Look at those delirious Arsenal fans. They have no idea what Gabbiadini is gunna do to them on Wednesday.
Interesting conversation that they couldn't explore properly on MOTD2. That of the money within the PL, but an apparent lack of quality, when Monaco from France, Real Madrid, Athletic Madrid, Sevilla and Barcelona in Spain, Bayern in Germany, can do it. They started to get near the magic word 'competition' before Chappers changed the subject. This is a subject worth pursuing. I think Gary Lineker knows the answer to the Spanish reason. Real Madrid and Barcelona get the vast majority of the money there, and A.Madrid and Sevilla do incredibly well. But the whole of La Liga play the same with the worst being quite poor against the best. So a lot of Spanish games are a training game for the best. And I think that is fairly similar throughout those French and German leagues, and perhaps the Serie A as well. The PL is the most competitive elite league of all [not a patch on The Championship, mind you], and I think it wears players down. It's not about number of games played but the sheer physical and mental effort they take out of teams. If Real Madrid played in the PL I think they'd find that their 4 or 5-0s wouldn't happen anything like so often. Just my opinion.
That was an interesting point discussed on MOTD and it did need more time. Neville said that our top teams didn't have the hugely talented stars that they have in top European clubs. He tried to say they had too many games (mentioned the winter break again)....when it was demonstrated that our teams don't play vastly more than clubs such as Real Madrid and Monaco. As you said, it was mentioned that the competition went right down to even the bottom teams in the EPL....Neville said that Real Madrid could probably ease off after 60 mins in many of their games. Couldn't do that in the EPL.....so therefore the players play at a high intensity for even longer. This high intensity stuff may put off top top players (to use one of Merson's expressions) because why come to England when you can earn good money in sunnier climes. Just as it appears that players tend to prefer the South of England (with proximity to London), how much more likely that a sophisticated European would rather play in Madrid, Barcelona and Monaco. And the less successful our teams get in the Champions League, the less attractive they become.
Getting pretty sick of the campaign to sell our players. "Should Liverpool qualify for Champions League football next season I seriously suggest Jurgen Klopp gets his chequebook out and pay whatever it takes to take Bertrand to Anfield. The player is in that class." - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39839479 Each player gets their little paragraph about how well they played and why they are in his team of the week. Except, when he get's to the Southampton player he has to add this on to the end because he is a colossal twat. **** off. please log in to view this image
Its just very very lazy journalism and sadly today's world is full of those who can't come up with something original.
Pretty much what Antonio Conte said when acknowledging that not playing in Europe has benefited Chelsea's title bid this season.
Theres lazy journalism when they need to fill some space with an article, and so just pick a piece of potential transfer news of which we are an easy go to target. Then theres this kind of thing. This is Garth Crooks team of the week. There was literally no need for that last sentence selling Bertrand to Liverpool.
This is a very good point. I don't tend to watch much European football simply because it lacks the intensity of the English game. It is funny making this statement because the "British contingent" is such a small proportion in the EPL and as well as to a degree in the lower leagues as well. The influx of foreign players has not made the football any "less intense" and the fact that so many clubs are managed by foreign coaches doesn't seem to have impacted on the national game. If anything, the turn around in foreign coaches in the EPL must be far greater than with British mangers where there always seems to be a place for the likes of the Redknapps, Pulis, Bruce, McClaren, vMark hughes, etc, etc. These managers seem to be in a constant state of rotation within the middle of the table clubs whereas foreign coaches seem to come in and then disappear from the English game once sacked. Can't think of too many foreign coaches who have done the rounds in recent years other than Mourinho, Benitez and the last two Saints managers. Most come in , get fired and return back to the continent. Don't think it is just the players who are worn out by the game in this country. It is quite interesting to read about "lesser" clubs in Europe in publications like "WSC" and I am always struck by the small size of their support. The football does seem less competitive in the continent and maybe Scottish football is a more interesting comparison. Quite a few clubs end up merging because the business models are unsustainable and there was an article about this being a trend in Denmark where traditional clubs have had to merge to remain competitive. I was staggered to learn about 12 months ago how many football clubs there are in Paris and how poorly supported most of them are with attendances akin to English non-league matches. As a rule, English football seems to be dominated by about 6 clubs with there being little difference between the mid-table and bottom of the EPL. This season is a case in point with teams effectively taking points off each other.
Feel sorry for the Boro fans. Come to the prem with so much hope and then they do nothing but try and hold for a point every game.
We often ask if there really is a new manager effect. Gary Neville on Sky showed that 4 of the new managers in the EPL produced an improvement in results....only Middlesbrough's change of manager didn't..
