He who pays the piper, calls the tune.
The relative strength of the Premier League
- Thread starter Wumminator
- Start date
As is the top 7 in the league no where near anyone else's league.
Soon to be top 8 whe Newcastle end up growing.
Soon to be top 8 whe Newcastle end up growing.
Yes, the Premier League and FA Execs paid him to say that.
German version of the saying is better - "I sing the song of those whose bread I eat"
Farmers league.
Am I right?
Am I right?
RR has nothing to do with the PL or the FA, he is employed by United.
That is a ridiculous statement, with all due respect.
I don't think its ridiculous its certainly easy to argue it, you have Barca and Inter having to sell players to stay afloat, the PL easily has the best managers in the world , in the last 3 years there has been and all English CL final twice.
I'm sorry Ligue 1 is no where near the PL
Bro, I think you need to go back to slagging off Cristiano in the Ronaldo performance thread.
It’s not easy to argue it. Do you understand the difference between the NBA and every other basketball league?
It's why if a player has played in the PL ever since its became such a different league with so much competition both at the top and the bottom - I will rate them high for doing well there.
The similarities at the top can be seen - but the teams at the bottom are a whole different class.
Wonder goals are scored in these farmer leagues, coming in to matches in the CL like all they did was have a training session whilst in the PL they play like a mirror capable of doing everything your team can do on an off day - completely exhausting the teams that have to take them on.
I'm glad Rangnick can see how they would be in the Bundesliga.
NBA concentrates almost 100% of the best basketball players in the world. While PL is clearly above other leagues, 50% of the ballon d'or players in the top10 or 20 play in different leagues.
You can't be the "NBA of football" without the best players. Haaland will probably play in spain, Mbappé as well, Bayern will always have some of the best, so will PSG. There's a gap for sure but tables can turn quickly, Pep and Klopp won't stay forever, what happens then?
It's ridiculous because the NBA probably has the best I dont know 50 players in the World playing in it and maybe 95 of the best 100. With the teams its the same. I mean when was the last time the best player in the World played in the PL? Comparing the NBA to the PL is laughable. That being said the PL is obviously the strongest league and getting stronger but it will never be the NBA of football.
Pure nonsense as usual
Of course I do, I don't think @Bebestation was being literal. My point was more the PL is clearly, to me anyway, the best league in the world and as COVID continues I think the gap will get larger.
Once you get outside of the top 3, it's as much of a farmer's league as any other out there, but they at least have a really strong top 3. Most other leagues have 1 or maybe 2, with the odd third every now and then. Serie A also thought they were going to be the best league forever. These things change, I don't expect the PL to remain dominant for very long.
As long as there's no mismanagement of the Premier League, the gap amongst the leagues as a whole will continue to grow - unless nations and billionaires throw ridiculous amounts of money into football outside of England.
I think there's no denying that the EPL is distancing itself from other leagues. They make much more money than the competition and if they miss out on a trend, they just buy the necessary expertise.
The only thing Bundesliga clubs had over EPL clubs for the last decade was elite coaching. now three of the top 6 clubs are coached by German managers, two by Spanish coaches and one by an Italian.
Anyway, in 2016 when this thread was opened the EPL was still shit and came out of a decade of playing second fiddle to La Liga.
The only thing Bundesliga clubs had over EPL clubs for the last decade was elite coaching. now three of the top 6 clubs are coached by German managers, two by Spanish coaches and one by an Italian.
Anyway, in 2016 when this thread was opened the EPL was still shit and came out of a decade of playing second fiddle to La Liga.
And additionally Pep did coach in the BL and refined his approach there in that last decade, so it is 4/6 who have top BL experience
So City are favorites to win CL. Then comes Bayern. Then PSG, Liverpool and Chelsea follows.
Ajax for some reason is 6th favorite ahead of Real Madrid. Then we comes in 8th place.
Ajax for some reason is 6th favorite ahead of Real Madrid. Then we comes in 8th place.
