Last season Real Madrid's second-string beat Valencia - who finished third - 6-3 away. (And only conceded the second and third because they eased off after going 6-1 up) Is La Liga a joke as well?
Yes and No. Yes in that it is not very competitive in terms of title challengers. No in that the top teams are amongst the best in Europe who consistently reach the later stages of European competitions.
Now that the EPL has sold its soul to Sky TV and foreign money launderers, the time has come for the EPL to close down and stop pretending to be a league where team positions and results are based on team performance. Sky is not going to tolerate 8 -2 or 5-1 results amongst teams who are basically surviving on laundered money. Not a sport any longer in England just a bully session where the richest and greediest take all.
Are sky happy giving big teams lime Aston villa and Everton 30 million to spend to compete in the epl ??? .Then don't spend a penny ,Everton are skint , villa have raked even more money in through transfers , 2/3 season ago these teams would give the top 4 a game ,not now.
i dont think anyone thought arsenal would be challenging for the title this season, even before they sold nasri and fabregas.
Wasn't that long ago when we consistently got 2 or 3 teams in the semifinals of the CL. Liverpool 2005 winners Arsenal 2006 runners up Liverpool 2007 runners up Man Utd 2008 winners Man Utd 2009 runners up Bit crap in 2010, but Spanish teams did as badly Man Utd 2011 runners up. The apparent differences in club football between the two aren't that different. In fact I'd say the Premier League is a stronger league overall when you consider all teams. Fair enough Barcelona are the best team in the world (even as a United supporter I'd find it difficult to make a case for us being the best at the moment) and the Spanish national team would walk over the English national team, but club for club, I think the English league is stronger. The Premier League is far more competitive than La Liga is also. Whether the top English clubs can beat the top Spanish clubs is another matter. Aside from Barcelona, maybe Real Madrid on a really good day there isn't a single Spanish side that would beat another English team. I know you get the same winners of the league but the games are generally competitive. Take last season for example, Wolves barely stayed up yet they beat us, Chelsea, City and Liverpool and drew against Arsenal if I remember correctly.
If that's the case is it that these teams (Spurs Arsenal and such) have lowered their ambitions to trying to get 4th? If so is the start of the decile? The league will become less attractive if clubs start to lower there ambitions because the costs are prohibitive and then the gap between the top and the rest grows and revenue will decrease. The revenue decline is IMO good for football the sums of money and the salary's in the game are sickening and out of touch with the rest of the world.
Barca and Real have both finished around 25 points clear of the likes of Valencia in the past few seasons. How is that more competitive than England?
we shall see how UEFA's new financial rules affect the balance of spending between the clubs in the PL.
Polar Bear To the best of my knowledge no other league in the world has as many clubs owned by foreign business people of so low repute. Mobsters, money launderers and other people of similar reputation see the English Premiership as a prime investment vehicle for their ill gotten gains. This and obscene Sky money has meant that the Premiership clubs have create a false over rated valuation for footballer of a certain standard and their greedy agents. Thank God for the unfortunate rare Arsenal midfielder who is buying his way to his beloved Barcelona.
