OK a football thread. Both Manchester clubs defeated last night, unlikely that we will have any English clubs through to the final stages of any Euro competition. What's gone wrong? Commentators say that the Premiership is the best league in the world but our club sides and national sides continue to struggle. Views?
I think arrogance has had a lot to play. In my opinion, the English sides have grossly under-estimated their opposition.
tbf Either club could yet go through, but English clubs no longer dominate the final stages like they did a few years ago. Not hungry enough I think.
The league's more competitive now so clubs like Arsenal (fighting to stay in top 4) and United (fighting to retain title against their local rivals) have to prioritise. Same reason many saints fans were happy when we were knocked out of the cup.
Premier league sits behind Spain Italy n Germany IMO in terms of standard of the league I will confess the bottom half of the premier league is the strongest in the world. Some of the teams in the others are terrible
The commentators we have in this country are massively biased in favour of the Premiership. It is impossible to say what league is the best as it is completely dependant on who you ask and everyone enjoys different kinds of football. For me its Spain > Germany > Italy > England > France
In the case of the Manchester clubs, there is more [money] to gain by winning the Premier League than the Europa League. Crazy!
We've had English teams in 6 of the last 7 finals, one of them having two English teams... I don't think there's much of a problem.
The PL is finally suffering from years of uncompetitive football. It has long been that the top 4, maybe 6 teams fought out the silverware and major TV and Prize money, and the rest were just there to give them some teams to play. The rest of the PL know they are not going to win anything, and so you can almost predict who is going to finish where they do. Besides, PL players have that enormous crumb of comfort - the average PL wage. It's also some indicator as to why Championship teams don't automatically become relegation fodder. They're still hungry and on a roll of success from the previous season. I would agree with Saintsmagic that commentators, including pundits, are massively in favour of the PL, and it has nothing to do recognising quality, it's more likely ignorance. Slightly off topic, but just to add to the point, I was slightly astonished, when Saints and Pompey's recent game at FP was covered, and Alan Shearer and Steve Claridge were the experts. Shearer frankly, barely knew any of the Saints team outside of Lambert and Lallana, whereas Claridge gave him a lesson in being able to talk all around the subject - because he knew. PL pundits definitely have blinkers on. Yes, I know Steve is mainly a FL pundit, but you'd expect a working knowledge from an ex-Saint.
I'd say it's down to the existence of Manchester City, who have had three effects on rival English clubs: 1. They have attracted all the very top talent, so eg. where Aguero may have gone to Chelsea or Man U before, he would now only go to Man City - leaving the other top clubs weaker 2. They can pay such high wages, that players use this as a bargaining tool against other top clubs, who can't pay those wages - hence missing out on some other top levle players 3. They asset stripped a few of the top clubs (chiefly Arsenal, but also Tevez from Man U) Hence, Man City are strong but have no CL experience, and a manager who is historically poor in European competition. And the other clubs with more experience and hostory in European competition are not as strong as they were last season.
I wouldn't say that the Premier league is the best, in fact far from it, but it is the most exciting.
Exactly. We may not have any clubs as good as Barcelona or Real Madrid right now, but behind them we have a lot of quality. For me, these are the top 10 European clubs right now (not necessarily in order): Barcelona Real Madrid Manchester City Manchester United AC Milan Bayern Munich Borussia Dortmund Chelsea Tottenham Arsenal That's 5 English teams in the top 10 for me. It's not fair to compare them to Barcelona because we know no one can come close to being that good right now, but all of those teams I've mentioned have the potential to be the next big thing in the next 10 years or so. City it seems will keep growing; United will undoubtedly try to bring in the best players available in order to keep up, same with Spurs; Arsenal are showing a lot of promise with recent transfer rumours; and Chelsea and Liverpool are due a large reinvention. Lukas Podolski is thought to be on his way over, there are rumours of a Robben return, and we may even see Mourinho back over here next season. Oh and how big will Saints get? Next season could be very exciting.
How can a league where the winner is almost guaranteed between one or two clubs out of 20 be considered exciting..?
In the Premier league, there are more goals, shots, passes in opposition half and final third, final third entries, and crosses per game than in La Liga. That is exciting. http://www.rafabenitez.com/web/index.php?act=mostrarBlog&id_entrada=16&idioma=in
Isn't when it isn't your team..! Haven't you got my philosophy yet..? One more time then, just for you. Nothing else matters except Saints. Every other club in the world exist merely to one day play Saints. As far as I'm concerned, the PL can be put on hold until we're ready to play in it. Hence, until then it is by default - boring. If I acknowledge another team, I'm just being polite.
