It is claimed on quite a regular basis that the premiership is 'The Best League in the World'.
I say: Rubbish.
When it comes to this time of the year, what you really want in your league, no matter who you support, is an open contest as to who can become champions. If you remember a few seasons ago, on the last day of the season at the other end of the table, any one of 4 teams could stay up and the rest would go down.
If you look at the top of the Premiership now, it would appear that United have won the league, and if they have not it will be Chelsea. No it won't be liverpool, neither Arsenal.
This is the problem.
In spain, 13th placed Deportivo are as close to winning the title as 4th placed Arsenal. What a better run in. The gap between 1st and 2nd in England is filled by the top 4 in Spain. The top 3 in England covers the top 8 in Spain.
In order for the premiership to actually be the best league in the world, a far greater level of competition has to be established.
Pictures taken from soccernet.com
29 comments:
True! Its almost too easy..
But hey I cant complain..I am a United fan!
rubbish, doesnt mean its any better, just means that the premiership is taking all there players away from them and so their standard is going down, therefore creating a more open championship of less quality players like van nistelrooy, who was crap in the premiership b4 he went to spain who made him a god overnight. easy defences
anonymous:
your right in saying it doesn't make it any better, directly. For example, if the conference was a closer run in, it wouldn't make it better than the premiership. However, you would agree that real madrid and barcelona would easily fit into our top four.
And given that they would, how much more quality must there be in Spain for 11 other teams to be competing with them, rather than only the top 4.
Van Nistelrooy clearly wasn't crap in the premiership before he went, and the issue this article is trying to discuss is not a comparison between the best of one and the best of the other, but rather the second best v the second best.
Lets say that our top four would murder the spanish top four. What I am laying claim to is that the rest of their league would beat the rest of ours, making a higher standard in any given match, more competition and a better overall league.
i would say that the spanish league has had the normal top clubs winning it for years and this may just be one of those years. plu recently real and barce have been so inconsistent(losing to bottom of the league clubs on an occasional basis)that they could have easily wrapped up the league with the quality they have and therefore re-create the premiership as it stands now. i would predict that if real and barce turned up in the premiership they would both be mid table sides. teams like that could not go to newcastle/portsmouth/bolton and get a result. thoughts?
Relagation is the most entertaining part of any league. Unfortunatly in the premier league this season it's a waste of time. Money can't buy you love lucas Neil.
I can't see madrid and barcelona finishing mid table in the premiership. I think that the class of the side would show over the course of a season.
Here's a statistic for anonymous who claimed that La Liga gets the crap from the premiership:
Since 1994, a Spanish-based player has won the FIFA World Player of the Year award every season except 3 (1995-Weah, 1998-Zidane and 2000-Zidane).
Romario - 1994
Ronaldo - 1996, 1997, 2002
Rivaldo - 1999
Luís Figo - 2001
Zinedine Zidane - 2003
Ronaldinho - 2004, 2005
Fabio Cannavaro - 2006
well there is a few world class players in spain but are the majority good enough? to back up my previous point here is this weeks results.
Espanyol 1-2 Zaragoza
Deportivo 1-0 Mallorca
Recreativo 2-1 Villarreal
R Madrid 0-1 Levante
Sevilla 0-0 R Sociedad
Athletic 1-2 Betis
Valencia 3-1 Atlético
Racing 1-0 Getafe
Osasuna 0-0 Barcelona
Celta 1-1 Nàstic
Day 21 - Feb 4
would you see united drawing away at a mid table side and see chelsea losing at home to near bottom of the table? possibly, but it happens too often in spain. i reckon the average points total in england for the champions would be much higher than in spain. fancy like finding out some stats coup!?
yes, I agree. But that is my point. In England, when Arsenal, United and Chelsea (and during some periods Liverpool) have a home game against anyone bar each other, they rarely, if ever, lose. Charltons odds for beating united at the weekend were 20 to 1.