Need teams like west ham and Leicester to dominate the Europa league first to make the dominance official. Most of the time they are embarrassing themselves.
Why not? It's not as if there's another league on the rise. Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga are one-horse races without a single other club that would seriously trouble any of the ten best in Europe. La Liga is very settled and no club is on the way up--on the contrary, Barcelona are in the wilderness and could face a decade of recovery. Serie A is less awful than it was in the last decade but they're still a far cry from their 90s dominance. There's nothing going on in European football right now that could challenge the PL for the imaginary title of Strongest League. Nothing's even slightly close, in fact, and no club outside of England is on any noteworthy upward trajectory.
Meanwhile we have Newcastle who could become the new City in the next handful of years, and United and Arsenal are in a generational slump that must surely end sooner or later. While it's unlikely that the Gunners return as regular title challengers anytime soon, they could certainly become a dark horse that could nick it in a good year like Leicester did. If the Newcastle project works out and if we claw our way back (which is not at all unlikely given our finances), the PL might have five or even six teams that all have a legitimate shot at the title and/or the CL in any given season.
And then you have the likes of Tottenham and Leicester who can seriously trouble any team on a good day, and every season there's a team like this year's West Ham that could very well beat one of the big clubs to CL qualification. That's to say nothing of the bottom half of the PL who are miles ahead of the bottom half of any other league. No other league has anything even remotely close to that, nor is any other league really moving in that direction. The PL continues to rise while the other leagues either stagnate or regress, except Serie A which is very slowly on its way up but doesn't have the financial power to go all the way in this decade. I expect them to hit the ceiling once their two or three best clubs are on par with Atletico.
If anything, it's very much looking like the PL will remain dominant for a long time. Absolutely everything points to it. There's nothing going on that would suggest otherwise. Every year, the gap grows. With Newcastle taken over by oil money and us with nowhere to go but up, I can absolutely see a future where English football blows everything else out of the water. The only other clubs in Europe that can truly be measured against the top English clubs at the moment are Real Madrid, PSG and Bayern, and then Atletico have been there as well but are currently in a lurch. No other clubs than those three or four are on the level of City, Liverpool and Chelsea, and we are only kept from it by poor organizational practices and can bounce right back if that's sorted out.
1. PL teams are in general richer than other clubs, the TV money from other league can’t be compared with PL
2. Top 5 teams in Europe currently consist of 3 PL teams
3. Best managers in the game are mostly in PL
4. let’s face it, BL and French league isn’t even half as strong as PL, and will never be. Serie A has long past it’s prime decades ago and will sit no higher than 3rd place, only LL is comparable. However, Barca is now broke,, Real is still undergoing rebuilding process and may take a little while, they are not going to close the gap within next few years.
2. Top 5 teams in Europe currently consist of 3 PL teams
3. Best managers in the game are mostly in PL
4. let’s face it, BL and French league isn’t even half as strong as PL, and will never be. Serie A has long past it’s prime decades ago and will sit no higher than 3rd place, only LL is comparable. However, Barca is now broke,, Real is still undergoing rebuilding process and may take a little while, they are not going to close the gap within next few years.
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Nah, Real Madrid will be a force to be reckoned with as soon as next season, Barça will have to have some luck with their transfers (both in and out) and with Xavi, but they have several actually very, very good academy players and a far less bad board/president; Bayern is always going to be there competing toe-to-toe with anybody, etc.
PL can't be NBA, that would be 80s Serie A.
As much as the PL is the strongest league in the world since 5 years ago, there hasn't been any legendary or goat player in it during that period, except Cristiano but he is 37 years old.
Serie A had peak Platini,peak Maradona,Zico, Maldini, and peak Van Basten in the same decade.
Plus NBA concentrates close to 100% of the best players in the world, Messi,Mbappé,Haaland,Lewandowski,Neymar, and Benzema, didn't play in England in the last 5 years.
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You're comparing a sport of billions with a sport of millions. Football is and always will be a global sport which is why the concentration of really good players is so broad. Whereas basketball is one of the dominant sports in the USA where the NBA happens to hold sway. Rather compare the NBA with the IPL cos basketball ain't got nothing on football.
