Pre-Season: How Important?

By Zain Alvi | 31st July 2009

Pre-Season: How Important? | read this item

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tottenham-west-ham-friendly The pre-season is in full flow and the build up to the new season is getting more exciting by the day. Therefore, let’s take pre-season preparation as a variable to preview this upcoming season in football rather than discussing the oft-repeated, boring variable known as the transfer market.

Despite its overuse in previewing a football season, however, the transfer market has been an extremely important variable that most often becomes the driving force behind a bookmaker’s bets. The pre-season, on the other hand, has not proven to be nearly as decisive in recent years. As a result, I want to raise this question for all my fellow readers: After all, how important is the modern-day pre-season?

Last pre-season, Tottenham looked very promising, with Darren Bent scoring more goals than he could count with two hands. Juande Ramos looked firmly in control of the team’s affairs and it appeared that during the 2008/09 season, the previous year’s Carling Cup winners would replicate their cup form in the Premier League as well.

However, the Spurs sank quickly to the bottom of the league table when the actual season began. Without a savior in the tactically gifted Harry Redknapp, White Hart Lane could have easily witnessed the relegation of a side that didn’t bother to show up after the pre-season. As for Darren Bent, he will be plying his trade in Sunderland this coming season. You do the math!

While I poke fun at Tottenham’s contrasting fortunes, it is important not to forget that their city rivals Arsenal also paint quite a contrasting picture when their pre-season is compared with the season itself. The fact that Arsenal’s trophy cabinet in the past half a decade is dominated by friendly pre-season trophies such as The Emirates Cup and The Amsterdam Cup speaks volumes about how poor they have been in carrying their solid pre-season form to the games that actually matter.

Recently, AC Milan arrived in the United States with quite a bang! With all the hype surrounding Leonardo’s fresh-look squad, everyone except the Milan squad forgot that the Rossoneri had come to participate in merely a pre-season tournament. No big deal, right? Absolutely! When Milan took the field for each of the three games of the World Football Challenge, the players seemed to indicate that they would much rather lie on the beach and enjoy the United States. That should help explain their worst record in the competition.

And who can blame them? Not only Milan players, but almost all of the world’s top footballers have international duties to attend to during the off-season, which means they are already playing catch-up with their clubs during the pre-season. Meanwhile, their lesser renowned counterparts are constantly impressing the staff at their club during the extended amount of time given to them.

In the end, though, it has been proven time and again that the regular season has its own story to tell. Clearly, Manchester United‘s pre-season loss to Bayern Munich is not an indicator of the momentum with which the two sides are entering the 2009/10 season. Similarly, Real Madrid‘s failure to beat Al Ittihad does not expose any inabilities of the Madrid giants. In fact, Florentino Perez‘s prolific crew will continue to relax in the coming days as it plays overpriced games in sold out arenas against lower level opposition such as Toronto F.C.

The bottom line is, the pre-season is simply what you make of it. If you are an upcoming player with no international commitments and a lot to prove to your club, it is no rocket science that you will put your best foot forward. On the other hand, if you are a megastar such as Cristiano Ronaldo, you will most likely take the much-deserved summer off and leave the goods for the regular season.

Apart from Chelsea, which is a club committed to consistently putting out it’s top team in any competition, I cannot think of a club that actually views the pre-season any different from what I do. It is true that in the coming days, I could be proven wrong when one of the world’s major football clubs manages to carry its pre-season form into the regular season. For now, I will stick to my take on the pre-season as a virtually useless predictor for a club’s regular season performance.

Do you just hit the snooze button all summer or can you get up for a friendly? Have your say below!