Only time I will be shouting for Manure

[sipwell]

Barcelona are a great side and the best in Europe, if not all known discovered places. But I am at a loss, not for the first time this week, to understand how that makes the Prem less competitive then the Spanish League. For one thing, we have 4 clubs who would normally be capable of winning the Champions League. Secondly, no other league has such strength in depth. Let us see how any Spanish, Italian team, do after one season in the Premier League.

Barcelona are a wonderful side, but they play in a LESS COMPETITIVE league. Next we will be saying that the Scottish Premier is of  a good standard. We are lucky to have the best league in the world. One of the reasons why everybody else wants to watch it. When shown on mainstream television over here, Italian Football lasted as long as Sumo Wrestling. Although I liked Sumo myself.

A less competitive league? Remember whom Fulham lost the final from last Europa League? Barcelona and Real Madrid just play extraterrestrial football at the moment, all the others play place 3. The absolute great thing about Barça is their footballing philosophy: they play on possession (recover the ball as soon as possible) and they never take risky passes (unless in front of goal) but build up slowly. Manchester United entered that game as the underdog and adjusted its gameplay to that of Barcelona.

[Lighthouse]

Barcelona 38 96 30 6 2 95 21
Real Madrid  38 92 29 5 4 102 33
Valencia 38 71 21 8 9 64 44
Villarreal 38 62 18 8 12 54 44
Sevilla 38 58 17 7 14 62 61
Athletic Bilbao 38 58 18 4 16 59 55
Atlético Madrid 38 58 17 7 14 62 53
Espanyol 38 49 15 4 19 46 55
Osasuna 38 47 13 8 17 45 46
Sporting Gijón 38 47 11 14 13 35 42
Málaga 38 46 13 7 18 54 68
Racing Santander  38 46 12 10 16 41 56
Zaragoza 38 45 12 9 17 40 53
Levante 38 45 12 9 17 40 52
Real Sociedad 38 45 14 3 21 49 66
Getafe  38 44 12 8 18 49 61
Mallorca 38 44 12 8 18 41 56
Deportivo 38 43 10 13 14 31 47
Hércules 38 35 9 8 21 36 60
Almería 38 30 6 12 20 36 70

So are we saying that the above teams are stronger - club for club than the Premier? The top two were pretty clear of the rest. But then so  are our top two of four. Could Espanyol beat Fulham consistantly? I really don't know. Maybe the English Premier is just popular for the style of play, the different styles of football. Be interesting, more than the Europa, if we could play, club for club,against the Spanish League against the team that finished in the same finishing positions.

[HatterDon]

I thought everyone had understood by now that "The Barclay's Premier League is the greatest in the world" is a sales pitch by Sky. It's an effective pitch, but it can't be substantiated.

I know it's my favorite, but I don't watch any of the other three top European leagues, so I really don't have much to base it on.

[BarryP]

Best team in England get embarrassed at Wembley and the one eyed EPL fanatics say that Barcelona would be rubbish in the premier league.

Why can't everyone just admit that Barcelona are one of the greatest teams of all time!!!

Any team that can restrict Man Utd to ONE shot on target for a whole match whilst making them look like a conference side should be applauded.

I hope the relevant people can pull their respective heads out of their a**** and realise this. This is not about England v Spain or the EPL v La Liga, it is about a truly great footballing side that are a privilege to watch.

This comment deserves a  098.gif and a  :59:.