Barcelona is not going to take a decade to recover. Meanwhile real Madrid will sign both halaand and mbappe.
So the top 5 teams next year will be Bayern, Madrid, Liverpool, city and psg.
I think one of la Liga teams will keep winning Europa. Barcelona probably takes it this year.
The same can be said about Barcelona,Juventus, or AC Milan, so it's not like the mismanagement/poor organization it's only happening to english clubs (Arsenal and United).
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Before Ronaldo move to La Liga I remember how the PL had turned from not being a 2 team league with Chelsea joining Arsenal and United.
At the same time we also had Liverpool winning the CL under a manager like Benitez.
Then Ronaldo moved to Madrid whilst Pep and Messi and Barcelona youth team was growing - made that league the biggest purely due to the quality of the top 2 teams with such quality players spread across each squad. Atheltico Madrid was hardly born then. PL 3 clubs + an extra club capable of winning a CL, La Liga 2 clubs on a different level.
Pep moves to Bayern but could be better. During this time I remember slowly the Bundesliga being the best league for a season primarily due to the resurgence of Dortmund by Klopp finally competing with Bayern. Both get in to a CL final but Dortmund lose and Klopp leaves.
During this time Atheltico Madrid are building as a club that can finally compete once in a whilst with Barcelona and Real Madrid- partly because of good management, partly due to the slight weaknesses at the top club after players like Xavi/iniesta leave. La liga becomes a 3 club league finally.
However during this time the PL has not gotten stronger but has gotten "equalised" where alot of the team are at the same level through a season. Post retire SAF’S United isn't good enough. Wenger isn't doing thing with arsenal. Chelsea can be good one season with a good manager and crap in the other but still winning a CL with Di matteo. City have become a good team trying to build up for Pep with some good names in the squad. Tottenham have improved under Pochettino. A team like Leicester City win the league, something no one sees in any league, which to many PL watchers - a happy day of the league showing how different the PL can be compared to others leagues. Liverpool get 2nd with Rodgers and eventually get Klopp. City get Pep. The richest club like United can't get a manager right but still trying for titles as seen with expectations under Ole. Tottenham get to CL finals. Conte wins PL with Chelsea then joins Tottenham later on. Rodgers who was 2nd with Leicester take over Leicester City after title win. The top 4 has turned to a top 6 of City, Liverpool, United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Leicester City soon to turn in to a top 7 with Newcastle being bought by the rich.
I dont care what people say, the PL has been in a whole different level. It is hardly lopsided where two top clubs gets the best players and everyone else suffer - you can have players in a top 6 club being recently bought for 100 mil purely due to their expectations to win something.
Great league,that is like no other. Just like Rangnick said. I will always judge a player higher for coming here and ruling this league if they are able to rule other leagues aswell.
At the same time we also had Liverpool winning the CL under a manager like Benitez.
Then Ronaldo moved to Madrid whilst Pep and Messi and Barcelona youth team was growing - made that league the biggest purely due to the quality of the top 2 teams with such quality players spread across each squad. Atheltico Madrid was hardly born then. PL 3 clubs + an extra club capable of winning a CL, La Liga 2 clubs on a different level.
Pep moves to Bayern but could be better. During this time I remember slowly the Bundesliga being the best league for a season primarily due to the resurgence of Dortmund by Klopp finally competing with Bayern. Both get in to a CL final but Dortmund lose and Klopp leaves.
During this time Atheltico Madrid are building as a club that can finally compete once in a whilst with Barcelona and Real Madrid- partly because of good management, partly due to the slight weaknesses at the top club after players like Xavi/iniesta leave. La liga becomes a 3 club league finally.
