Is Our Premier League Falling Behind Others?

[Mince n Tatties]

What does the Team think?
Barcelona,Dortmund and Paris have spanked
our top sides.
Has the Premier League had its day,ie Leicester
look like winning it.

[Blanco]

I think it terms of top quailty its evident that English teams just aren't up to the level of the other top European sides. It's difficult to know why as England has the most money and fans. Perhaps its the ammount of games, the lack of breaks. The competitive physical nature of the league. I don't know. What I do know is that no league compares to Premier League in terms of entertainment and competitiveness. Spanish, German & French leagues are pragtically decided whereas a relegation candiate from last year is close to winning the Prem..

I don't think the Prem will ever fall behind because of the good football and amount of money attracting big players.

[Mince n Tatties]

I think it terms of top quailty its evident that English teams just aren't up to the level of the other top European sides. It's difficult to know why as England has the most money and fans. Perhaps its the ammount of games, the lack of breaks. The competitive physical nature of the league. I don't know. What I do know is that no league compares to Premier League in terms of entertainment and competitiveness. Spanish, German & French leagues are pragtically decided whereas a relegation candiate from last year is close to winning the Prem..

I don't think the Prem will ever fall behind because of the good football and amount of money attracting big players.

But none of the top elite bracket of players are here.
Watching the German league highlights every week I find
more exciting,and also the fans of every club the noise
they make.

[Jem]

It's never been the same since we dropped out of it!

[vbg cottager]

to be honest... english football is about to die if it hasn't already!
all that matters in the premiership is the event of a matchday.
just like Mince n Tatties mentioned the atmoshpere in other leagues (esp. Germany) is far better
as well as the quality of the games.

English football is becoming more and more like a major US Sports league. Poor atmosphere, expensive tickets,
overpaid players... for us fans, tough time are ahead...

[Blanco]

I think it terms of top quailty its evident that English teams just aren't up to the level of the other top European sides. It's difficult to know why as England has the most money and fans. Perhaps its the ammount of games, the lack of breaks. The competitive physical nature of the league. I don't know. What I do know is that no league compares to Premier League in terms of entertainment and competitiveness. Spanish, German & French leagues are pragtically decided whereas a relegation candiate from last year is close to winning the Prem..

I don't think the Prem will ever fall behind because of the good football and amount of money attracting big players.

But none of the top elite bracket of players are here.
Watching the German league highlights every week I find
more exciting,and also the fans of every club the noise
they make.

This is true. The german league is. The overall quality of the prem is higher though. The prem doesn't have the top players because the richer foreign clubs have them. The top english teams will struggle to compete with Real Madrid and PSG for example.

[Apprentice to the Maestro]

I think the league is strong but that is part of the problem because it is much more competitive than the leagues of Spain, Germany, France or Italy and there are no relatively comfortable matches.

The top English clubs are not as strong as they have been in the past. Arsenal are weaker particularly down the spine with no strong characters and they play too much possession football with little penetration. Spurs are stronger but Pochettino made a mistake playing too weak a side against Dortmund. Chelsea are having a poor season. Man. City are fairly strong on their day but inconsistent. Man. Utd. are handicapped by van Gaal, are in transition but have a promising young squad. Liverpool will be strong again next season under Klopp.

[H4usuallysitting]

When Premiership clubs are spending £50m on players like Raheem Sterling, you know something is wrong

[FPT]

It's an interesting discussion to have.

I think the financial power of the Premier League has equalled the division internally, but at the detriment to the sides at the top. More often than not, four of the "big six" would take up the top four. Since the BT Sport TV deal, a Premier League team outside of the Premier League spent £10m on one player and it was a big transfer. Nowadays, West Brom (who seek new ownership) spend near £30m in a window and reject over £20m for Saido Berahino in the process.

The teams at the top also no longer play like English teams. I recall a stage where nobody wanted to draw an English side, I remember a president at a Serie A club (potentially AC Milan) saying that the English are tiring to play; the English would attack at pace and attack constantly. Now, English sides are trying to play like European sides and they've lost that unique Premier League style in trying to be fashionable.

The Premier League is also in a period of fairly drastic transition. Manchester United are still moving on from Sir Alex Ferguson and that generation of dominance; Manchester City are in need of a reboot following the Roberto Mancini era (which has slowly started with De Bruyne, Sterling, Guardiola); Chelsea are recovering from Jose's chemical explosion of a second season in his second stint whilst also recovering from moving on from Drogba, Lampard, Cech and Terry) and Liverpool seem to have finally have made the right managerial choice, which will also take time to settle in. Really, we could see an Arsenal changeover next year if not in a few years time.

