The Most Important Season in Football History (2011-2012)
Whenever I think of how different football seems to me now than it did when I started watching I start wondering about that change and how it must have started. Well, football is always changing as a sport, but there are definitive moments to reference. To me, I think the 2011-2012 season is one where you can reference to explain most of the changes made in football.
I am going to break this down major tournament after another, as well as explore outside the top leagues.
Premier League
In the summer of 2011, Manchester City purchased Sergio Aguero. Aguero went on to be a legend in both club and league history. The Premier League itself was pretty intense, the most intense in my opinion because it was really left until the last minute of extra time.
A quick breakdown: By the 32nd round Man United was 8 points ahead of City. Seemed like a done deal, better luck next season Cash City, right? No.
On the 33rd round and with Omani keeper Ali al-Habsi in Wigan Athletic goal, Wigan shock Man U with a 1-0 win. Man United got back on their horse and won round 34, but the 35th round saw a legendary performance by Marouane Fellaini turning Man United 4-2 lead at 83rd minute into a 4-4 with 2 assists. The following round saw City beat United 1-0 with a Kompany header. From there on City was ahead of United on goal difference before Aguero scores the winner in the 93rd minute against QPR after Balotelli's only assist that season.
That league win solidified City as a project and sped up its growth. City after that turned into a project that is perfect all-around with a business that grew more than three times the size. That win also stabilized the club and made it more focused rather than just random purchases. It was also the season where Sir Alex felt the pressure and saw that as he grew older, it was time to retire after the next season.
Also worth noting: City that season ended the top 4 phenomena in the league and started what was known for a while as top 6.
Chelsea Winning the Champions League
Much like with City's win of the Premier League, this win solidified the Chelsea project. After Abramovic got his desired title, he turned Chelsea from stars studded team into a talents-hunting club. Chelsea's whole strategy changed after, they started what became known as talents/loan farm. It was that season by the way that Chelsea bought Lukaku from Anderlecht, also Hazard from Lille as Hazard chose Chelsea because they had won the Champions League. Add to that, players like Kevin De Bruyne, Salah, and all different players they bought as part of their project and how those players affected the Premier League in specific and the rest of Europe.
La Liga
Real Madrid winning the league that season came off as a shock, while they had a great start in the first 3 games by winning all of them, they also lost and stuttered that Mourinho's job was on the line. They lost a Classico at home but were aiming to avenge that away at Barcelona in the 33rd round as they were 4 points ahead.
That match cost both sides their following Champions League matches in the semi-final as it was built up intensely, too much on the line, it exhausted both sides ahead of their matches. That was also the match where Cristiano Ronaldo silenced the Camp Nou as he grabbed the 2-1 winner after a beautiful assist from Ozil
Real Madrid that season broke the record by reaching 100 points before Barcelona reached it the season after. That season turned Messi into a scoring beast as he finished the year of 2012 with a record 91 goals. That season also marked the end of Pep Guardiola as manager of Barcelona. The changes in Barcelona, Messi, Pep, and Real Madrid gained self-confidence as they were the team that beat the best team in the world to the league title. The traces of changes that happened in that season can be seen today.
To go full circle, for the price of Aguero, Atletico Madrid bought Arda Turan, Falcao, and Diego along with a loan of Thibaut Courtois. It was the season that started Atletico Madrid's revolution to become a top team in La Liga and Europe. Also, Valencia had reached a breaking point that season which resulted in new ownership. Many things about Spain football were changed that season.
Serie A
It is the Muntari goal season, simply put. A simple google search of "Muntari goal" would show how much controversy this unfairly disallowed goal had caused. It was also the season that Juventus hired ex-player and captain Antonio Conte to lead Juventus into a revolution that led to the complete domination of Serie A by Juventus.
AC Milan still feels a burn from their disallowed goal that season. Also, Inter Milan's decline was confirmed that season and the search for new ownership began. The decline of the two Milan clubs, the rise of Juventus, and the shape of the Serie A for many years were created that season. That season also marked Del Piero's last season with Juventus.
Bundesliga
After a normal season before, Lewandowski went into the 2011-12 season as a goal machine that led Borussia Dortmund into their second league title in a row. It may not be exactly in the Bundesliga at the time, but that was the season that saw Ralf Rangnick, current interim manager of Manchester United, to RB Leipzig as director of football and laid the strategy that led them into the current force we see today.
That season wasn't a joke in the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich got furious after losing out on the league and Champions League title. They kept Jupp Heynckes, brought in new players, and went on to win the treble the season after and dominate the Bundesliga ever since. Also, it was the season Marco Reus joined Borussia Dortmund to become captain and club legend later on.
Ligue 1
A big-money purchase was started in PSG by QSI (Qatar Sports Investments). It was in 2011 that the takeover occurred, that was the season that PSG became the richest and most powerful club where currently the two most expensive players in the world and one of the time great players play currently.
This also relates to the Serie A season as Leonardo Araújo used his connections in Italy to get many Serie A stars including Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, etc...
Also, Giroud joined Arsenal from Montpellier that season along with the aforementioned Hazard. That season marked the relegation of AJ Auxerre, a club well-known to those who followed Ligue 1 during the 80s and 90s.
The FC Anzhi Saga
While this one seems small but to me, it was the start of the most important change in football. Russian Club FC Anzhi Makhachkala saw Suleyman Kerimov take over it in 2011. A man with a controversial history said that he wanted to make Anzhi the greatest football club in the world. While we had seen Real Madrid and other big clubs pay an extravagant amount for players, Anzhi took it to a whole new level. While big clubs were paying big money for proven players, Anzhi were paying those amounts for players who weren't proven or were at the end of their career.