However during this time the PL has not gotten stronger but has gotten "equalised" where alot of the team are at the same level through a season. Post retire SAF’S United isn't good enough. Wenger isn't doing thing with arsenal. Chelsea can be good one season with a good manager and crap in the other but still winning a CL with Di matteo. City have become a good team trying to build up for Pep with some good names in the squad. Tottenham have improved under Pochettino. A team like Leicester City win the league, something no one sees in any league, which to many PL watchers - a happy day of the league showing how different the PL can be compared to others leagues. Liverpool get 2nd with Rodgers and eventually get Klopp. City get Pep. The richest club like United can't get a manager right but still trying for titles as seen with expectations under Ole. Tottenham get to CL finals. Conte wins PL with Chelsea then joins Tottenham later on. Rodgers who was 2nd with Leicester take over Leicester City after title win. The top 4 has turned to a top 6 of City, Liverpool, United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Leicester City soon to turn in to a top 7 with Newcastle being bought by the rich.
I dont care what people say, the PL has been in a whole different level. It is hardly lopsided where two top clubs gets the best players and everyone else suffer - you can have players in a top 6 club being recently bought for 100 mil purely due to their expectations to win something.
Great league,that is like no other. Just like Rangnick said. I will always judge a player higher for coming here and ruling this league if they are able to rule other leagues aswell.
Well, EPL it's the richest league now... is it?
EPL was bound to dominate financially, due to the advantage of how spoken is the english language worldwide (as second language).
It didn't happen in the 90s, cause the world wasn't globalized enough back then, there was not way to sell the Football product in Malaysia,Qatar,UAE,Singapore,China,Indonesia, etc as most people there barely knew what Football was at that time.
But once the globalization peaked after 21th century, PL took advantage of the english language being the most spoken world wide after Mandarin.
Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are football-mad countries for decades, they're just shit at it. Being British and Dutch colonies football was there long before there was TV.
The football coverage there could well be better than most countries. English football was Malaysian TV before the Premier League was formed. By the mid 90's Serie A and La Liga and early 00's every game of football in the top 5 league (+their cup games) and the Copa Libatadores were available.
You got the selling part right, every year there's a price hike with the sport packages that covers everything everyone complaints but the majority of households (many eateries as well) still have it.The other part of selling is merchandise and advertisement of sponsors etc.
But I agree with your general point.
Yeah, but there are more countries where PL is seen now than Malaysia and Indonesia.
PL still has the advantage of the language, which was bound to happen sooner or later after globalization.
Bundesliga and Serie A can't replicate that, language is a big barrier.
La Liga did it for a while thanks to the Cristiano and Messi rivalry, now that they aren't in Spain they are gonna lose watchers worldwide, except in LatinAmerica of course.
Even 80s Serie A is not equivalent, strong as that league was.
With Newcastle being bought by the Saudi's, they are going to be City on steriods in due time. The money in the EPL will continue to attract the best players who won't go to Real Madrid, Bayern or PSG. I think definitely La liga is going through a slump and I don't know when they will bounce back. Still we finished 2nd last year but couldn't win the EL final and I wouldn't be surprised to see us outplayed by Athletico. Still I think the PL is sometimes overrated by our own bias but I don't know.
I don’t think using the Ballon D’or for your argument is fair. It’s always been a popularity contest rather than the best player of a season. However I do believe the idea the Premier League is not that good compared to other European leagues. There has to be continued Champions League dominance to say that, which there hasn’t been.
Well the Ballon D'or has been dominated by Messi and Ronaldo for 12 years now. I don't think either of them will win it again. Now that their era is gone I think we will see more PL footballers win it. Salah would be the clear favourite, but then we have the world cup next year and he plays for Egypt. However if the other favourites are gash in the WC he might well win it.
It's also unlikely he performs well at the CAN with Egypt, it's going to be hard for him to win despite 2 potentiel bad results in international competitions.
Right now the PL is the strongest league, but I think only part of that is due to the wealthy disparity. I think most of it is just accidental circumstance and will balance out pretty soon.
I don't know. Money tends to win in the end. The PL clubs can poach the best players that arent Real madrid bound or PSG bound and stuff like that. Unless there is massive money influx into other leagues, I think the PL will continue to grow.