I've been taking note of the results in the Champion's League recently and have been trying to put this into context of where we, the English, are in European terms football wise. We are always being told that our league is the best in the World let alone Europe but is it really that good? We are pretty much in the same boat as other European leagues in terms of who can win it in reality. 3 maybe 4 clubs could put in a challenge which is perhaps a couple more than in some European leagues. Spain has a choice of 2, Italy perhaps the same number. Germany I think have a couple or 3 and the other leagues seem to get the same clubs finishing top year on year. Not a lot of difference there then to warrant "the best" title. Now look at the results of late. We have Roma for example drawing at Man City and then being beaten 1 - 7 at home to the Germans. Arsenal are struggling even if still in with a shout but the German side in their group are well away by now. The only team it seems not to be struggling a lot is Chelsea but they are unbeaten in the domestic league so far. Liverpool losing 0 - 3 to Real Madrid. Struggling to put a season together in the league also. Despite not being great though they are still better than most in it. This tells me that German teams are better than our's. The National side seems also to confirm this. I think the title "best in the World" is not the case anymore even if it once was.
The Premiership is only English because of geography.....quite often over the last few years some of these top teams never had a British player starting....let alone an Englishman. It's all about money,money,money......quite often promising young english players are snapped up by the big boys....and disappear into oblivion and reserve team football.....never developing or maturing into first team players......paid fat wedges of money to be nobodies.....and then of course no hunger to make it big-time. At the moment Arsene Wenger is actually developing young english players.....which is bucking the trend......more strength to his arm.....but will they win anything ? My big moan is about Sky Sports and what it has done to English sport with it's massive honey pot of money, killing off access to many grass root sports.....cricket being a prime example, oh to watch test match cricket live on terrestial TV.
I wasn't really intending this to be another SKY bashing exercise to be honest plym. This was more about the myth that seems to exist with some that somehow the English LEAGUE is best when from where I'm sitting it isn't. That doesn't include the argument about foreign players cluttering up the league either. We all know there are too few English players in the premiership and most people think Sky TV is the football evil already. My premis is that the English top division is no more competetive than any of the others and now doesn't seem to have the best players either.
Just switched off the Real Madrid v Liverpool match. What a load of crap. Liverpool are playing like a non league side in the FA Cup against premier opposition. Men against boys. How it was only 1 - 0 at that stage I don't know and it took Liverpool 55 minutes to have their first shot.
Millions of people have been born into the ideals of the Premier League and Sky, to me it is the utmost destruction of our game. I believe the game has become social cleansed throughout by the masses that can afford top sterling and monthly subscription fees. Personally offer me a free ticket and travel to watch a top Prem game or pay by own way to watch lowly Gills, then i would be paying to watch my own club every time. Every time you enter the debate about the traditions of the game, people will defend modern football with health and safety and echo violence of the 70's. I've been watching football for over 40 years, I'd just say if you want to believe everything that appears in the Daily Malice then that is the people's choice, personally i'd never part a single penny for any tabloid, and after those forty years of travelling to watch games i'm still intact even after going to places such as the Old Den and the County Ground in its more hostile rivalry days...although my brain may gradually be fading
Agreed, i Thought Sliverpool would get a battering tonight, well they have but the score is not good, seeing how Real have been scoring.. now they are worth watching.. Premier league is way behind the Spanish league in my view.. I prefer the Championship.. Hope fully we are on our way back there some time soon.. I don.t buy the daily comics either, have not bought one for years .. full of drivel.
I haven't bought a newscraper in years either. Just lost interest in them when the crosswords became second nature to do and it was all yesterday's news after that. I don't do celebrity so the rest of the stuff wasn't worth even reading. Given a choice I would always pick to watch my home town team, Argyle. That includes watching even England play. I agree with you Joe, the Championship is far more competetive and lively. There are teams in that league that punch above their weight and can win it despite the odds. Not so in the premier league and that is down to, at best, 5 maybe 6 teams at a push. Absolutely money rules there. Nothing in life should be just about cash because without heart and soul chucked in it isn't worth anything even if you win.
Now there wrapped in polysterene if you can afford them.....£1.80 around here......cheaper to buy a Ginsters......good grief what have I said......I'll be playing with the traffic next.....good bye cruel world.
If you eat anything Ginsters then it would be a happy release if you did play with the traffic plym. I can't believe a slimline svelt thing like Mrs jools eats chips for god sake.....
You'll be bringing an apple for the teacher next.......I thought it was your snail that was slimy.....but maybe not......
Describing the Premiership as best is wrong most difficult probably more accurate. The overall standard of all teams is higher than in other leagues IMHO. Personally the worst thing that has happened to English football for me totally failed to achieve what it was supposed to. Promising youngsters stolen from lower teams then sat in the reserves until they are 20+ and then let go to try a build there career 3-4 years too late. Too much emphasis on not getting beat rather than winning but that goes right through to grass roots too add to that the strength over skill mentality and hey presto useless National side. Pre Prem I always had my second, Div 1 side, I followed now I have lost interest altogether in that farce of a league money has ruined it.
That's the point isn't it mexi, "lost interest". I think anyone with interest in a team not in the prem, not the plastics either, doesn't get that league and in the main probably despises it for what it's doing. Money might rule but it also corrupts.
Thats what you get with a bunch of paid mercenaries may have all the skills required but no heart for the fight!!! Sad decline from the days of English football dominating Europe with British players. It's not just the English national side that has suffered but all the home Nations. Scotlland used to produce some of the top players in the old Div 1 and Europe from my era Dagleish, , Hansen, Robertson, Souness off the top of my head oh and of course Gemmill scorer of the best WC goal (IMHO) I can hardly think of a top Prem player who is a Scot these days, probably is but that is my level of interest in the Prem now.
It disgusts me how some of the Premier giants can treat the FA Cup with such disrespect at times....not taking it as seriously as European competitions. Years back the FA Cup was highly prized.....and small clubs would bust a blood vessel to achieve a win over the big boys....who treated the Cup with respect and a desire to win it. Now you can find a big club fielding an understrength team against a minnow......how disrespectful to this once prized competition and to the smaller club whos fans have looked foreward to seeing their team playing against these superstar players who they generally only see on TV. Some of these minnows could have played since August.....winning through six rounds of competition for this once in a life time chance to draw a big team in round three.....only to find the player they admire isn't even on the bench.
It's again a money thing though plym. For the clubs who compete for European competitions each season the FA Cup is small fry in comparison. Why risk a £30m player for peanuts. The clubs who aren't already competing for those competitions tend to put priority on staying in the division first and then things like the cup second. Again staying in that league is financially much more appealing than a cup. It's only when they get a sniff of a final that they tend to up the anti. Minnows as you put it don't even register on their radar so why would they even consider their disappointment.
Champions League format is another reason as 6 pay days now and good chnace of getting through to second stage. More teams from each league plus they last longer into the season. Old European cup format last years League Champions only, 2 leg knock out rounds mean't less teams involved and morre focus on the domestic cups. Money, money, money is all it is about now. In some ways I think the European super league that has been discussed might not be a bad thing.
