What has happened to English football

Rocker

..a kind of continuation of the Cricket discussion.  As you no doubt already know, Everton, the last English club in European competition, were knocked out of the Europa league this evening.  No English club left in the Champions league or the Europa league.

One must ask, is the Premier League not as good as it is hyped up to be?

littlegreenman

Yep, we're shit at sports in general at the mo.

Generally pretty good at the "marginal" sports like cycling and stuff, but the PL just seems to be about how much wages players can get and who's got the fittest WAG.

Jalapeno

The Premiership is all about foreign players minting it !

guitarcookie1

Overpaid & no desire/need to perform.

meltedbuzzbox

there are so many factors that go in to the equation but sadly its easier to regurgitate the shite thats in the papers. 

From what you are stating its almost like suggesting Reading are as good as Arsenal because they are in the FA cup semi final. 

The premier league has 5 or 6 very strong teams (4 of which regularly challenge for the top spot). no other league in Europe has that strength.

kin

lack of decent modern coaching methods from the grass roots up

we still fall way behind almost everywhere when it comes to first touch, passing, positioning etc.

English players seem to lack the determination to better themselves, sit on the bench for mid table sides rather than play first team football in other countries

the best English players would struggle to get into the top club sides , very few have made a mark abroad compared to players coming into our game from elsewhere

crunchman

meltedbuzzbox said:

The premier league has 5 or 6 very strong teams (4 of which regularly challenge for the top spot). no other league in Europe has that strength.

Even the teams below that are good enough that the top teams have to make an effort to beat them.  In most of the other European leagues the lesser teams are much worse so the big boys don't have to put in the same level of intensity that the top English clubs do.  It means that they can focus on Europe and keep fresh for that.

It's largely to do with the way the TV money is split.  In the Premier league the split is more equal so the lower clubs can sign decent foreigners and be competitive. In a lot of other countries the clubs negotiate their own TV rights so the top clubs get all the money and the league as a whole is not competitive.

While the Premier league is a lot more competitive top to bottom than most other leagues it's still not genuinely competitive to the point where anyone could win it.  There are still only a handful of clubs with a chance to win it.  I've pretty much lost interest.  It was much better 30 or 40 years ago when you had clubs like Forest, Derby and Villa winning.  Fans of any decent size club could dream of winning the league back then.

lloyd

Champions League is knock out football, on another day Chelsea and Arsenal go through.

Man City came up short against the best team in the world.

Liverpool were in a horrendous patch of form and missing the previous seasons two top goal scorers...

I wouldn't read too much into it. Next season there will probably be 3 teams in the semis and the papers will be asking if the premier league is the best in the world....

holnrew

This year has been interesting, with West Ham and Southampton in the top four for decent stretches. 

I'm hoping for Crystal Palace to finish above Newcastle after Pardew's appalling treatment by the fans. He's not a particularly nice guy or tactical genius or anything mind, he just didn't deserve to see signs saying he should be sacked week in week out, when the team was punching above its weight. 

I think fans and boards are too quick to call for the heads of managers, although Sunderland and Villa were pretty patient. Some people thought Brendan Rogers should be sacked given Liverpool's poor form, but look at what happened there. Arsene Wenger is proving his doubters wrong too, I expect Arsenal to become a bigger force to reckon with as the prudent financial management of the team is bearing fruit now, and there's plenty of money to spend on players.

Anyway, I don't believe there's anything to worry about. The Champion's League isn't a good indicator of how good teams from the Premier League are. They're just worked harder, especially without a mid-season break. Would it be so bad to have at least Christmas week off?

mudslide73

San Dimas High School Football rules!!

The Prem is the most competitive and exciting league but not the most technical. It has the biggest global TV deal because of this. It's hard to win the Prem just playing tippy-tappy too - we play more games also.

Teetonetal

I have given up on football.. It's so short sighted and FIFA leave a very bad taste in the mouth... Still love playing, but watching? Not any more.