Anzhi's actions under the new owner were the start of what we see now in Chinese clubs. Why pay 10 million for someone when you can pay thirty? That seemed to be the mantra under which the club operated. Samuel Eto'o who was approaching his 30s was getting paid 20 million as salary, Roberto Carlo who was 37 years old at the time made a total of 10 million in two years and a half contract.
Anzhi broke common sense with their deals. And the subsequent budget cuts saw Eto'o and Willian go to Chelsea and many players scattered around the globe. The club's actions were a big reason why we have the Financial Fair Play rules.
In Conclusion
Despite how long this post is, it was shortened. The 2011-2012 season shaped football as we know it today in a big way. That season's transfer market alone saw Bayern Munich sign Manuel Neuer, Manchester United signing De Gea, and Liverpool signing their current captain and leader Jordan Henderson. Malaga also had new ownership that collapsed but made big purchases such as Santi Cazorla and Jérémy Toulalan, they went on to play the round of 8 in the Champions League. It was the end of that season that saw the Financial Fair Play rules being announced.
Overall, I don't think we ever had or will have a season that shaped football as much as that 2011-2012 season did. It is also the season that showed football to be a great business.
Congratulations @amirtheawesome1! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain and have been rewarded with new badge(s):
Your next target is to reach 55000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPCheck out the last post from @hivebuzz:
Support the HiveBuzz project. Vote for our proposal!
Wow,I should come and take a seat,with a pen and jotter to learn from your writing style. A great deal of effort to arrange this I can imagine. Kudos sir.
Two questions pls:
Thanks for your kind words, now for your questions.
You either follow the link to see the picture wasn't taken by Getty or a similar site(Leagues official sites + stations like Sky Sports often do edited pictures). Or you can just take a screenshot of a game with your phone.
I personally don't promote on any channel. You can join the Sports Talk Social discord server. Also, search up Curie and their discord. But most importantly you just need to be active across more than one community. Share the appropriate content on communities like The Weekend, Wednesday Walk, OCD, Gem, whatever you see fit. And make sure to comment as much as possible. Don't be lazy with your content, so whenever a curator sees your account they'd see good content.
Hi sir, I had to do a screenshot of this because, I have not found any advice this elaborate and useful,since I joined Hive not long ago.
On number 1, perhaps you can start with that post of mine you commented on,is it okay? I didn't see Getty Images on the link. Also concerning what you enclosed in the bracket, do you mean I can't touch their pictures? Lastly, you gave a smart looking solution too: you mean I can do a screenshot on any website and it is okay?
On number 2,I think the game changer would be discord. I don't even have the app in my phone. I see folks who don't have a great content and not a very sound command of the language,with all due respect, but consistently receive astronomical votes. I think it's the discord thing.
You can imagine I am one to comment on posts,it's natural with me. I am open to posting in other communities,though as a relative new comer here, I don't know some of the ones you listed– I would take note of them. Majority of the time since I joined,I had been battling a faulty mobile device(I use for posts),with no funds to repair it.
Thanks a lot for the feedback,I have these questions before now, but no one has given me solutions like you did.
No problem, there's a reason why I have my discord username in my bio. I am open to helping anyone.
1- I am sorry to break it to you but your picture is in fact from Getty. The way to find out is to follow the link of the picture. And if it takes to a football news site, like the mirror, or UEFA. They cite Getty as the source. Also, you're sourcing your pictures wrong, you're supposed to give a link to the site where it is shown, not the URL of it.
The one between brackets are actually pictures you can use. As for screenshots, I meant from the games themselves, like the ones you see above of CR7 and Aguero. Due to the original content being a video form, you can use 30 seconds of it, so a picture is fine. You can find any video of a goal or a moment you saw and just screenshot that.
Also, build a brand, Me and @moealdabbagh are doing that. When you create a title like my "Top 5" or Moe's "The Context of" you can just use a picture from Pixabay.com as they don't have copyright. Remember that most of us know what the players and coaches look like so it is not necessary to put their pictures. Also, it may help if you just go to their social media accounts as they often post pictures of themselves there, those, by Twitter rules, are free to use once they post them.
2- It is not discord as much as it is communicating, if you go to Curie discord you will find a lot of people just posting their links and leaving. Every curator will tell you the same thing, I am an onboarder for OCD and can tell you that the most important they have is often interactions, if they don't interact a lot, no one will even give them upvotes.
I can relate to that, I spent most of my money to purchase a broken laptop for 50$ that I use to post. When I started, I would have entire posts go without upvotes, but with more commenting and interactions I became seen by many.
You can talk about your favorite movie or TV show, or even ones you don't like on Movies and TV Show, or just share a picture of your weekend on The Weekend.
As for those getting upvotes for lazy posts, it is often related to other stuff they're doing or who supports them. Explore the site more.
Chelsea winning the Champions' League is one of the most memorable matches that I have watched on live TV. Greetings from the Philippines!
Yeah, it was quite the moment.
Love from Iraq.
Oh, hello there brother. How are you? It's great to see someone like you from Iraq blogging in Hive.
Wow...can't believe that was 10 years ago! I'll never forget where I was and who I was with when Aguero hit that winning goal. I'm pretty sure I remember the smell around me as well what a moment
It is amazing. That Aguero moment I also remember it clearly. The Arabic commentary made it so much better.
Alot seemed to happen that year alright.
Lol yeah.