Three years ago, on December 15th, 2012 The Championship table 2nd Crystal Palace 5th Leicester 7th Watford Today The Premier League table today 3rd Leicester (hopefully 1st by 22:00) 6th Crystal Palace 7th Watford Chelski fifth bottom, right in the relegation zone and only 1 point above a relegation place What a difference in 3 years . . . . some 'living the dream' and some having a nightmare (like some always have !) We all know that 'bubbles will burst' and some will awaken from their respective nightmares, but we can only dream that we were in a position where others were expecting ours to burst We just need to win the next three and we'll be okay
The gap between the bottom half of the Premiership and top half of the Championship, is narrowing all the time in terms of quality. There's some terrific players there now and even the transfer fees for that division have bloated somewhat recently, given the quality of players available. I still don't see longevity in a lot of those clubs mind, we are seeing with Swansea that small clubs may come up with a master plan and succeed at first but sooner or later you know they are going back down to where they came from 'bubble bursting'. We have everything in place, support, infrastructure to consolidate into a steady premiership club. It might have been 9 or 10 years but we still haven't achieved that. I think Sam is the man to push us up to a steady mid-table team but then I've also thought that about the last 5 managers before him too
The level playing field with TV money is really starting to show. Raises importance on making the right signings and running clubs correctly. Can these teams stay there though? One bad window with a couple of good windows from other clubs and the league dynamic changes again (See Swansea). Didn't think the money was a good thing but as it turns out it's opening the league right up which is actually great.
Louis Van Gaal - for all of his stupidity these last few weeks made an excellent point pre-match and that is that the bottom Premier League clubs have a budget to compete with some of the biggest clubs around Europe. The gap will close providing we get a league full of clubs who know how to build proper teams.
Easier said than done. Just look at all the money Liverpool and Spurs have spent without progressing. Then look at Newcastle finishing 5th and not hardly spending as we have done.
Your final point makes the rest valid I guess as I was going to say - when Man U can't compete with the biggest clubs in Europe, how can the rest of the Premiership? But I guess that's just a Van Gaal thing
Liverpool come closer to the Premier League title than they have ever been a couple of years ago and Spurs are now a genuine top 6 club, in the 90's and 2000's they were all over the place. They shouldn't really be expecting to mount a serious challenge spending £35m on Andy Carroll and £27m on Roberto Soldado.
He's screwing his own chances of success up by being stubborn and not changing his training methods... the same mistakes, time and time again yet nothing changes. We have our entire defence out injured, again, there's no way that's a coincidence. I actually like the guy but he's not going to achieve success here like this. I like that he's giving youth a chance though, it's just a shame it's only because he has no other option.
It could be something simple like the clubs in the OP have worked out a plan, stuck to a strategy and made it work whereas our lot haven`t the faintest idea, muddle through and hope for the best.
They've spent loads on obscure players. Probably mostly due to Rogers and the Spurs managers. Pochettino seems to be a genuinely good manager and Klopp I like
Both look good managers mate, Klopp is a bit eccentric but he'll do well there I reckon. Pochettino looked a bit out of his depth to begin with but looks like he's doing a good job now, it all depends what targets that idiot Levy has set him. Liverpool have bought what appears to be a lot of flops right now, only time will tell if they come good. Benteke being the worst, he really looks like he doesn't care at all.