So in a way, the Premier League is falling, but I'm sure it'll come back up again. A lot say we can't attract the best players, I'm not sure that's true. The money is bigger in England, I'm sure there's only Barcelona and Real Madrid that would top our best Premier League clubs for attraction.

As for this season, I think Leicester are benefitting from so many factors. Claudio's coaching, an exemplary summer transfer window, momentum from the previous year, Vardy and Mahrez seemingly adjusted to the top (with football that suits both), solid foundations defences, no pressure to win the title and the failings of the typical top four. The equalling of the division means the big six become more beatable, and that's something they've got to adjust to, and this is where we maybe see sides be a bit more pragmatic and tactically astute (where I think Antonio Conte at Chelsea could work wonders).

[Twig]

I had similar thoughts, our top prem clubs are nowhere near competitive against the best in Europe.  I do wonder whether there is less home grown talent coming through, our top clubs traditionally had a core of Btitish players.

[RaySmith]

There seems a lot of difference between Germany, I don't now about other European nations, and this country - in terms of pricing, facilities, atmosphere, and in facilities for  junior football and women's football.

Here   it just seems to be about making money  for those at the top, while the rest struggle., and prices  are driving / have driven many  long term, or potential new fans away. Also, where will the new British players come from if  grass roots football declines  even more?

[rubbernecca]

The Premier League is suffering from Affluenza: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=affluenza

When you look at a team like Arsenal, I get the feeling that the players spend more time on grooming than practising, esp. players like Giroud and Walcott. They live in a bubble of shaving ads where they're celebrities first and footballers second. The same thing has taken a huge toll on Ronaldo. The godfather of all of this is obviously David Beckham, the king of pants and shaving.

Leicester is exploiting the situation by not being a bunch of self indulgent metrosexual pansies.

[aaronmcguigan]

I think the "problem" is the amount of money pumped into the league. I say "money" because finances can't be a bad thing, but it's basically making the weak or supposedly weak teams more competitive and showing the bigger teams up for being as complacent as they are.
Exclude Leicester but look at West Ham, Southampton, to a lesser extent West Brom , they're making some cracking signings and that's had an effect , these big players like Payet, Waynama, Foster, Forster and Rondon can actually influence games rather than (to be honest) waiting for an off day from the big guys before a team like us could beat them. I always remember us trashing United because of their injury crisis or us beating Liverpool because they either had champions league the next week or because United  had 2 people sent off.

The premier league is genuinely more competitive and in the short term it exposes the historically strong teams but surely they will improve or the teams that have popped up in the top 4 will improve further to make a proper impact in Europe.

I don't actually think The hierarchy has changed a lot in the past few years. Spurs getting to the last 16 in Europe is a great achievement but Dortmund are and should be considered a decent champs league team. No one should expect Arsenal to ever get past Barcelona, so I don't see the landscape of Europe changing much. Spurs could have drawn someone like Sparta Prague and spanked them. Similar with Arsenal, they could have got someone like kyiv or PSV!

I've just watch Rennes/Marseilles on setanta and it finishes 5-2. Cracking game but individually only Ouassama dembele is any kind of great Spark in an otherwise average set of teams. Rennes are 3rd but would surely be steamrolled by a team like Palace or Newcastle. What  I'm getting at is teams like PSG buy plenty of players to win the league as they have superior backing to other teams to the point where the league is over by March, similar to Germany and to a lesser extent Italy with just a 2 horse race

[J]

I would say arguably yes. The overall standard of our league is higher than others, in particular this season with the extra TV money coming in, but our top teams do seem to have dropped in quality at the same time

[Mince n Tatties]

The Premier League is suffering from Affluenza: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=affluenza

When you look at a team like Arsenal, I get the feeling that the players spend more time on grooming than practising, esp. players like Giroud and Walcott. They live in a bubble of shaving ads where they're celebrities first and footballers second. The same thing has taken a huge toll on Ronaldo. The godfather of all of this is obviously David Beckham, the king of pants and shaving.

Leicester is exploiting the situation by not being a bunch of self indulgent metrosexual pansies.

You only have to look Sterling at

When Premiership clubs are spending £50m on players like Raheem Sterling, you know something is wrong

Yes,spends more time worrying what his next car will
be.
Spent lots on his seventh the other day so he can have
a different one for every day of the week,he just going
through the motions at City of late..Think Pep might
move him on.
A kid with seven cars,games gone potty..