The fact that real madrid, barcelona et al can lose to other teams in there division shows that the gap between the best and worst is a lot less in the spanish league, and so an overall better standard of football is present. agree?
not true, surely the premiership is known as a league where anyone can beat anyone at any given time on any given match? people say the premiership is the most unpredictable league, hench i have not won a footy bet all season. i reckon if i went to spain i would win every other week! explain that!??
plus its very arrogant having the name of your countries first division 'the league', therefore i support the premiership!
surely the premiership is known as a league where anyone can beat anyone at any given time on any given match? people say the premiership is the most unpredictable league
These people are the same people who are saying that the premiership is the best league in the world. And they have been saying that since 1993!
If you look at the league tables of the two, the fact that the gap in points between 1st and 4th is the same as between 1st and 13th, says that their top teams lose more often in there league, than ours. Hence more unpredictable.
if you look at both the league tables though, there is the same amount of loses between the top set of sides. barca have only lost 2 this season, but have drawn 7, its pretty similar reading. just man u and chelsea are far ahead. if roman didnt come in with the cash this would not be the case. united would just have dominated the league. i cant necessarily make the leauge better just because there are more teams that can win it. i would put money on the fact that more english teams are left in the champions league than spain in the quarter finals
This may well be true. But what is it that makes the league better? If you can quantify it. It can't be down to "whichever league has the better 'best' teams", because clearly if man utd, barcelona and milan all moved to the mid herts league, it wouldn't be the best league in the world.
qualify it
Ok, lets try to find, and agree what would make the best league. Sentimental things like good fan support, great tradition, etc are valuable, but I don't think that they should be involved in deciding on the best league, since we are talking in terms of the quality of the football offered.
How can you measure that quality?
>Which teams are better in the leagues
Barcelona or Manchester United
Real Madrid or Chelsea
etc.
Some of these comparisons are hard to evaluate. Although it doesn't really work in football, in terms of a ranking it can be fair to say that if team A beats team B and team B beats team C then A would beat C. Obviously there are loads of exceptions to that.
We agree that Barcelona and Real Madrid are as good as Manchester United, Chelsea. If not better.
Given that, we can say that the teams in La Liga are better than the teams in the Premiership because they are a lot closer to Barcelona than the teams are to Manchester United.
Obviously your not going to be a fan of the logic behind that, but you can see that it makes sense.
Additionally, and as a side point, Van Nistelrooy would never have moved to England from Barcelona or Real Madrid, but did go the other way. Ronaldinho wouldn't consider a move to England. If Cristiano Ronaldo was playing for Barcelona, there would be no rumours of a move to England.
“Ronaldo has worked hard and, within little time, he will be with another team more important than United. Everyone knows if teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid want a player they end up signing him.” - Hugo Viana
And United are the biggest club in England.
I challenge you to find a player outside of ballack and shevchenko who both moved for non-footballing reasons, who has made a move from a top european side to and English side at the top of his career. Where as mcmanaman, beckham, van nistelrooy, stam, owen...
Ronaldinho wouldn't consider a move to England.
surely he was on his way to united a while back!?
Where as mcmanaman, beckham, van nistelrooy, stam, owen
hmmm...all at the end of their career or not wanted by their club. not very good examples of players going to spain. not even one of those qualifies.
- luis garcia came from barca, and at 5ft 7 he is football heaven!
im not a fan of your arguement at all. this year english teams will get further than spainish teams in europe, with perhaps the excecption of barca (of course if they get past the 2005 champions). uefa cup will be filled with english clubs, so will the champions league. surely thats how u have to define it, as you already pointed out team a can beat team b who can lose to team a who beat b in both leagues.
"Ronaldinho wouldn't consider a move to England."
As in, he wouldn't move there from Barcelona.
Mcmanaman - Aged 27
Beckham - aged 28
van nistelrooy - aged 30,
stam - aged 29,
owen - Aged 26.
The average age of the world player of the year top 3 for last year was 31,and since 1998 is 28. These lot are hardly past it.
My point about the A beats B beats C was to determine which league has a better average, based on the closeness of the chasing pack.
