent and should Barcelona ever decide to sell Messi, that is the reference point they will use to justify their price tag. When we talk about the merits of Roque Santa Cruz, I am stunned at the price tag on his head. I’m thinking “For Christ sake, he’s 28 yr old (this coming season) with practically no resale value in 4-5 years time!!”

Even Glen Johnson is valued at £17.5m which is excessive in a non premium position but indicative of the current market with the likes of Bent and Bentley costing similar amounts. If all football managers like David Moyes stuck to their own valuation and are prepared to actually use their coaching and scouting talent to develop players or look for realistic alternatives, then the market will correct itself to a more realistic level. But the pressure of modern day football, today’s culture of instant gratification and the lucrative promise of the Champions League will continue to drive the market and establish increased value.

In American sports, parity is achieved through salary caps and the presence of the amateur draft but the lack of a college and high school infrastructure in this country rules that option out. The salary cap is unlikely to be pushed through given the power and influence of the big four. Where American sports differ from football is the scientific aspects of management. In baseball, we have GMs using statistics to mould their ball-clubs with the power to hire and fire club managers. Despite plenty of managers holding sway over a clubs’ transfer policy, could we see a time when British football follow the continental style of a general manager holding the power over transfer policies and working strictly to a budget? Tottenham tried that method and failed miserably in context of their Champions League target but Commolli was an inexperienced Director of Football who gained his reputation as part of Wenger’s scouting network and his work with St. Etienne, a small budget French side. West Ham are turning to the Italians in an attempt to gain an edge with Gianluca Nani and Gianfranco Zola spearheading a new world order at Upton Park. So far, they have shown signs that the continental way can indeed succeed in the pressurised world of the Premier League. Whether they can break the status quo largely depends on whether they have the money to finance their perceived edge.

Who knows? As with life, football will eventually evolve with time. Trends will start and fade. Managers like Harry Redknapp and Alex Ferguson who insist on total control of transfer policy may disappear with ownership

Harry Redknapp

insisting on managers liking it or leaving it. Maybe football will adopt an American sports model of a General Manager using Opta statistics to redefine their team the same way baseball uses sabermetrics. But until smaller clubs start to challenge the traditional ways of operating and managing a football club to a more unorthodox method, in ten years, the likelihood of the big four maintaining their status quo will only increase with time until the gap becomes insurmountable. Only Manchester City has a realistic chance of achieving top four status and that’s after spending an enormous amount of money.

Maybe it’s just me, but as a pragmatic person, I am probably in the minority who prefer to enjoy the game and anything else is an added bonus. Of course I want my team to win and I may let my emotions get the better of me at times, but above all, the long term future of my team is much more important then any mega-star signing especially in this current climate. For fans of smaller teams, it is the time to exercise patience and “resign” yourselves to another summer of life’s tough lessons: the rich get richer and the poor gets left behind. Have a great summer and get ready for another bout of déjà vu next summer with the big four in the same spot and hopefully Andy Murray defending his Wimbledon title!

Giant_Causeway