Burning question

[arbboy]

One of the biggest fallacies that there is no depth in the other leagues

Just because bayern are brilliant does not mean the rest of the league are hopeless. Wolfsburg for example are showing there level in the Europe league.

The rubbish sides in the premiership (and there are plenty) may well give there all in every game were as in Spain for example sides in a relegation fight often play weakened sides against the big two/three.

That does not make a league better more competitive In every game maybe. You could argue that giving your all and playing your best players away to Chelsea and still losing is not the best way to prepare for a six pointer three days later.

Agree with this.  Couldn't imagine Stoke for example finishing 8th in Germany or Spain as a matter of course.  People talk like mid table sides in the EPL would just auto finish top 6 in other major leagues.

[The Baron]

One of the biggest fallacies that there is no depth in the other leagues

Just because bayern are brilliant does not mean the rest of the league are hopeless. Wolfsburg for example are showing there level in the Europe league.

The rubbish sides in the premiership (and there are plenty) may well give there all in every game were as in Spain for example sides in a relegation fight often play weakened sides against the big two/three.

That does not make a league better more competitive In every game maybe. You could argue that giving your all and playing your best players away to Chelsea and still losing is not the best way to prepare for a six pointer three days later.

Agree with this.  Couldn't imagine Stoke for example finishing 8th in Germany or Spain as a matter of course.  People talk like mid table sides in the EPL would just auto finish top 6 in other major leagues.

Agree and would go further. Mid table teams in other leagues would beat ours over large samples.

The whole depth argument doesn't wash. English football simply has inferior players then it did in the naughties when Henry, Ronaldo, Alonso, Tevez, Drogba, Makalele, Vidic etc played here.

[Waz1892]

Van gaal states winter break?

Is it that barc/madrid/Bayern are so far ahead of 95% of their leagues so are fresher coming into euro games?

Last 10 years

Spain 4
England 3 (3 different teams)
Italy 2
Germany 1

Is there really an issue?

[Tal]

How do you explain the performance of Ozil, Soldado, Mangala, di Maria, Cabella, Markovic, Marlet, Shevchenko, Forlan and many others? Henry wasn't THAT Henry in his first season either. It's a fast paced league, faster and more intense than the others, with the exception of the top few teams in each league. Consistently, when new players at interviewed, they comment on the pace of the game here.

The premier league this season is probably its weakest for a long time, but I'm not throwing the baby out with the bath water. Citeh are in dissaray. Chelsea lost one game in a daft way. Arsenal did what they always do and nearly went further.

[Bazzaboy]

One of the biggest fallacies that there is no depth in the other leagues

Just because bayern are brilliant does not mean the rest of the league are hopeless. Wolfsburg for example are showing there level in the Europe league.

The rubbish sides in the premiership (and there are plenty) may well give there all in every game were as in Spain for example sides in a relegation fight often play weakened sides against the big two/three.

That does not make a league better more competitive In every game maybe. You could argue that giving your all and playing your best players away to Chelsea and still losing is not the best way to prepare for a six pointer three days later.

Agree with this.  Couldn't imagine Stoke for example finishing 8th in Germany or Spain as a matter of course.  People talk like mid table sides in the EPL would just auto finish top 6 in other major leagues.

Agree and would go further. Mid table teams in other leagues would beat ours over large samples.

The whole depth argument doesn't wash. English football simply has inferior players then it did in the naughties when Henry, Ronaldo, Alonso, Tevez, Drogba, Makalele, Vidic etc played here.

The significant drop in the quality of the homegrown players can't be helping either.

[Jamier-Host]

It's all a bit of a nonsense anyway. Apart from where their stadium happens to be located, the top teams in the EPL are basically European clubs now anyway in terms of personnel.

All about the money. Give it 20 years and Man City or Chelsea will be based on the continent and renamed to Berlin Blues or something

[Boba Fett]

The top teams are buying up all the quality players from the other teams and sitting them on their bench making it less competitive throughout. Those players are generally getting only a short time to prove themselves before being dumped on the bench or in the reserves but by then they're on so much money that they'd rather sit out the contract than move on and earn less but play and none of the other teams can afford to match their wages. After a couple of years of barely playing by the time they do go to another club their skill level, enthusiasm and desire has dropped and they never comemclose to fulfilling their potential.  I think it ruins a lot of quality players with potential and limits the pool of players teams outside the top 4 can choose from with real quality.

Also I think English clubs are far too quick to sack managers not allowing them to build a team over time and then improve it. I think it leads to English teams being tactically outclassed when they play more settled sides.

Too many mediocre managers keep getting jobs via the merry-go-round and keeping clubs from improving themselves for pushes up the league over time, young English players being sold for stupid amounts of money to then sit in the reserves at bigger clubs etc

Generally I think there's so much money at stake in the league that teams refuse to take risks in terms of players, managers and tactics for fear of dropping out the league and losing money and it's costing them competitively in the long run, which in turn hurts the other teams playing against lesser competition every week etc, they take the quick and easy option.

A good example is athletico Madrid, I haven't followed the story closely so I will have missed loads but it seemed they scouted and bought pretty shrewdly, took a chance on an unproven manager with good ideas and gave him the freedom to implement those ideas and they ended up with a great team led by Diego Costa, won la liga and got to the champs league final. Another is Porto when Mourinho managed them, took a chance on a manager and developed their players over time, won the uefa cup then the champions league, sold all their players to all of the top teams for fortunes and the manager went on to win leagues and cup at several big clubs. It's hard to imagine a team out with Chelsea or the Manchester clubs winning the league without just ploughing £150 million into the squad and getting the best available manager.