Luis Suarez left the EPL at the end of last season and was quick to comment on the English Press and name them as a large part in his decision to leave. The attention he got from the press was at times justified and his behaviour was the main driver for the amount of anger and vitriol toward him, but when he left for Spain the Premier League lost a world superstar who has gone on to prove himself with Barcelona in what is the best attacking lineup the world has ever seen. Others have also left Ronaldo of course signed for Real Madrid many years ago, Spain is a big pull for the best players Real Madrid and Barcelona is considered the peak of any players career. There is also a group of UK players that have now withered away with age, Gerrard of course will play two more games before leaving for the US following Frank Lampard (loaned back I know), back further Beckham left, Scholes and Giggs now retired, leaving us with John Terry as the last man standing. Where are their replacements? I don't see them. There are not many players in this league with the ability to take a game and make it their own, personally I'm finding the league boring and my interest tends to revolve around my team only. Where is the subtlety of Bergkamp, the genius of Zola, the drive of Gerrard, the screamer from Scholes, the pace and skill from Giggs? It seems to me that the Premier League has grouped together a bunch on ordinary players with workrate and strength the primary function of a stale league, there are exceptions of course but do any of them stand up the the names I've mentioned and I haven't even brought up the likes of Viera, Keane, Fowler and many others. Tactically the league has had critisism lately for the inept performances in the Champions League and this is another sign that the quality of players in the league and the quality of the players brought into the league is sadly lacking. Why is this? Do the players not want to come? The money is good of course but is it the true driver of the real players?
Other than Barcelona and Real which other teams have the pulling power of the PL? The other big leagues are 2 horse races, the PL still has 4 or 5 teams contesting. I do agree though that the British press seem to try their best to whip up frenzies over nothing.
I think it is in decline at the top level, but when the new TV deal kicks in I think that will change. Next season is the time to get promoted!
Massively in decline. The quality of the PL is awful and it's embarrassing that we failed to get into the top 4. Whilst it is competitive, there are only 2 likely winners of the league - Chelsea and City. No different to most big leagues.
There is quality in the league but again with the pace of the league and the reliance on strength and speed over technique the likes of Aguero and Ramsey are always injured, Coutinho is up and coming for us and Hazard is doing well for Chelsea but when John Terry should be considered for POTY then something is badly wrong.
There isn't really a good spread though is there. Barcelona, Real and Bayern arguably have the best in the world playing for them - the next of the best are in the PL [Costa, Sanchez, Aguero, Hazard etc. and dotted around the likes of PSG, Dortmund, Atleti and Juventus - Ibrahimovic, Pirlo, Pogba, Vidal, Turan etc. and if you made a list of the best in the world, you would be up to about number 30 before you got to any other teams outside of the first three I mentioned.
I disagree only Hazard and Aguero from the ones you mentioned are really top players, Costa still has a lot to prove as does Sanchez. There are plenty of players around Europe that are as good as or even better.
The football in the PL has been in a transition period over the last few years. The traditional blood and guts 100 mph British style of football has slowly been declining to be replaced with a more possession based European style. For a while the top clubs hit the right balance between the two and we had sides that were defensively solid with CB's that were defenders first, footballers second, mixed with fast paced attacking and a sprnkling of stardust with players like Berkamp, Cantona, Zola etc. In the last few years the defensive side of the game appears to have been largely forgotten by many and we've got sides who can still mix it with the best of them at the right end of the pitch, but leak like a seive at the other. Let's be right even at our best we've not had sides who could blow away the best that Europe could offer with Barca level attacking football, we've succeeded in those competitions with a more pragmatic approach to the game, at present we're not good enough at that side of the game to succeed at the pinnacle. The PL will still continue to attract most of the best players available due to the cash that's sloshing around the EPL, but the league needs to be aware that what made it so watchable and therefore popular Worldwide is being slowly forced out by dull tiki taka style bollocks.
So you don't think Costa and Sanchez are standouts in the PL? I wasn't talking about who's better than who in general but which top players are in the PL as opposed to Barce, Real and Bayern.
Costa did well to start with but injury has been a problem and Sanchez has been hit and miss, don't get me wrong I rate both but there are plenty around Europe of their standard. Vidal, Reus, Muller, Lewandowski etc, etc
