First comes Second, then comes First

What do I mean when I say, “First comes Second, then comes First”?

Well…

Manchester United won their first title in 26 years in 1993 after finishing 2nd to Leeds United the previous year.

Blackburn won their first title in 81 years in 1995 after finishing 2nd to Manchester United the previous year.

Chelsea won their first title in 50 years in 2005 after finishing 2nd to Arsenal the previous year.

Hopefully, Liverpool will win their first title in 25 years in 2015 after finishing second to Manchester City the previous year.

Manchester City only managed to break this historical trend of needing to finish 2nd prior to winning the title, if you hadn’t previously won the title for a long period, by spending even more lavishly than Chelsea did. Even then they finished 3rd the previous season, equal on points with 2nd placed Chelsea!

If you have a team that has previously won the Title in any of the previous recent seasons, it’s possible to climb a few places to win the league. But without that experience of a Title run-in, players invariably find they need to deal with an unfamiliar plethora of challenges, emotions and pressure and end up just short.

Prior to the Premier League era, before the huge money from television rights, the influx of the best foreign players and the elevation of England’s top division into the stratosphere of World Sport, it was possible to jump more places to win the league. No longer so.

No team has won the Premier League after finishing outside the top 3 the previous year.

Finishing second is certainly no guarantee of success next season. We have finished 2nd twice in the intervening quarter of a century. After finishing 2nd in 2002 we dropped to 5th the following year, costing Gerard Houllier his job. After finishing 2nd in 2009 we dropped to 7th the following year, costing Rafa Benitez his job. What went wrong in those seasons is a topic for another day, but it’s fair to say signing El Hadji Diouf and selling Xabi Alonso were a couple of the major errors that contributed.

The media is fond of saying that next season will be much tougher for Liverpool in that we have to play in Europe and other teams will strengthen. However we will also strengthen, and offer prospective players the chance of Champions League nights at Anfield at the most successful British club in Europe, playing the kind of free flowing attractive attacking football any top player would love to be part of. Furthermore we have a very young group of players who will be much better for the experience next year.

There’s no doubt a lot of work needs to be done to make that critical step from second to first, and making the right signings will be a big part of it, but history shows that if you want to win your first league title after a long hiatus it is much better to finish second the previous season than not.

You can catch more from me on my own blog: http://taintlessred.blogspot.co.uk/ or follow me on twitter:@taintlessred