I've ever known. The Championship was exciting enough, in fact a little too much in that last week! But watching Manchester City steal the title with the last kick of the game, oh my. Some amazing results along the way as well, Utd putting eight past Arsenal, City putting 6 past Utd, it has just been a really strange season. What a marvelous time for us to take our place back in the big time, its going to be a fun journey what ever happens, but thats for another day, back to the point. So while our Leagues are going crazy over here, elsewhere we have Ronaldo netting his 60th goal of the season to help Real Madrid achieve Champion status in Spain, he's now scored against every club in Li Liga this season! Outrageous! And finally, well done to Del Piero & Inzaghi, both scoring on their last appearances for Juventus & AC Milan respectively, fairy tale stuff from two quality footballers who've been entertaining fans for years. Now to catch my breathe, in time for next season. Wow. Just wow.
There's no doubt that football in general has become more exciting. There have been some excellent matches, even in the lower leagues. Of course the quality has been higher the further up the leagues you go, but that hasn't always been the case in the entertainment stakes. Sure, the higher quality is always going to entertain the purists, but if the passion and competition isn't there then, for the most part. I rather watch a league where it is. This season, the PL has been as competitive as the other leagues, and the big teams haven't had their own way all the time. Remarkably, even the purists have decided that competition is better for football, even though they believe the top teams have been weaker. Well if that's what it takes to make a league come alive then I'm all for weaker top teams. As a footnote, while I've been writing this, I've been reminded of the 1970s where the top division became a total and utter borefest, at times, and where defensive tactics became the norm. It became so defensive that the Football League took the decision to change the points system from 2 for a win to 3. It took a wee while, but football never really looked back after that. And although the product has had good and bad seasons, in terms of the style it has improved, season after season. Now all we need is the measures to come in so that the obvious candidates don't necessarily dominate season after season.
The SecondStain has nailed it. Its about competition. The shame of it is that its taken more and more money to make it competitive. Even now there are only 3 or 4 teams who could realistically win the Premier League. The same and better could have been achieved by curtailing the excessive spending. Ok so it was a thrilling end to the season and there were some unexpected results. But, by definition, these were unusual. I think overall, the Championship is a better league because everyone has a chance every week. You don't start the season saying , "can't beat these, need to beat these, maybe could beat these". Success should not be measured by the ability to stay up.
