Not sure about that ref. Italy has been reasonably poor since the calciopoli scandal and many of the players outside the big 2 in Spain want to move clubs. True, Germany is improving but it does not have fantasy status yet. As for your examples Tevez has complained about the club he is at all through his career, Drogba has been replaced by Torres and Fabregas wants to go to his boyhood club, who coincidently are the best team in the world. I don't see any signs that the English league is declining.
I would agree with most of what you said, though I still think we were lucky to go in at 1-1 at halftime, we started realy well and after 10 minutes I was happy, but the next 35 was one way traffic, bar an against the run of play goal! I actually think we did defended well in the 2nd half, but were beaten by 2 cracking individual efforts from outside the box, perhaps someone should have closed down Messi better for his goal, but there wasn't realy much we could have done about Villa's goal! I wouldn't blame Van Der Sar for Messi's goal either, I'd blame the defence for allowing him to much space, it's not easy when the ball's swerving like that! We lost to a better side, but on another night those long range efforts don't go in, and despite being outplayed we still would have been in the game. There is no doubt they are a stronger side than us, but I still think on another night our defence is strong enough to hold them off. If we play them again, we have to play 541 or 451, and hope to nick something