Not just football though, so many sports are just business now, all the soul has gone.

It upsets me that someone can earn millions for playing a game.

Flink_Poyd

Used to be a big follower of football but as mentioned in another thread just lost interest in watching. The games are pretty dull to watch, it's more about what they earn than what they can do and it's just the results that are interesting most of the time. Overhyped but a well marketed product, the TV money is bordering on obscene.

blueskunk

So glad iv never got into soccer.

CabbageCat

lloyd said:

Champions League is knock out football....

Indeed. Knock-out competition is a bit of a lottery. The league isn't appreciable different to 6 or 7 years ago when there were three premier league teams in the semis. English football isn't broken, it's just had an unsuccessful year. There is no divine right for English football to dominate every year; it's just one league of five or six that has teams with designs on European silverware. They can't all have good seasons every time.

lloyd

Teetonetal;564879" said:

I have given up on football.. It's so short sighted and FIFA leave a very bad taste in the mouth... Still love playing, but watching? Not any more.

Not just football though, so many sports are just business now, all the soul has gone.

It upsets me that someone can earn millions for playing a game.

Why would it upset you that someone earns millions entertaining people? Does it upset you people earn millions singing/playing an instrument? If prefer people earn millions playing a game than through banking/hedge funds/oil drilling etc.

xSkarloey

Everton made a tactical withdrawal from the Europa League so they can concentrate on their league woes.

Fretwired

Part of the problem is the strength of the premier league - for example the Spanish league is a little like the SPL in Scotland. A couple of teams win all the games. When Real play a team at the foot of the Spanish league they can afford to rest their stars. No such luck for Chelsea and co. Europe also has a winter break - no such luck for English teams. They all look knackered.

TTony

Rocker said:

What has happened to English football

Sky turned it from a game run by well-intentioned amateurs into a business run by multi-national corporations.

Rocker said:

One must ask, is the Premier League not as good as it is hyped up to be?

Define "good".

In the EPL a generally not-so-good side can (and does quite frequently) beat a supposed-to-be-better side.  Burnley/ManCity being the most recent example.  That tends not to happen so much in the other leagues which have a few number of more dominant clubs.  So, the EPL is probably less predictable which - could be argued - makes it more "interesting".

However, the main reason that Burnley can beat Man City is because the former is a team of players who are far more motivated for the game because winning is relatively more important to them.  For Man City, a large number of the players are playing for themselves rather than the club, the only reason that they're wearing the Man City shirt is because Man City offered to pay them most money.  Money ceases to be much of a motivator if you're already got more of it than you could imagine spending.

Snap

I don't think anyone can claim that their top tier football league is any better than any other. Every league, in every country has about 4 teams that are a lot better than the rest, with the remainder being relativley good and at a similar level.

La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga (and certainly Eredevisie) are no different, at all.

Champs League, once past the groups, is a lottery as mostly the sides are not too far apart in quality.

The PL has a lot going for it, and that;s why it is a huge global export sucecss. Its fast, often spectacular, and most games are entertainingly competitive.

Philly_Q

Fretwired said:

Europe also has a winter break - no such luck for English teams. They all look knackered.

The winter break is a red herring.  If there actually was one, the Premier League teams would use it to indulge in money-spinning tours of Dubai or China, from which they'd return richer but just as knackered and with jet-lag to make things even worse.

Even if there was a "proper" winter break, would it really make that much difference?  During the winter months the Premier League Schedule is constantly disrupted by domestic cup games and internationals (friendlies or qualifiers) which give half the squad members a rest anyway.

axisus

Worldwide, the English Prem league is far and away the most popular. We have the most exciting football style, but that doesn't always mean that you will win the most on the world stage. They often play to not lose. All our top tier are competitive, compared to about half of the other euro leagues. Add to that the fact that Barca and Real get 90% of their leagues TV money between them.