But if you want to use european football these statistics may be useful:
Since the best league in the world (the premiership) began an english side has won the european cup twice, and the uefa cup once.
In that same time, a spanish side has won the european cup 5 times (one of which was an all spanish final) and appeared in the final an additional twice. A spanish side has also won the uefa cup twice in that time.
It is futile to have the discussion based on speculating this seasons future performances. The claim that the premiership is the best league in the world has been around for years and that is what I am debating. This summer, or next summer or in 10 years it may well live up to that claim, but it definately hasn't.
Mcmanaman - Aged 27
Beckham - aged 28
van nistelrooy - aged 30,
stam - aged 29,
owen - Aged 26
they are all not wanted by their club. point proven.
those stats are all in the past. we know that the preimership has come on leaps and bounds over the last 5 years since united won the competition. plus previously the money in spain and italy was mich greater. this table show the top 5 transfers in football. all include clubs from italy ans spain all from around the year 2000 mark. now the preimership is spending just as much if not more on players than in these countries. this goes along with the fact that in recent years premiership teams have been doing better in europe. i reckon that if you exclude barce and real out of that stat then the europe tallies would be very different. a greater spread on recent years, (2003+), you will find that english clubs have done much better.
also just like to point out your stats that liverpool have 2 europena trophies, to uniteds 1. surely that accounts for a closer gap than what is apparent in the premiership currently?
Rank Player From To Transfer Fee
(£ millions) Year
1 Zinedine Zidane Juventus Real Madrid 45.62[1] 2001
2 Luís Figo Barcelona Real Madrid 38.7[2] 2000
3 Hernán Crespo Parma Lazio 35.5[3] 2000
4 Gianluigi Buffon Parma Juventus 32.6[4] 2001
5 Christian Vieri Lazio Internazionale 32.0 [5] 1999
plus your stats are wrong.
http://soccer-europe.com/Data/Cups/Winners.html
spainish clubs have won champions league 4 times and once uefa. english 2 to 1. not much difference
no other team apart from real and madrid have been champions of europe. barce have won it once last year. history does not favour the spanish
actually barca have won it twice, my bad, not since premiership has been around tho
http://www.arsenalnewsreview.co.uk/index.php?mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=507&cntnt01origid=30&cntnt01returnid=42
intersting article about ronaldo. goes along with the arguement. could be the decider on whether ronaldo goes or stays?
ews,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01articleid=507&cntnt01origid=30&cntnt01returnid=42
http://www.arsenalnewsrevi
ew.co.uk/index.php?
mact=News,cntnt01,detail,0&cntnt01art
icleid=507&cntnt01origid=30&cntnt01r
eturnid=42
third time lucky, why have such a long address?
i think we should continue this one at the pub some time. Sounds like a gem
Very convincing argument Mr Couper, and I must agree with the statement, however your arguement has a fundamental floor. Only 9 teams have ever won La liga since 1930, clearly indicating that this years close title race is a very rare sight, or perhaps that the chasing packs challenge will predictable fade. More to the point since 1985 only 5 different teams has won la Liga, compared to 7 in the football League/Premiership.
However La Liga is currently first in the UEFA rankings of European leagues based on their performances in European competitions over a five year period (I fell the best indicator, which by logic deduction ment that Liverpool were the best team in europe in 2005), ahead of Serie A in second and Premier League in third The 2005–06 average attendance of 29,029 for league matches is the sixth highest of any domestic professional sports league in the world. In professional football leagues La Liga was third highest behind the Bundesliga in first and the Premier League in second.
Reminders me of bunk bed discussions.
is beckham not 30? 31 this year?
nice set of statistics.
I do think that the premiership will become the best league in the world over the next few years, and we may well be at the changing point now.
Its obviously hard to say which is the best.
This post has received by far the most comments ever on any melee post. People should post contentious things more often i feel
beckham is 30 or 31, the ages given there were when they moved abroad from england
lol, i wish mcmanaman was 27 again!
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