AS Saint-Ãtienne fall down on the fact that they were only ever successful in France, they never won a single European title.
So that would leave PSG, Lyon, Bordeaux, Nantes, Auxerre, etc out of the running as well... Basically everyone bar Marseille?
It's not the only parameter to judge if a team is big or not, but if you combine that fact with the fact they haven't won anything in thirty years, have not even been in the top flight in France for several of those years, get crowds of 25,000, they certainly don't qualify as one of the biggest teams in Europe.
I know, I was agreeing with those who said that a historically successful club in a particular country (be it England, Spain or Malta) doesn't necessarily have to be included.
This is a good post. The problem is though you would have to spread it about so "they" could sell the tv rights all over Europe. Therefore you will get weaker teams in who will struggle. But thats life!!
i watch a lot of the spanish league on a weekend, and there bottonm half of the league teams have far more about them, then the likes of wigan and blackburn
I hate the 'big club' debate. To me the only place it makes any sense is when you're talking about right now. For example in the Championship the big clubs are Leicester and West Ham, because they have the biggest wage bills and best squads on paper. Support and money come into it as well but judging a team by their history of success is just a load of bollocks. This is what I mean by the likes of Juventus, they are just any old team these days but because they have a history of succes people think they are as good as the top clubs in Europe. This isn't supposed to sound so anti-Juventus as they were only an example, my point is more that there are loads of European teams who have been good in the past a la TWS but aren't anything special now and in this proposed Super League, they wouldn't be considered. The PL is the strongest it's ever been right now, the fact that the likes of Bolton are rooted to the bottom despite their squad tells you a lot.
Wigan aren't famous historically so they are unfashionable now. It's become cool to say they're going to down and they've been lucky to stay there so long, but clearly they are doing something right and they do have some very good unsung players. It's also important to remember Spanish teams play in a very different way, like Arsenal or the WBA of old, attractive stuff but doesn't work (except for the obvious exception of Barca). These teams I'm sure couldn't compete with the likes of Stoke, who I don't like at all, but they are very effective.
I would pick the 16 teams who have performed the best in the CL for the past 5 years, and the 4 four teams who have performed best in the UEFA cup (or whatever nonsense it is now). In reality, it would be the teams that have the biggest international draw, probably something like: Man Utd, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, AC, Inter, Juve, Ajax, Barca, Real, Bayern, Dortmund, Lyon, Porto, Shaktar, Zenit, Shaktar, Galatassary, Fenerbache and Celtic probably.
i reckon go on the actual best teams rather than picking a certain amount from the better countries... Most of them would be english but it would still better represent the best teams europe have to offer. Manure Man City Arsenal Chelskea Liverpool Tottenham Real Madrid Barcelona Valencia Inter Milan AC Milan Juventus Bayer Munich Dortmund Lyon Porto And to be honest, cant think of many other teams that should be in there, these random teams from turkey and other countries like that dont deserve to be there and neither does celtic or rangers. If i was to pick anymore it would prob be 2 more from the prem and La Liga or maybe even Roma but its really scraping the barrels.
i agree with what your saying there and stoke are the perfect example. They do not play pretty stuff but are very effective and i think it would be more interesting to bring real madrid and barcelona into the premier league to see the reaction and i do geniunely believe teams like stoke and everton and west brom would be a big surprise for them and it wont be like them playing someone like osusana or espanyol where they win 8-0. The difference between the bottom of the prem and the bottom of La Liga is massive
